Auckland Businessmen Plan Pirate Radio Ship

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 1

Auckland Businessmen Plan Pirate Radio Ship

(Neu; Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 8 A pirate radio station, beaming a programme of popular music to the Auckland province from a ship beyond the three-mile limit m the Hauraki Gulf, may begin broadcasting in about six months.

A group of young Auckland businessmen say they are now adding the finishing touches to their plan to break the monopoly of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr D. Gapes, business manager for the enterprise, today said he was confident of complete success provided neither the Government nor the Broadcasting Corporation interfered. “Our lawyer has assured us that there is nothing illegal about what we plan to do,” he said. “Short of extending the limit of territorial waters or blacklisting companies which advertise with us, I cannot see anything they can do.

“Since the Broadcasting Corporation refuses to issue licences to any competitors for radio stations, the only way to break its monopoly is to work from outside the threemile limit,” said Mr Gapes.

The businessmen are at present taking steps to form themselves into a company.

One of the partners in the enterprise already has a boat which will be used as the base for the transmitter. It will be registered in a nonCommonwealth country to avoid any possible Government interference.

The technical side of the station will be managed by Mr D. O’Callahan, formerly employed by the Electricity Department, and recently in business on his own account.

All the equipment needed for the station has already been bought or arrangements made for its purchase in the near future.

“We will have quite sufficient power to give Auckland, Hamilton and Whangarei a good coverage and we expect to reach other areas as well,” said Mr Gapes. “We have a big advantage in broadcasting across water and we still have a much greater range than a landbased station. “We have selected our wavelength carefully to ensure that we do not interfere with the Broadcasting Corporation, the ambulance services or any other broadcaster."

Mr Gapes said that initially the station would broadcast a morning breakfast session, starting a quarter of an hour before IZB and ending about 10 a.m., and an afternoonevening session ending about 7.30 p.m. Ultimately it was hoped to broadcast 24 hours a day. “The programme will consist entirely of pop music,” said Mr Gapes. “I am sure that pop music is what most people like to hear and we

will be producing progi mmes to meet the majority taste.

“We are at present negotiating with two leading Australian disc jockeys to compere the programmes.” Mr L. R. Sceats, deputy-

Director General of the Broadcasting Corporation, said today he had heard nothing of plans for a pirate radio station to be established. He declined to comment on such a move. An official of the Radio Division of the Post Office in Wellington said a licence for a private radio station would not be granted to an applicant unless a warrant had been obtained from the Broadcasting Corporation.

He agreed the Post Office itself could do little about a pirate station working outside the three-mile limit—“ This would be a matter for the Government” —but he added he thought it would be difficult for such a station to find a frequency free of interference. Most frequencies were already in use.