FARTHEST NORTH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 531, 26 August 1949, Page 8

FARTHEST NORTH

ROM tests made recently with the new two-kilowatt NZBS station 1XN Whangarei, indications are that good reception may be expected as far away from the transmitter as Dargaville in the west and Kaitaia in the north. The station will be officially opened at 8.0 p.m. this Saturday, August 27, by the Minister of Broadcasting (the Hon. F. Jones), who will be introduced to listeners by the Director of Broadcasting (William Yates). Then there will be speeches by Members of Parliament and local body officials. As is the custom when a new local coverage station goes on the air, the entertainment programme following the opening ceremony will be contributed by local performers. Artists for the first night’s presentation at a new station are selected by a programme officer from the head office of the NZBS who visits the. district some days in advance and gives audi- | tions to local artists. (There were 50 auditions in, Timaru before the opening of Station 3XC, about the same number at 1YZ Rotorua, and 65 or so at 1XH Hamilton.) No restrictions are placed on the type of entertainment, Perform@rs may be singers of lieder, pianists, violinists, comedians, yodellers or vir- tuosi of the harmonica, but a reasonably high ° standard of eure is essential, The transmitter for IXN is at Tikipunga, two or three miles from the studio. It is on level ground near the golf. links, and slightly elevated. The technical equipment is identical with that of Hamilton, and the transmitter. is operated on remote control by means of a special type of switch worked by

a telephone dial. This permits a considerable saving in staff. The steel radiator mast is of lattice construction, insulated at the base and held in position by one set of guys, Below the mast is an extensive earth system consisting of 10 miles of No. 10 gauge copper wire laid nine inches below the surface of the ground, and radiating out from the mast for a distance of 150 yards. Hours of commercial broadcasting will be from 7.0 a.m. to 10.0 a.m., and from 6.30 p.m, to 7.30 p.m. on week-days. Non-commercial programmes will be heard from 7.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. on week-days, and during all broadcasting time on Sundays. The first programme for the new station will feature, after Whangarei artists have appeared, the BBC production Variety Bandbox, which has been ‘8. steady favourite with BBC audiences in Britain and overseas for some years now. Its first home was the People’s Palace, a public hall in London's East End used by the BBC as a studio to which they could invite big audiences, but more recently it has been transferred to the Golders Green Hippodrome: in North-East London, In the course of its career Variety Bandbox has presented .most of the big names in light tadio entertainment and has given many promising newcomers their chance. Since 1946 Variety Bandbox has been produced by Joy Russell-Smith, who joined the BBC during the war as a producer in the General Forces programme and specialised in putting dance bands on the air, Then she took over a popular series, Starlight, which presented stars of the stage, screen and concert platform, and from there moved to Variety Bandbox.