2ZF, Palmerston North

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 22, 11 December 1931, Page 5

2ZF, Palmerston North

‘THE Manawatu Radio Club’s station, 2ZF, can lay claim to being one of the oldest stations which have beeu continuously on the air in this country. Owned and operated by the Manawatu Radio Club, the station is entirely divorced from any commercial organisation and relies for its revenue upon the subscriptions of its members. At the close of the last financial year a small credit balance was indicated on the books. There are at present 520 members, representing a decrease of about 70 and over £60 in revenue on last year’s figures. The decrease in revenue, to a large extent, is due to the club not having received a subsidy from the Palinerston North City Council, it being felt that, as the club "is now firmly. established, listeners to ‘the station should provide the necessary finance. The year’s operations were notabie for many difficulties. First, on account of the matter of performing rights, 2ZF had to cease transmitting for a few days, during which time negotiations were carried out by cablegram and the position satisfactorily settled. 22 was the first broadcasting station to thus come to some satisfactory arrangement. Next there was trouble with regard to the use of gramophone records loaned by firms engaged in the sale of gramophone records. The embargo was such that only firms engaged in the record trade could broadcast gramophone records, and on this occasion the: members of the Manawatu Radio Club generously assisted in the matter of providing records. The position is not yet definitely settled, and, with the recent announcement that the

broadcasting of all records must cease, the position of the station is again likely to be fraught with difficulty. During the year a number of relays of local concerts, boxing and wrestling matches were carried out, including the transmission. of a boxing contest to 2YA, Wellington. The Wednesday evening international programme has been regularly relayed from this latter station, and 2ZF can thus claim to be the first "B" station in New Zealand to commence as a relay station in conjunction with an "A" station on a re gular schedule. During the days following the disastrous Napier earthquake, 2ZF went on the air every night to assist with in quiries for information regarding missing friends, parents and children, an¢ by this means was successful in uniting hundreds of persons and relieving anxiety in many more cases.’ Three weekly transmissions are made in addition to extra relays. All the staffing is done on an honorary basis, and this entails the sacrifice of very much time on the part of those who generously offered their help.