Radio New Zealand
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Image:Radio New Zealand House.JPG Radio New Zealand Limited is New Zealand's public service radio broadcaster. It is presently a Crown Entity established by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, incorporated under the Companies Act 1993, and a designated lifeline utility under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, Schedule A.
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[edit] History
Radio New Zealand was established in 1975. Until that year, radio services were provided by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC), and, before 1962, the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS). It became part of the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ) in 1978.
Following the dissolution of BCNZ in 1988, Radio New Zealand became a separate State-Owned Enterprise along with Television New Zealand. In 1995, the Radio New Zealand Commercial (RNZC) networks were privatised (legal basis being the Radio New Zealand Act (No 2) 1995 (1995 No 53)) as The Radio Company Limited.
The non-commercial New Zealand Public Radio (NZPR) were then known simply as 'Radio New Zealand' (RNZ). The changes also resulted in RNZ's removal (both its former commercial arm and the remaining public radio arm) from the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986 and it being made a Crown Entity. [1] [2]
Today, Radio New Zealand Limited is a Crown Entity, governed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995 (1995 No 52) (amended 2004), sometimes occasionally referred to as the 1995 Broadcasting Act, and both Section 60 and Schedule A of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 (2002 No 30). Sections 7(1) and 7(2) of the RNZ Act 1995 combined are the company's Charter and Principles, which Parliament is required to review every five years.
[edit] Networks
RNZ has two main national networks, National Radio, which carries news, current affairs, and arts, and Concert FM, which is dedicated to classical music and jazz. National Radio generally broadcasts on AM, but is now increasingly available on FM in major cities. RNZ's third network, AM Network, is leased to a private Christian broadcaster while it is not broadcasting parliamentary debates in the House.
[edit] National Radio
National Radio broadcasts in AM and FM via mono terestrial transmitters based around New Zealand.
[edit] Concert FM
Concert FM broadcasts in FM stereo via terestrial transmitters based around New Zealand.
[edit] AM Network
Radio New Zealand’s AM Network broadcasts all sittings of Parliament from transmitters in Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Radio New Zealand broadcasts are an important part of our democratic process.
The network is to be expanded (as at Sept 2006) to cover Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Southland.
When Parliament is not sitting, the transmitters carry the Southern Star programme from the Rhema Broadcast Group.
[edit] Shortwave Service
Radio New Zealand International broadcasts on shortwave to neighbouring countries in the Pacific from a transmitter in the North Island.
[edit] Sound Archives / Nga Taonga Korero
Sound Archives is a not-for-profit entity, wholly owned by Radio New Zealand. Sound Archives is separately funded by the Broadcasting Commission (NZ On Air) to act as a national broadcast radio archive.
It was formed in 1998 by the amalgamation of two separate units within RNZ, the general archive collection, held in Christchurch, and the Maori programme archive, held in Auckland. These two units now share common management and have adopted uniform procedures and practices, where these do not cut across cultural sensitivities in regard to audio recordings.
The core of the archives consists of Radio New Zealand’s historical collection, which dates as a separate entity from 1956. This is comprises 14,000 lacquer discs, 20,000 open reel tapes, 10,000 analogue and digital tape cassettes and a large collection of supporting documentation, artifacts and photographs.
(source: Sound Archives website)
[edit] Internet Services
National Radio, Concert FM, the AM Network (when Parliament is sitting), and RNZI are all available as live Windows Media Audio streams.
Daily programmes broadcast on weekdays have a 7 day rolling archive of content in MP3 and Windows Media Audio. Weekly programmes (those broadcast during evenings and at the weekend) have a 4 week archive.
Podcasts were trialled in February 2006, and extended to include most of the programmes offered via on-demand in May 2006.
Material is only made available where sufficient copyright clearances exist to do so.
The current version of the site (as at 2006) was launched in October 2005. Earlier versions of the site had limited content, and no streaming.
[edit] News and Current Affairs
The broadcaster’s flagship news programme ‘Morning Report, airs weekday mornings between 6am and 9am. The programme is presented by Sean Plunket and Geoff Robinson. Half hourly bulletins are read by award-winning news reader Nicola Wright. ‘Morning Report’ provides comprehensive coverage of national and international news, with reports from an experienced team of reporters and specialist correspondents. It won ‘Best News Programme’ at the Qantas Media Awards in 2005. The programme has in-depth bulletins of rural, sports, Maori and business news, and news from around the Pacific.
National Radio’s award-winning drive-time news programme ‘Checkpoint’ airs from 5pm-7pm, Monday-Friday. It is presented by experienced journalist Mary Wilson. The programme is a comprehensive round-up of the day’s national and international news.
Radio New Zealand's news centre is located in the country's capital, Wellington. The broadcaster also has newsrooms in Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown. It operates a press gallery in the Beehive, the country's Parliament.
RNZ News has a team of correspondents, breaking stories and filing reports for news bulletins and programmes. They are: Business Editor – Patrick O'Meara. Health Correspondent – Karen Brown. Parliamentary Chief Reporter – Clare Pasley. Political Editor – Brent Edwards. Education Correspondent - Gael Woods. Pacific Issues Correspondent - Richard Pamatatau.
[edit] Call Signs
Until the 1980s, RNZ stations used a series of call signs, consisting of a single digit and two letters. The digits 1 to 4 identified the region in which the station was broadcasting:
- 1 = North Island as far south as the Bay of Plenty.
- 2 = the rest of North Island and Nelson Province in the South Island
- 3 = South Island down to Timaru
- 4 = the rest of South Island
The first letter defined the type of station such as commercial, non commercial or privately owned.
- X = Privately owned station
- Y = Non Commercial Station (National Radio and Concert Programme)
- Z = Commercial Station
The largest city in each region was assigned a ZB station this was 1ZB Auckland, 2ZB Wellington, 3ZB Christchurch and 4ZB Dunedin. The second largest city was assigned a ZA station such as 2ZA in Palmerston North and 4ZA in Invercargill. All other towns and cities the final letter was assigned from the town or city name such as 4ZG in Gore and 1ZH in Hamilton.
The callsign ZM was used with 1ZM Auckland, 2ZM Wellington and 3ZM Christchurch as a callsign for Radio New Zealand's commercial music stations now known as ZM. Most of the ZB, ZA and other stations have now been rebranded as Classic Hits or Newstalk ZB and all are in private ownership. Radio New Zealand now operates only what were the YA and YC networks.
1YA, 2YK, 3AQ, 4YA were the first stations operating in the country's four main cities.
