Radio Pirate Disappointed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 16

Radio Pirate Disappointed

(N Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 9.

A director of Auckland’s pirate radio, Radio Hauraki, Mr D. S. R. Lowe, left Wellington today after failing to persuade members of Parliament to visit the station.

Mr Lowe said he believed he had achieved all he could in Wellington and was disappointed that the Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Scott) had refused to see him. “One of the main reasons 1 came to Wellington was to invite Mr Scott to send a party of members of Parliament to Auckland with a view to finding out why the company was proceeding with its plans. “I have discussed the radio with members of Parliament from both sides of the House and I will be reporting on my evaluations of the situation to my co-direc-tors when I arrive in Auckland.” Asked if discussions in Wellington would alter plans to broadcast on October 1, Mr Lowe said he could not speak for the co-directors and other members of the company.

“I personally feel that we are justified in what we are doing and that our reasons for proceeding with the plan are sound. I have yet to be convinced that there is any reason why we should not be permitted to follow our plan through,” he said. “I still feel strongly that

the members of Parliament are not fully aware of Radio Hauraki’s motives.

“All we wish to do is provide the people of Auckland with a new kind of entertaining radio, freely and in healthy competition with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. “I question how the National Party, which openly advocates free private enterprise, can talk of ‘destroying Radio Hauraki,’ when I believe all we stand for is this very principle.” Mr Lowe today met the Di-

rector-General of the N.Z.B.C. (Mr G. H. Stringer) and the chairman of the corporation (Mr C. A. McFarlane). They discussed the possibility of whether Radio Hauraki could be given a trial period to prove itself and the likelihood of the station being given a licence to operate from shore if it did not go to sea.

“As things apparently stand, I feel we have little choice, but to do what we have announced we’ll do, because I believe we are right,” Mr Lowe said.