POWERFUL NEW STATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 9

POWERFUL NEW STATION

Rotorua’s 1YZ Will Open Next Month

Rotorua station which is to start operating next month, will be, apart from 1YA Auckland, the most powerful broadcasting station north of Taupo. Its opening on Wednesday, April 27, which was announced last week by the Minister of Broadcasting, will complete a Dominion-wide link of "coverage" or YZ stations, the others already in operation being 2YZ Napier, 3YZ Greymouth, and 4Y¥Z Invercargill. Station 1YZ is expected to give first-class reception to listeners throughout the Bay of Plenty area. Local residents are already familiar with the big 500-foot steel mast which has been erected near the sea coast at Paengaroa to radiate 1YZ’s programmes, and it has become an accepted feature of the Bay of Plenty landscape. The 10-kilowatt transmitter is housed alongside the mast in a building constructed from materials originally used for war purposes. The studios of 1YZ will be housed in a long wooden building, also built fron second-hand timber, opposite the Municipal Buildings in Arawa Street, Rotorua. The building is only a temporary affair and a larger p®rmanent structure will probably be erected when building materials become more plentiful. The temporary studio and transmitter buildings have been sited in such a way that the permanent buildings can be erected as soon as the necessary permits have been obtained, without any interruption of the activities of the station. Provision is made in the present unit for two studios, one for the artists and the other for the announcer. They are separated by the control room, which is enclosed in sound-proof windows. The station will have its own record library and adequate office accommodation. The studio is connected by 25 miles of landline to the transmitter, and housing accommodation is being provided for the station’s permanent staff. The neme of 1YZ’s. first station manager has_jtfst been announced. He is K. G. Collins, a senior officer of the NZBS at present stationed in Wellington. F -_-=_=-=-=-- — -------_--_--X G st 1YZ, the new

The programmes broadcast by 1YZ will be similar to those heard from 2YZ, 3YZ, and 4YZ. Although the station will be on the air for over 15 hours a day, the consumption of electricity by the NZBS generally will not\ be increased, as an equivalent saving will be made by operating other stations in the North Island with diese] plant. It is intended later to make arrangements for 1YZ’s programmes to include _ broadcasts from Tauranga, in a similar way to the proposed interrelation of Hastings and Napier in the use of 2YZ. Other Expansion Projects Altogether, seven other new stations are at present under construction as part of the NZBS’s post-war expansion policy. At Wanganui a contract has been let to alter part of Earles Buildings to accommodate a studio for a new twokilowatt station, whose opening date depends simply on the progress made by the contractor. The self-supporting mast being erected on the car-park area by the State Hydro-Electric Department is almost ready, and NZBS technicians are now engaged in installing the transmitter in the Garrison Hall. At Palmerston North the building to house ‘the unattended transmitter for a new two-kilowatt station is being completed, and a concrete base for the mast is being prepared. In Hamilton the studios for a new station have been completed, and as soon as the technicians finish at Wanganui they will go ahead at Hamilton with work on the unattended two-kilowatt transmitter to be set up in a building on the Morrinsville Road’ just past the Rotorua turnoff. Studios for a new station at Whangarei are completed, and a_ contract has been called for the erection of a building to house the unattended transmitter at a site near Kamo. At Gisborne work is proceeding on alterations to the Majestic Theatre building to provide up-to-date studio facilities. The NZBS hopes to start erecting a transmitter building on a site near Wainui in_the near future. Arrangements are also being made for contractors to pour the concrete for a mast base and anchor guides. Improvements for Nelson At Nelson some of the transmitter ‘equipment has been installed for the new two-kilowatt station, and planning | of renovations to the studios in Trafal-| gar Street is now being undertaken. At_ New Plymouth arrangements are not so far advanced, but a building has been, bought by the NZBS from surplus’ mili-_ tary supplies at the Bell Block aerodrome. It will be shifted and re-erected at the transmitter site on the coast between New Plymouth and Waitata. Space for studio premises has been acquired in the N.Z. Insurance Company building, and when the Nelson plans have been completed the NZBS draughting staff will draw up plans for the New Plymouth studios, Steel masts for all of these two-kilo-. watt stations are now ready in Australia, and shipping space has been. reserved for them to be brought to New Zealand shortly. The masts include one to replace the temporary aerial now in use at Timaru. See