BROADCASTING AND TELEVISION

In common with most other countries, New Zealand has shared in the rapid development of broadcasting which is one of the great scientific advances of this century. Although they were far removed from overseas centres of research, New Zealand experimenters soon appreciated the possibilities of the new medium, and by the early twenties much pioneer work was already under way. Today, we can see four distinct periods in the development of broadcasting in this country – first, the amateur experimental period, 1921–25; second, the early development of a national radio service under the Radio Broadcasting Co. of New Zealand Ltd., 1925–31; third, a relatively brief period of public control under the New Zealand Broadcasting Board, 1932–35; and fourth, the long period of development as a Government Department – the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, 1936–62. Each period contributed its share in development but long-standing inability to evolve the most appropriate form of control was shown in 1962 when, by the Broadcasting Corporation Act 1961, New Zealand reverted to public control with the establishment of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Amateur Experimental Period, 1921–25

In the early 1920s – the amateur experimental period – emphasis was on communication rather than on entertainment and, curiously enough, this early development was not associated with the more populous areas of the country. It was in Otago on 5 December 1921, that Professor Robert Jack, of the Department of Physics, Otago University, was issued with a permit to engage in research activities concerned with the transmission of vocal and musical items. These early experiments soon spread to other centres and by the end of 1922 six more organisations were engaged in radio broadcasting – three in Dunedin and one each in Auckland, Wellington, and Christ-church. Transmissions were sporadic and of limited duration but they laid the foundation for the development of a broadcasting industry. Apart from experimentation in the field of communications, attempts to develop what was eventually to become the most important aspect – entertainment—were stimulated by the radio trade and by the formation of radio societies. Of these, the Otago Radio Association is still active and controls 4XD (Dunedin), one of the oldest stations in the Commonwealth and the last to be operated privately in New Zealand. Extensive comparisons with progress in other countries are hardly appropriate, but New Zealand's early interest in broadcasting is illustrated by the fact that in the United Kingdom the first public service station began its transmissions in November 1922.

The number of stations continued to grow, as did the demand for the proper establishment of broadcasting as an element of national life, and it soon became apparent that some regulation was necessary. Thus in January 1923, regulations were brought down to govern the issue of broadcasting station licences.

Unlike many other forms of entertainment, broadcasting required a substantial capital investment by the licensee and, apart from the question of national interest, continuity of service was an essential. Handicapped as they often were by the lack of an assured source of income, these early private stations were able not only to provide substantial service or entertainment, but they also gave a stimulus to broadcasting generally. The next step was the establishment of a national public system of broadcasting, and this had its genesis in 1925 in an agreement reached between the Radio Broadcasting Co. of New Zealand Ltd. and the Postmaster-General.

Radio Broadcasting Co. of New Zealand Ltd., 1925–31

A principal feature of the agreement was that the company was to establish and operate radio stations in the four main centres. Major advances were made with the opening of 500-watt transmitters in Auckland (August 1926) and Christchurch (September 1926) and a 5-kilowatt station in Wellington. Dunedin followed in 1929. A large body of listeners was assured of a daily programme service, with the exception of one silent night each week, and this generous service was reflected in the remarkable growth of radio licences. At 31 March 1925, there were under 5,000 licence holders; by December 1931, there were approximately 70,000. Finance had been assured for development by an annual licensing fee of £1 10s. which became payable from 1 April 1925. By March 1929, out of a total yearly revenue of 64,653, the company received £54,166 and it was this money that assisted in the financing of the main centre stations and gave a tremendous impetus to broadcasting growth. In the short space of 10 years, broadcasting had grown to a large and thriving industry. In coverage it served a considerable portion of the population for apart from the national stations, the smaller stations continued to flourish and were even covering areas where there were sufficient pockets of population to support them. During the period 1925–33, the number of stations licensed by the Post and Telegraph Department totalled 40.

