Broadcasting the Olympics

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 19

Broadcasting the Olympics

IVE and recorded commentaries from the Olympic Games are to be heard continuously from YA _ stations every day while the Games are on-from November 22 to December 8. These

stations will cross to Melbourne when the Games start each day at about 1.0 p.m. New Zealand time,. and apart for a break of an hour, at tea-time-8.45 to 9.45 p.m, New Zealand time-will stay linked till about 1 o’clock next morning. Announcing this, the Supervisor of Programme Organisation for the National Division of the NZBS, Malcolm Rickard, said it was felt that with a big New Zealand team competing at the Games, and a_ short-

wave transmitter available for exclusive use by the NZBS unit, the widest and most effective cover should be given. Broadcasts will start each afternoon with a preview of the day’s events, and there will be a similar preview at 9.45 p.m., when broadcasts resume after the tea break. Stations will then broadcast a continuous programme of selected commentaries from the Games. At 7.0 p.m. or as soon as possible after that a summary of the day’s results up to that time will be heard, and between 8.30 and 845 p.m., the transmissions will include a rebroadcast of extracts from the day’s highlights. Each day’s broadcasts will end with a summary of the evening’s results, which will be repeated in the National breakfast session at 7.18 next morning. Commercial stations-ZBs, ZAs and 1XH-will broadcast a special programme from the Games, Olympic Report, at 9.32 p.m. and 7.15 am. each day. Produced by the NZBS unit in Melbourne and sent to New Zealand during the tea break, this will be made up of commentaries, interviews and Olympic news and comment generally. From YZ stations listeners will hear the results summaries at 7.0 p.m. and 7.18 a.m., and Olympic Report at 9.32 p.m, These stations will also be free to take commentaries on events which may be of special interest to their listeners. Both the 7.0 p.m. and the 7.18 a.m. results summaries will +e recorded by X stations and broadcast at their convenience. Alternative Programme Throughout the Games YC stations will broadcast an alternative programme while YAs are occupied with commentaries from Melbourne. From the start of the Games broadcasts each day YC stations will take over the normal YA programme. This will continue till 7.30 p-m., or later if a YA station is broadcasting a service session (such as the 1YA Farm Session) at that time. For the rest of the evening the YC transmission will be divided between a YC and a YA type programme. The aim will be to alternate early evening YC and late evening YA with early evening YA and late evening YC, but the extent to which this can be done will depend on fixed programme com- —

mitments. However, over the 17 days of the Games listeners to either type of programme should hear something like an equal number of early and late evening programmes, with 9.0 p.m. as

the dividing line between | the two. Programmes which are running in a series will as far as possible be con-tinued-this will certainly be done with serials. The mid-evening service sessions-the 9.0 News and 9.15 link talks-will be heard from YA stations during the Olympic Games tea break; but the 11.0 p.m, London News will be broadcast from YC. stations. During the Games, Broadcasts to Schools will be heard from the YC stations.