New directors for Radio Pacific

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 23

New directors for Radio Pacific

PA Auckland Two former directors of Hauraki Enterprises. Ltd, Mr George Wadsworth and Mr Derek Lowe, are to join the board of Radio Pacific as part of a series of moves aimed at getting Auckland's talkback radio station into the black. Hauraki Enterprises runs Radio Hauraki in Auckland. Radio Pacific floated sharps to the public in 1978 but has yet to earn an annual profit. Its 50c shares are not listed on the Stock Exchange but currently trade unofficially around 33c.

Last November the company announced a one-for-four cash issue of ordinary shares at par, seeking in total just oyer $148,000. Subscription to the issue has been slow. New shares were expected to be issued about the middle of January, but the company's chairman, Gordon Dryden, says it has

now already been subscribed by existing shareholders and arrangements made for the rest of the shares to be taken up. The board changes (Mr Ross Findlayson. a senior executive . with the export group Amalgamated Marketing. Ltd. has also joined the board) follow a survey of the company’s cost structure and potential by Mr Wadsworth, who is a public accountant. Mr Wadsworth said yesterday his investigations showed that the company could be made profitable fairly quickly. Progress had already been made in lowering the station's cost structure. He said the station was not in a very healthy situation. Last year’s problems of a high cost structure had been compounded by bad ratings. However, changes had been made to a broader format. He said he was confident that the station's news and

information format could attract enough listeners to make it viable. There were no plans to seek changes to the company’s broadcasting warrant to allow it to play more music. The Broadcasting Tribunal has indicated that it will give the company an early hearing to change its shareholding restrictions. At the moment the company’s warrant restricts the maximum single shareholding to 10 per cent. This limitation conflicts with the Stock Exchange Association's listing requirements and its removal is likely to see Radio Pacific shares officially quoted. Mr Dryden said in announcing the new board (Mrs Miraka Szaszy, Sir' Tom Skinner and Mr Gordon McLauchlan resigned some time ago) that directors were confident of a profit in the coming year.