LET “1YZ BAY OF PLENTY” STAY, SAY LOCAL LISTENERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 93, 30 May 1949, Page 5

LET “IYZ BAY OF PLENTY” STAY, SAY LOCAL LISTENERS

Some listeners from Rotorua are perturbed ever the possibility of the new Bay of Plenty Broadcasting station IYZ “losing its identity” when the announcer says “This is IYZ Bay of Plenty.” They want him to say “This is IYZ Rotorua.” Why? Well one listener claimed that “a grave injustice” was being done to Rotorua by calling the station -‘IYZ Bay of Plenty.” Apparently the Rotorua County and Borough Councils support these views as they have protested to the Minister of Broadcasting that the station should not lose “its identity” by use of the term “Bay of

Plenty.” The station is of importance to Whakatane listeners so to find out the opinions of people in this area the Beacon made a few inquiries at random.

We met a charming lady outside a beauty salon and asked for her opinion on the matter. She Didn’t Know She smiled: I don’t really know. I think it is absolutely, marvellous but I would like to have seen it at Whakatane. Why couldn’t they build it here? Now I must go, I have to get a perm. We let the lady go and then caught a truck driver. “What do you , think —” we began, but he. interrupted. “I don’t,” and then drove away. After one look a him we agreed entirely. In desperation we approached a bloke fishing from the wharf. We were not disappointed. “The way I look at it,” he said, “is that the station was built to serve the whole of the Bay of Plenty. The studios, I suppose, were built at Rotorua because that is the largest town in the Bay. Calling it IYZ Bay of Plenty makes listeners in‘this area realise it is their sta--4 tion.” |

Then we met a . traveller from Auckland. He said, “its a start but in Auckland we have four stations, so we don’t bother with , yours.” Rebuffed we returned again to Whakatane. ’ A shopkeeper: Why souldn’t it be IYZ Bay of Plenty? The station was built to serve all of the Bay of Plenty? Anyway I notice that the announcer adds “operating from Rotorua” when he announces the call sign. Bit More Nonsense We stopped a farmer. “Keep it as it is,” he said. “I

don’t see what Rotorua has to com-

plain about. Thejr have the studios * and the talk about the station losing its identity is just a bit more nonsense/’ We approached other people and most of their remarks were in a similar vein. They all thought “IYZ Bay of Plenty, operating from Rotorua” was a fair and suitable call sign.

The question was also referred to IYZ and a spokesman from the station said: “IYZ was designed to

serve the Bay of Plenty district. It

is felt that use of the designation ‘iYZ, Bay of Plenty,’ meets the needs

of the greatest number.”

Which just about sums up the opinions of most people outside of Rotorua.