27 SEPTEMBER
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
4083

France Road
Grant Road (from Taiepa Road to Watt Road)
John Street
Mahuri Road
Marama Avenue South (from Dunns Road to Bryson Road)
Marama Avenue North (from Dunns Road to a point 1440 metres measured north-westerly generally along the said avenue from Dunns Road).
Matua Road (from the western end of Matua Road to a point 200 metres measured easterly generally along the said road from Ruru Avenue).
Oreti Road (from Taiepa Road to Dunns Road).
Rakiura Parade
Rata Road
Rockdale Road (from No. 1 State Highway (Awanui-Bluff) to the Otepuni Creek).
Ruru Avenue
Taiepa Road (from Oreti Road to Marama Avenue South)
Vyner Road (from Dunns Road to Oreti Road)
Watt Road.

SECOND SCHEDULE
SITUATED within Southland County adjacent to Invercargill City.
Dunns Road (from Curran Road to Oreti Road).
Signed at Wellington this 20th day of September 1984.
C. M. CLISSOLD, Chief Traffic Engineer.

*S.R. 1976/227
Amendment No. 1, S.R. 1978/72
Amendment No. 2, S.R. 1978/301
Amendment No. 3, S.R. 1979/128
Amendment No. 4, S.R. 1980/31
Amendment No. 5, S.R. 1980/115
Amendment No. 6, S.R. 1981/158
Amendment No. 7, S.R. 1981/311
Amendment No. 8, S.R. 1982/93
Amendment No. 9, S.R. 1983/282
Amendment No. 10, S.R. 1984/31
Amendment No. 11, S.R. 1984/169

†New Zealand Gazette, No. 4, dated 18 January 1973 page 89
(M.O.T. 29/2/Southland County)

Decision No. 17/84
Bro. 1/84, 2/84

Before the Broadcasting Tribunal

In the matter of the Broadcasting Act 1976 and in the matter of applications for commercial FM sound radio warrants for Northland by: (1) SUNSHINE STEREO FM (MID-NORTH) LIMITED; (2) NORTHLAND FM RADIO LIMITED:
Chairman: B. H. Slane.
Members: L. R. Sceats and A. E. Wilson.
Co-opted Member: M. J. Henshall.
Counsel: D. D. Beer for Sunshine Stereo FM (Mid-North) Ltd.; R. L. Maclaren for Northland FM Radio Ltd.; J. M. Thompson for Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand.

DECISION

THE Broadcasting Tribunal called for applications for commercial FM stations for Northland. Two applications were received. We deal with each separately.

Sunshine Stereo FM (Mid-North) Limited

The applicant company is promoted by A. R. Lilley of Opua to operate a local FM station from 6 a.m. to midnight from a transmitter with a maximum effective radiated power of 1 kW at Mount Pokaka, a site 650 feet above sea level and situated south of Kerikeri and west of Waitangi.

The primary coverage area would take in Kerikeri, Ohaewai, Waimate North and provide a secondary service to Waitangi, Paihia and Russell. The station would broadcast music for a predominantly rural and urban population drawn from the 20 to 45 age group but the applicant said the 10 to 20 and 45 and over age groups would not be forgotten. The music would be middle of the road with a large number of tracks taken from albums and would be played in brackets of approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Commercial content would be kept to a minimum and community involvement services would be provided. In addition rural reports, horticultural reports, fishing, tide, weather and college information as well as sports and the arts would be provided.

Before determining whether or not to grant the warrant, the Tribunal had regard to the provisions of section 80 of the Broadcasting Act 1976, so far as they are applicable.

(a) The extent to which the proposed service is desirable in the public interest.

The applicant’s case was that there was a need for the service because the mid-north was not well served as far as radio was concerned. The proposed coverage area has a population of 23 000 which, according to the applicant, was increased by 675 000 visitors to the Bay of Islands during the summer season. (It was not seriously contended that any such numbers were there at any one time). Current services available were the National Programme or Radio New Zealand’s commercial programme which originates in Whangarei and which is transmitted through a transmitter at Kaikohe. From some positions with good receivers it was possible to pick up FM broadcasts from Auckland. The applicant’s case was that establishment of the station in Whangarei would not satisfy public demand in the area, because local people would not identify with it.

The proposal was for a local community service for people within about 35 kilometres of the site. As Whangarei news, and advertising and promotions were of little or no interest to the Bay of Islands, so a Bay of Islands station would hold little interest to people in Dargaville, Kaitaia and Whangarei. For that reason the promoters decided not to site a transmitter at Mount Hikurangi with other repeaters for transmission to those areas.

A petition signed by 400 residents supported the establishment of a mid-north community FM station.

Mention was made both of the VHF Planning Report and the Tribunal’s report on FM development in relation to low power transmissions.

We have concluded that such a service would be desirable but that there are some deficiencies in the proposal. It appears to fall between provision for a low powered, low sited transmitter providing a local programme to a very local audience, to one encompassing quite a wide area but possibly without a sufficient population base to support the station. We shall allude to that later.

We have also to consider the desirability of this in comparison with a regional station based in Whangarei which would provide a service in the mid-north area. For convenience we have discussed that under another heading, but it also pertains to the desirability and the need for services in the area.

(b) The economic effect which the establishment of the station to which the application relates is likely to have in respect of broadcasting stations already in operation.

(c) The effect which the establishment of the station to which the application relates may have on broadcasting services provided by the Corporation in the public interest.

We consider that the effect would only be marginal in view of the small amount of the revenue obtained from country areas, and the likelihood that the revenue expectations would not reach the estimates of the applicants.

Only 12 percent of the Corporation’s Northland revenue is gathered from the Kaikohe/Bay of Islands area, 58 percent came from Whangarei based advertising and 30 percent from national advertising.

For the past 5 years Radio New Zealand has established studios in Paihia and a transmitter at Russell to serve the needs of the permanent community and the estimated 300 000 visitors during the summer. The costs of establishing that service were insignificant for a 4 week period, but the return went some way towards maintaining a consistent commercial thrust for the remainder of the year as the area switched on and off according to the tourist flows, according to the Radio New Zealand manager L. J. F. Borck. The existing station has been allowed breakouts since 1977 in Kaikohe and Kaitaia.

The mid-north population was 25 000 average equating with Oamaru or Ashburton where Radio New Zealand operated mini-stations with limited local hours. Even a limited hours operation, Mr Borck said, needed a town of not less than 10 000 people within that service area. The largest town, Kaikohe, has only 3 700. We accepted that evidence.

It is convenient here to consider the effect the existence of the proposed station would have on the establishment of the station to serve the whole of Northland. We have concluded that although the station would be unlikely to be successful, the revenue required to sustain a successful