Rhema studio to move

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 5

Rhema studio to move

Radio Rhema will move from its Mairehau studios because it cannot obtain permanent permission for a building on the site. Rhema’s public relations manager, Mr Douglas Pflaum, said the decision to move was announced at the station’s annual meeting this month. The Glenfield Street studios could not run without the temporary building which houses a reception area, offices, and two production studios, he said.

The gospel station applied

to the Christchurch City Council last Deember for permanent use of the building but it was declined, with objections from Glenfield Street residents that the use caused too much late-night noise, and parking problems. Radio Rhema was given temporary permission to use the building until May, 1976, so that it would have time to find another site. The quarters were too cramped and with the planning difficulties Rhema decided to move everything —

studios, newsrooms and ofices — said Mr Pflaum. The station was now looking at several sites, with the aim of finding one site for Rhema’s six departments scattered round Christchurch. One building for all would be more convenient and less expensive, he said. “It would be good to have us as one team working together rather than being five or six separate organisations,” said Mr Pflaum. The move was unlikely for at least two years, he said.