EXPANSION AT 4YA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 470, 25 June 1948, Page 15

EXPANSION AT 4YA

OT long after the NZBS took over the basement of Burns Hall in Dowling Street, Dunedin-as the first step in providing extra accommodation for 4YA to relieve congestion in the Stuart Street studios-part of the hall was damaged by fire, and work was held up. Now, however, carpenters are busy, as the’ photograph above shows, and in a few weeks 4YA will operate with more space and better facilities, The basement, formerly used as a Sunday school and gymnasium, is being converted into a studio, 44 feet long by 24 feet wide, with a stage and én auditorium for audience participation in various forms of radio‘ entertainment. Other additions will include a control ' room, talks studio, producer’s room and a waiting-room for artists. Since it opened Station 4YA has worked in severely restricted space, but the new arrangements will permit several improvements in the Stuart Street premises. such as additional sound-proof studios, a room for the day announcer and alterations to the main studio to accommodate part of the record library. There will also be space for a maintenance work‘shop and an office for the senior technician and the engineer. Until now the recording equipment at 4YA has been limited in the use to which it could be put, but with these improvements it will be possible to explore and develop local talent as is being done elsewhere. Two high-grade recorders, similar to those used in Wellington, are now being constructed by the NZBS at the Head Office engineering workshops. These will be comparable ‘in quality with the latest recording equipment in other parts of the world. Orders have been ‘placed in Australia for the various amplifiers and control. gear to handle the microphones in the Burns Hall studio and all this new apparatus will be for the joint use of 4YA and 4ZB.