Other countries – more particularly the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada – had adopted almost from the inception of broadcasting, as part of its system, corporate control as the form most appropriate to the development of this new social service. New Zealand was greatly influenced by the apparent success of the system and, when the agreement with the Radio Broadcasting Company expired in 1931, it was not renewed, the New Zealand Broadcasting Board being charged with the responsibility of extending the national broadcasting system.

New Zealand Broadcasting Board, 1932–35

Difficulties of radio coverage vary from country to country, and New Zealand presented its own challenge to broadcasting engineers. Unlike the great continents of Australia and America, New Zealand as a broadcasting country faced the problem not of vast distances, but of bringing within range of the radio transmitters the relatively small pockets of population concentrated in the fertile areas which lay among mountain ranges. Thus an adequate service to back country dwellers became the most pressing problem confronting the Board at its inception. A commission was set up to investigate the position and report its findings, the commissioners recommending, among other things, the replacement or stabilisation of the existing transmitters and changes in the sites of the four main-centre transmitters. At the time, there were 30 privately owned radio stations still operating in New Zealand. Of these, six were in Dunedin, four were in Auckland, two in Christchurch, two in Gisborne, two in Grey-mouth, and two in Palmerston North, with one each in Hastings, Invercargill, Napier, Hamilton, Balclutha, Cromwell, Manurewa, Masterton, Nelson, New Plymouth, Wairoa, and Wellington.

As a result of the report of the Coverage Commission, the Board decided to give financial aid to a number of private broadcasting stations operating in areas where reception of the Board's stations was unsatisfactory. The stations so subsidised were 1ZH Hamilton, 2YB New Plymouth, 2ZF Palmerston North, 2ZD Masterton, 2ZJ Gisborne, 2ZH Napier, 4ZP Invercargill, and 3ZR Greymouth. But a price had to be paid for this aid, and the Broadcasting Amendment Act 1934–35 charged the Board with the responsibility of supervising the programmes broadcast by private broadcasting stations. Unification of the whole system was the obvious aim. The Broadcasting Amendment Act 1934–35 increased the number of Board members from three to seven and, under this new provision, the first meeting of the reconstituted Board was held on 11 April 1935.

During the brief life of the Broadcasting Board – from 1 January 1932 until 30 June 1936—it pressed ahead with its own extension of radio coverage of New Zealand. Relatively high-powered transmitters were ordered for use in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin and were sited at points to achieve best coverage. The sites chosen were: Auckland – at Henderson; Wellington – at Titahi Bay; Christchurch – at Gebbies Pass; and Dunedin – at Highcliff. On 23 January 1935, Station 1YA, Auckland, moved into the first specially built broadcasting premises. At the same time, the new 1YA 10 kW transmitter at Henderson came into operation. In the same year, on 4 August, Station 3YA, Christ-church, was raised to 10 kW from 500 watts; on 2 December 1935, 4YA, Dunedin, was also repowered.

With reasonable coverage provided from the main centres, the Board turned its attention to another pressing problem – the question of alternative programmes. The popularity of radio was such that transmission hours were too short to accommodate the wide range of programme material offering, and four new stations were brought into operation. On 24 February 1933, 2YC Wellington was opened; on 28 July, 1YX Auckland commenced transmission; and in 1934 two stations – 3YL Christchurch, and 4YO Dunedin – were opened on 1 January and 26 March respectively. These stations provided alternative programmes for each of the four districts and established a pattern of service that continues to the present time. Meanwhile the rapid growth of licence-holders continued. In the four-year period from 1932 to 1936, the number of licence holders trebled – from 70,000 to 210,000, a remarkable evidence of growth in an otherwise depressed period.

The stage, however, was set for another change. In 1935 New Zealand had gone to the polls and decisively returned its first Labour Government. One of the legislative measures passed during the 1936 session was the Broadcasting Act 1936, which came into force on 1 July 1936, and abolished the New Zealand Broadcasting Board. All the rights, property, liabilities, and engagements of the Board were transferred to the Crown. Thus for the next 25 years, broadcasting was to be administered as a Government Department.

