Longer hours, changed frequency for Rhema

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 15

Longer hours, changed frequency for Rhema

Radio Rhema, the Christian radio station, will extend its hours and change its frequency at the beginning of next month.

Since it began broadcasting in November, 1978, Rhema has had to close down at noon on weekdays. The Broadcasting Tribunal has now granted it permission to extend its broadcasting to midnight seven days a week. It begins broadcasting at 6 a.m. - ■

The Broadcasting Tribunal has allocated Rhema a new frequency of 1503khz. ■’ - - ■

Mr Richard Berry, national director or Rhema, said the restricted hours had originally been -imposed by'the- Broadcasting Tribunal;- which < had apparently been concerned • about whether a voluntary organisation could., gather ; the resources needed to

run a radio-station fulltime.

Mr Berry said Rhema had long since served its apprenticeship, and its staff had become frustrated by having to hold back its development.

A recent audience survey done by Rhema had indicated that as many as 34,000 people were tuning in to Rhema in a week. This was equivalent to 14 per cent of the Christchurch urban adult population. Mr Berry estimated that within six months of beginning transmissions for 18 hours a day, Rhema might be reaching a weekly listenership of up to 70,000.pe0p1e.-- ■ Rhema has been the subject of public complaints because its transmission, on its present frequency interferes with the reception of the National

Programme, 3YA, on some radio sets. The Post Office acknowledged in recent hearings before the Broadcasting Tribunal that the interference had begun when Rhema and 3YA changed frequenct in 1978, and resulted from a complex technical problem peculiar to the way in which some radio sets are made. Because of the interference, the Broadcasting Tribunal asked the Post Office to find a new frequency for Rhema. Out of a number of possibilities the Broadcasting Tribunal chose 1503khz, at present allocated to Castlepoint, on the East Coast of the North Island. The decision to shift the frequency to' Christchurch has to be ratified by international agreement at Geneva. The Post Office has said it considers this a mere formality.