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G3VGW > SWL 25.12.03 23:40l 78 Lines 3600 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10642_GB7NOT
Read: DB0FHN GUEST DK5RAS
Subj: R. New Zealand is 55
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ON0AR<ZL2BAU<VK4TUB<GB7YKS<GB7SYP<GB7COV<
GB7NOT
Sent: 031225/2030Z @:GB7NOT.#23.GBR.EU #:10642 [Arnold Nottingham] FBB7.00i
From: G3VGW@GB7NOT.#23.GBR.EU
To : SWL@WW
From: G3VGW @ GB7NOT.#23.GBR.EU 25 December 2003
Hello SWLs,
Here is news of Radio New Zealand's 55th. birthday, courtesy of
Wolfgang, DF5SX....
------
NEW ZEALAND. 55 YEARS OF RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL
On September 27, 1948 the ex American military 7.5 kW SW
transmitters of Radio New Zealand began their soft voice of the Pacific
broadcasts from studios in Wellington.
They were not the first SW broadcasts by any means, with tests
running through the 1940's, and earlier broadcasts from a variety of
private SW stations in places as varied as Dunedin and Christchurch. But
they were the first dedicated SW broadcasts to project a New Zealand
viewpoint for a Pacific wide audience.
The SW service emerged from the 1970's, battered and bruised.
Powerful 250 kW txs from around the world targeted the Pacific, and its
7.5 kW txs could barely be heard any more. Pacific radio stations began to
drop rebroadcasts of news and other programmes because reception was
unreliable. Then came the 1980's, when the SW service almost went down for
the count, as budget cutting bureaucrats and incompetent politicians
zeroed in on what they perceived as a waste of taxpayers' money in a world
driven by single bottom line accounting.
In 1990, a new RNZI emerged with a single 100 kW tx, a new
antenna system, and funding from what is now the Ministry of Culture and
Heritage. Amazing what a coup or two in Fiji can do. New programmes, new
initiatives, and a new audience ranging across the Pacific to take in
North America and Europe. With broadcasts to peacekeepers in Timor,
Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, RNZI has been able to support
attempts to bring about peaceful change in a tension filled region.
Now 55 years old, RNZI has become a heritage SW broadcaster with
a stronger voice. On-line audio streaming, programmes in French,
rebroadcasts via satellite to Europe and North America (WRN), many island
stations taking larger programme chunks, stabilized resources and a second
(digital) tx scheduled on air give hope for the original vision of a
broadcaster from the Pacific, telling the stories of the Pacific, for the
Pacific.
How did RNZI celebrate its 55th birthday? As usual, with a
difference. Lightning knocked out the tx and part of the antenna system,
and programmes had to be rebroadcast via satellite from a 100 kW Radio
Australia tx at Shepparton in northern Victoria. Depending on one tx has
always been risky, but these days, it's possible to be a SW broadcaster
without using your own tx. RNZI was lucky again and continued to broadcast
its soft voice of the Pacific.
Perhaps that's the real nature of RNZI. It's a lucky broadcaster.
Born under a lucky star back in 1948 and exhibiting the Libra character of
equal parts of kindness, gentleness, fairness, plain cussed
argumentativeness, stubborn refusal to capitulate, philosophical logic and
indecision.
Happy birthday Radio New Zealand International
(David Ricquish, Wellington, Nov NZ DX Times via DXLD)
-------
Danke Wolfgang!
(Please note I am not the author of the above, just the packet postman!)
Season's Greetings.....
73, Richard G3VGW @ GB7NOT (Ambergate, Derbyshire, UK)
(Edited & sent using a BBC Micro)
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