New Zealand Broadcasting Service, 1936–62

Responsibility for the control of the National Broadcasting Service – as it was first termed – was placed in the hands of a Minister of the Crown who was charged with the administration of the Act. Because of its early function as essentially another means of communication, broadcasting in New Zealand, as in most countries, was associated with the responsibilities of the Postmaster-General. But, with the coming of the Labour Government, the concept of broadcasting as a social force was fully established by the change in 1936. Its importance in this respect may be gauged from the fact that M. J. Savage, Prime Minister, assumed the portfolio of Broadcasting. The Act also provided for the appointment of a Director of the National Broadcasting Service, Professor James Shelley being appointed to the position on 1 December 1936.

Among other provisions of the Act was one providing for programmes of all privately operated stations to be subject to ministerial scrutiny. Advertising was absolutely prohibited, except from commercial stations controlled by the Minister.

In 1936 parliamentary broadcasts began as a regular feature. Direct broadcasts from the House of Representatives were a new and radical departure from established practice both within and beyond New Zealand. In December 1936, the power of Station 2YA was increased to 60 kW, and debates from the House of Representatives were brought within the range of most of the country. In the meantime, the National Broadcasting Service continued to pay monetary subsidies to stations in areas where reception was difficult. Stations subsidised at this time were 4ZC Cromwell, 2ZJ Gisborne, 2YB New Plymouth, 2ZF Palmerston North, 2ZH Napier, 2ZD Masterton, 3ZR Greymouth, and 4ZP Invercargill. In addition, 14 other private stations continued their transmissions. These were 1ZB and 1ZJ Auckland, 4ZR Balclutha, 3ZM Christchurch, 4ZB, 4ZM, 4ZL, and 4ZO Dunedin, 2ZM Gisborne, 2ZL Hastings, 1ZM Manurewa, 2ZR Nelson, 2ZO Palmerston North, and 2ZP Wairoa.

In 1937 an Act was passed that was to have a tremendous impact on the pattern of broadcasting. This was the Broadcasting Amendment Act 1937 which provided for the establishment and operation of a commercial broadcasting service, to be called the National Commercial Broadcasting Service. While licence fee revenue was to continue as the main source of finance for the stations formerly directed by the Broadcasting Board, the new service was to be financed directly from the sale of advertising time. Unlike the United Kingdom which had a high density of population encompassed within a small geographic area – and a correspondingly large income to meet its capital requirements – Australia, Canada, and the United States had early seen that radio advertising provided a ready means of financing a broadcasting service. New Zealand now prepared to tap this source of revenue. Within 18 months of the 1936 Act, 12 non-commercial stations and four commercial stations were being operated by the Government. The stations at Manurewa, Nelson, and Invercargill had been taken over by the National Service, and Station 1ZB Auckland, previously the “Friendly Road” station, had been absorbed by the National Commercial Broadcasting Service. In addition, commercial stations 2ZB, 3ZB, and 4ZB at Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin were in service. The success of the new venture was almost immediate. While radio licences had continued to increase and by 31 March 1939 totalled 286,057, with licence fee revenue exceeding £308,000, the commercial stations' sales already amounted to £98,418. Within a short space of time, advertising revenue was to make the Commercial Broadcasting Service financially independent and to provide at the same time a substantial contribution to taxation revenues.

In such a period of expansion, the privately operated stations struggled unavailingly to hold their place. Still handicapped by lack of sufficient finance and facing increasing competition for an audience against stations which had the benefit of wide programme resources, they were gradually being absorbed into the unified system that was developing. A number disposed of their assets and, having made their substantial contribution to the development of the industry, disappeared. Others sold their assets to the Government but continued to function under contract, such as the Government-owned stations 2YB New Plymouth, 2ZH Napier, 2ZJ Gisborne, 2ZP Wairoa, 3ZR Greymouth, and 4ZC Cromwell. The private stations 1ZJ Auckland, 2ZM Gisborne, and 4ZD and 4ZM Dunedin, continued broadcasting. During the following year Stations 2ZH, (renamed 2YH) Napier, and 3ZR Greymouth, were fully taken over by the National Service. The Wairoa and Cromwell stations ceased to broadcast.

