24 JANUARY
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
261

1. To provide for the establishment of frequency modulation relay stations of 2YC on the VHF band at Waiatarua, Te Aroha, Mt Erin, Wharite, Mt Egmont, Kaukau, Sugarloaf, Mt Cargill and Hedgehope. These are the television transmission points chosen for FM broadcasts to Auckland, the Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury, Dunedin and Southland respectively.

2. To remove the present ban on advertising programmes and to provide for advertising provided it does not exceed 6 minutes per hour and subject to the usual condition preventing advertising during certain hours on Friday, Christmas Day, and Anzac Day and Sundays.

3. To authorise the progressive extension of the hours of transmission until the station broadcasts from 6 a.m. until midnight.

In support of the application the Corporation stated that the application was made as required by a direction to the Corporation from the Minister of Broadcasting dated 23 December 1982. A copy of that direction to the Corporation is annexed to this decision.

Relay Stations

The direction required the Corporation to apply for warrants for FM stations but the Corporation did not follow that course. It gave its reasons. In the development phase, the Corporation said, the transmitters would relay the existing YC-AM programme. The transmitters outside the 4 main centres were unlikely in the foreseeable future to originate local programmes on a local basis. The FM transmitters in the main centres were not expected to provide a service for all listeners who could receive the AM signal and the actual deficiency and methods of remedying them could not be established until the transmitters had been established in those centres.

The Corporation referred to a decision of the Tribunal which it said indicated that the Tribunal did not consider a warrant should be granted to a station which was not going to originate programmes in the area it served.

So the Corporation decided not to follow the direction but to provide the coverage to which the direction relates by means of the establishment of relay stations.

The application covered what the Corporation described as the “initial phase of development” which would cover 80 percent of the population by the end of 5 years. In the first year Mt Erin and Te Aroha, in the second year Waiatarua and Hedgehope, in the third year Kaukau and Wharite, in the fourth year Mt Egmont and Sugarloaf and in the fifth year Mt Cargill.

The Corporation proposed to simulcast in the 4 main centres between the existing AM transmitters and the new proposed FM transmitters because they would not give comparable coverage in the primary coverage areas of the existing stations, particularly in Christchurch and Wellington.

(The term simulcasting is used to describe the broadcast of the same programme on both AM and FM transmitters serving substantially the same areas simultaneously.)

Advertising

As to advertising it was stated that the amount of advertising would be limited and it was not intended that the station should become commercially viable. The expected revenue would only offset the cost of developing and maintaining the service. The nature of the programme, the composition and probable audience size and the fact that the programme would be worked would restrict the appeal to advertisers, and it was unlikely that any private organisation would ever seek to establish a comparable programme on a commercial basis.

The Corporation said programming policy would not be changed.

Applications were also made to amend the warrants for 1YC, 3YC and 4YC to allow advertising on those stations and to extend their hours.

It was revealed in the course of evidence by Miss Wakem, Controller of Programmes for Radio New Zealand, that it was not intended to simultaneously broadcast continuously between the YC-AM programme and the FM transmitters. The Corporation decided after the application had been lodged that it was inappropriate to transfer speech based programmes such as Sports Roundup, the education programmes and the broadcast of Parliament to the new medium. Those programmes would continue to be broadcast on the AM stations and separate programmes would be broadcast from the FM stations at those times.

In the interim phase at these times the FM station would either close down or would carry a sustaining concert music programme originating at the network centre. In addition, until there was provision for local breakouts from the FM network (for which there was no plan) the current schedule of local artists breakouts would continue to be carried on the AM transmitters in the 4 metropolitan centres.

Hearing

The Tribunal heard evidence from witnesses for the Broadcasting Corporation, from the Music Federation of New Zealand and the Friends of the Concert Programme.

A large number of written submissions were made, nearly all opposing the advertising proposals but many of them making no specific submissions on the other amendment proposals.

YC Network Content

Miss H. A. Young, manager of the Concert Programme, gave evidence of the present hours of transmission. The existing stations broadcast from 6 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. and from 5 p.m. until midnight, Monday to Thursday, from 6 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. and 1 p.m. until midnight on Friday, 8 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

In Hawkes Bay 2ZK join the network each weekday evening at 7 p.m., on Saturday at 5 p.m. and for the full day on Sunday. In Southland 4ZG join at 6 p.m. on Monday to Saturday inclusive and all day Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday evenings some other regional stations for the National Programme also join the network.

In addition the network is currently on the air for Sports Roundup for the summer months and sports commentaries are broadcast during the winter on Saturdays and Sundays plus the occasional mid-week match. The daytime sittings of Parliament are broadcast from 1YC and 4YC and pre-school and correspondence school programmes on the morning network.

The network is normally originated in Wellington, but it originates from Auckland on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 10.30 a.m. and each YC programme breaks out from time to time to broadcast concerts or cultural events of significance. On Sundays the 4 YC programmes break out between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to broadcast local artists or ensembles who have not yet reached national status.

The Concert Programme (with its non-sports programmes) caters for an admittedly small but significant section of the population which no other station serves. From the areas of the country without the service the educated minority is also “a vociferous group unwilling to be fed majority audience programmes”. The audience ratings are small compared with a mass audience but for those who listen to serious music to a significant degree it is an essential service.

The music, covering the entire history of composition, is the principal (approximately 75 percent) ingredient of the Concert Programme and includes both live and recorded music from New Zealand and abroad. The emphasis is on the standard repertoire, but specialist areas such as early music avant-garde, jazz and rock have their place in the overall content. However performances must be of the highest standard and the most authoritative available.

The Concert Programme acts as organiser and entrepreneur for other notable events when Radio New Zealand studios and the Symphony Orchestra studio in Wellington attract sizeable audiences and participants. The music department undertakes the commissioning of studio programmes from individuals and groups, commissions new works and relays (live or delayed) prestigious public performances including almost 100 percent coverage of concerts by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and soloists and chamber music groups brought from overseas to New Zealand by the Music Federation of New Zealand.

Spoken programmes including talks, interviews and documentaries which develop understanding of our society, and which are not tied to news or news support, make up 25 percent of the content. Programmes also look at overseas cultures for alternative ways, ideas and models and to develop understanding of them as our neighbours and trading partners. Special emphasis is given to New Zealand literature and the arts.

About 75 percent of the Concert Programme drama output is written by New Zealanders and this is played in addition to the best of overseas material, mainly from the BBC. Current affairs do not have a place on the programme, except occasionally as part of the spoken features output.

The station broadcasts both Radio New Zealand and BBC news. Miss Young summarised the whole Concert Programme as providing programmes of entertainment, information and education of the highest quality for discriminating listeners whose interests lie in specialist areas of the performing and literary arts and the whole body of human knowledge.