Support for Radio Avon

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 3

Support for Radio Avon

j Special correspondent p ; Regional relations between M i d-Canterbury, South ■ Canterbury and North Otago i 1 j could be improved by Radio! l [Avon’s proposals for a radio! 1 station, covering these three 1 ! areas, said Mr R. P. Rowley yesterday. Mr Ro ' y, president of;' the Oamaru Chamber of|. Commerce, was expressing), his personal view during the! Broadcasting Tribunal hearing in Oamaru. The tribunal completed its! hearing in Oamaru and ad-| ( ;journea to Christchurch. It ' will re-open on Monday at; 10 a.m., and on Tuesday will; go to Ashburton to hear,, submissions from Mid-; Canterbury on proposals by;. Radio Avon and Radio N.Z.; for stations in the area. Radio N.Z. proposes Radio p Waitaki for Oamaru, broad-1 casting initially between 6h a.m. and 9 a.m. and thenh

switching to 4ZB and the; YA network. Radio Avon plans Radio) Aotea, which would have! studios in Oamaru, Ashbur- 1 ton and Timaru, each centre) contributing a section of the; programme during the day. 1 Mr Rowley, emphasising) that he was giving a person-; al view and not that of the;; Chamber of Commerce, said! he supported the application by Radio Avon. "I see neither application as being perfect, but I realise there has to be a com[promise because of financial Iconsiderations.” Mr Rowley said that!. Radio Aotea offered morel communication with the; north, and an opportunity; for advertisers to sell them-; selves to a new area. In his evidence for the 1 chamber, Mr Rowley criti-; jcised the lack of radio ser-l' vice to Oamaru. He empha-1 sised that the chamber had; (decided to refrain from sup-1;

[porting one applicant. “We agree that present [radio signals to Oamaru [Borough are adequate, butj )we do not agree that the ! present service from this I medium is adequate The rural, [community of North Otago, (however, does not generally [receive an adequate signal,” [he said. An Oamaru member of Radio N.Z.’s southern regional programme advisory committee, Mr A. J. Brady, supported Radio N.Z.’s proposal, saying he saw it as being more suitable to the needs of the Oamaru district. I “Oamaru’s natural comI munity of interest is with I Dunedin, and it is to Dunedin that Oamaru looks for ; the additional facilities 'which the community requires,” said Mr Brady. I The interests were cultural, sporting, and recreationlal, he said.