During this period the National Commercial Broadcasting Service continued to grow with the opening of Station 2ZA, Palmerston North, but the amalgamation of the two Services, which had begun on 21 August 1942, when the engineering sections of the two were combined as an economic wartime necessity, was completed with the passing of the Statutes Amendment Act 1943. Under this Act the Commercial Broadcasting Service as a separate entity was abolished and both Services passed to the control of a single Director of Broadcasting. With the exception of two privately owned stations running under a subsidy, the long process of unification was complete.

Up to this time the development of broadcasting in New Zealand had been confined to coverage within the country, but its tremendous force as a world service had been amply demonstrated during the Second World War. It was not surprising, therefore, that Dominion Day 1948 saw the commencement of the first regular programme transmissions from New Zealand to Australia and the Western Pacific Islands.

Meanwhile, the function of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service had expanded far beyond the field of broadcasting. On 30 June 1939, the New Zealand Listener made its appearance – a journal which incorporated the earlier publication, the New Zealand Radio Record. Another feature was the establishment of the New Zealand National Orchestra which gave its first public performance in the Wellington Town Hall on 6 March 1947.

The year 1949 was also marked by two new developments. The first was the opening on 18 January of 3XC Timaru. This was a composite station combining both advertising and non-advertising functions which had a threefold purpose – an outlet for local talent and a centre of community interest, a coverage outlet for important programmes from larger centres, and an advertising medium. It proved to be successful and was rapidly followed by similar stations at Hamilton, Whangarei, Wanganui, and Gisborne.

The second development concerned television. The influence of radio on the social habits of people everywhere had been considerable, but it was as nothing compared with the impact of television. Despite certain misgivings, its eventual introduction to New Zealand was inevitable and in 1949 the Government established a committee of broadcasting and Post Office representatives to investigate and advise on overseas television developments.

Steady progress continued in broadcasting through the repowering of existing stations or the establishment of new ones. By 1960 a clear pattern of programme service had developed, with stations exercising the following functions:

1. Stations 1YA, 2YA, 3YA, 4YA, 1YZ, 2YZ, 3YZ, and 4YZ: broadcasting non-advertising programmes over a wide area of the country.

2. Stations 1YC, 2YC, 3YC, 4YC, and 2YX: providing alternative non-advertising programmes to the YA and YZ stations but with slightly less extensive coverage. On 27 May 1965 the call sign of 2YX became 2YB.

3. Stations 1ZB, 2ZB, 3ZB, 4ZB, 1ZD, 1XH, 2ZA, 2ZC, 4ZA, 1YD, 1ZC, 2XB, and 2YD: presenting advertising programmes mainly of a light nature and with coverage comparable to the YA and YZ stations.

4. Stations 1XN, 2XG, 2XP, 2XA, 2XN, and 3XC: composite stations serving their immediate coverage areas and presenting advertising and non-advertising programmes during specified hours.

5. Stations 1YW, 1XA, 1XE, 3YW, and 4YX: relay stations providing improved coverage from 1YA, 1XN, 3YZ, and 4YA respectively.

In 1960 a general election led to still another change in broadcasting control. The new National Government, which had ousted Labour from office, had promised that television, which was being administered by the Broadcasting Service, should pass to corporate control. As the result of a caucus committee investigation, radio was included in the change.

