S.I. ‘pockets’ lacking TV

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 1

S.I. ‘pockets’ lacking TV

“Little pockets” of the South Island would be affected by the broadcasting cuts announced on Wednesday, said the Broadcasting Corporation’s information officer (Mr R. E. Coury) from Wellington yesterday. Some temporary translators. due for improvement, would not be replaced in light of the cuts, he said. In Dunedin, negotiations were still continuing for the purchase of some transmitter sites, and transmitting equipment had still to be installed. No problem was expected for the inland South Canterbury service, which included Twizel. The television station at Mount Mary was nearing completion, most of the capital

development had already occurred, and it was due to go into commission later this year. The new station would serve the entire region, said Mr Coury. Some areas of Central Otago were still waiting for a permanent service from both channels, he said, but the cuts would mean delays in servicing the region. Queenstown and Wanaka, which have a temporary link with TVI and receive no TV2 at all, would not now have a permanent service “for some time” for either channel. Alexandra, which receives TV2 but not TVI, would have a delay before transmitters could be installed, Mr Coury said. The temporary services to regions such as Nelson

would be improved and made permanent facilities, but priorities “for a lot of places” had not yet been fixed, and Mr Coury could not estimate when the developments would take place.

The microwave link to the West Coast to supply TV2 to the region would be completed soon, but the Corporation still did not have the money to install the transmitters needed to beam the service throughout the area, said Mr Coury. The West Coast had TVI now, but the projected date for completing the TV2 service, formerly early 1980, would now have to be put back. The corporation was hoping for an increase in licence fees later this year, said Mr Coury. Revenue

from this source was used in capital expenditure and advertising revenue was channelled into the commercial workings of the two channels. Radio services in the South Island would be affected by the cuts too, he said.

Timaru’s commercial transmitter would have to be resited “within the next few years,” the cliff it was built on at the moment was being eroded, and it would be completely replaced at the same time, said Mr Coury.

A national programme relay would be installed later.

Development of the radio service to Ashburton was “still up in the air” because the corporation still had to look into some of the finer details, he said.