New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation 1962

With the passing of the Broadcasting Corporation Act 1961, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation was established, with F. J. Llewellyn as its chairman. During the course of the Bill through the House of Representatives in the session of 1961, provision was made for the establishment of privately owned stations and, although strongly opposed by the Labour Opposition, this became part of the Act. But before such stations may be established, the Corporation, which took office on 1 April 1962, is required to undertake a review of existing coverage. At the time of transfer, the Corporation assumed responsibility for the control of 35 radio stations and four television stations. The number of licence holders for sound radio has grown to more than 600,000. The tremendous appeal of television is demonstrated by the fact that in the first three-year period of development the number of licence holders reached a total of 275,000 (November 1964). The annual income from all sources exceeds £5,000,000, more than £250,000 being paid in taxation.

TELEVISION

The United Kingdom had instituted a public television service in 1936 and, although this had been discontinued during the Second World War, it was soon apparent from developments in the post-war period that the medium could have far-reaching social and economic repercussions. Hence successive governments in New Zealand had indicated that the almost haphazard development which had characterised the growth of radio broadcasting should not be duplicated in television. In this approach they were greatly assisted by the fact that, although amateur and trade interests pressed for action, transmitting equipment for television called for considerable capital outlay. In these circumstances experimentation became confined almost exclusively to educational institutions which could combine specialised research with the associated field of electronics.

The Departmental Committee established in 1949 continued to advise Government on overseas developments, but it was not until March 1951 that the first public transmissions took place, in the form of closed-circuit demonstrations given from Broadcasting Service studios. Some years were to elapse, however, before transmissions were available to the general public, but in May 1952 Canterbury University College, through its experimental station ZL3XT, gave the first television broadcast which was received some two miles from the transmitting point. In the same year the Departmental Committee recommended the adoption of the 405-line system of transmission but in 1958 – following the adoption by a number of overseas countries of the 625-line system – this decision was reconsidered and the 625-line system was accepted as the New Zealand standard.

Before this decision was taken, experiments had been conducted on the 405-line system. In February 1957 an experimental television licence was issued to the Bell Radio and Television Corporation of Auckland, and by early 1958 it had extended its transmissions to include test patterns, live camera studies, and extracts from motion picture films. These transmissions, which were given for a period of one and a half hours on three nights of the week, were available to an estimated 100 set-holders.

The population within transmitter range made Auckland the obvious centre to launch a television service but the difficult problem of coverage again had to be faced. To assist in the selection of a suitable site, experimental transmissions from a low-powered station began on 23 February 1959. Spasmodic at first, they were placed on a regular basis on 18 May. These experiments continued successfully, the upshot being an announcement on 28 January 1960 that the Government had decided to introduce television as an entertainment medium, to New Zealand. Rapid advances followed and by 1 January 1961, 18 hours of programmes were being transmitted each week.

An amendment to the Radio Regulations 1953 had provided for the payment of a television licence fee at the rate of £4 annually where transmission hours did not exceed 16, and of £6 10s. where there were more than 16 hours. The first provision was of limited application only because, when stations were eventually established in areas outside Auckland, transmission was increased beyond 16 hours each week.

On 1 April 1962, the transmission hours of Channel 2 were increased to 28 weekly, and advertising was admitted for approximately half the transmission time – on alternate nights. The same plan was adopted for stations to be established in Christchurch and Wellington. Channel 3, Christchurch, began transmitting on 1 June 1961, and Channel 1, Wellington, one month later. The initial hours of eight each week were expanded to 28 in Christchurch on 1 October 1961 and in Wellington on 1 November, 1961. Channel 2, Dunedin, the last station to be established, began transmitting on 31 July 1962. Transmission hours were increased to 35 each week from 1 October 1962, and were again increased early in 1964.

As with the sound radio stations, these four television stations came under the control of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation on 1 April 1962.

by C.MLL.

Recent Growth

In the short span of four years, television has reached nearly 50 per cent of New Zealand households. For the year ended 28 February 1965 the number of licensed sets was 305,410, with just over 31,000 being covered by hirers' licences. The figures for each district closely follow the population pattern and approximately one-third of all sets is in the Auckland area.