Memorable sounds of the past live on in Timaru

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 17

Memorable sounds of the past live on in Timaru

By

CHRIS TOBIN

All of those memorable sounds that crackled over the wireless decades ago live on in the Radio New Zealand building in Timaru, which houses the country’s only major professional sound archive.

Winston Churchill’s “This was their finest hour,” Aunt Daisy’s “Good morning everybody, good morning everybody,” Winston McCarthy’s “Listen... it’s a goal,” are all there and much more besides.

Churchill is one of the big names in the collection and judging by the length of his listing in the archive catalogues, the shelves must creak under the weight of his discs.

Many believe that Churchill’s wartime speeches to the Commonwealth in which his power of oratory and call to action virtually made all of New Zealand stop and listen, were the high points of radio.

However, in the view of the chief archivist, Jim Sullivan, “everything in the collection is valuable.” He sees the recollections of 97-year-old Mr W. H. Bloomfield landing at Timaru in 1874 as just as important as the classic Churchill speeches.

“Unlike a museum where you can say that that is a valuable piece, the only example of a can opener of that period, out there (pointing to the archives) everything is unique, nothing that is duplicated anywhere. It is all of great importance.

Covering such topics as social history, politics, music, literature, and a total of 10,000 discs and 600 tapes make up the historical section of the archives. The bulk comes from the great years of radio in New Zealand from 1935 when recording began (which was about 10 years after broadcasting started in this country)

through to the time sight was added to sound and television arrived in the early 19605. The tragedy is that the historical archives are not bigger. In, the early years tens of thousands 7

of discs were recorded, but as broadcasting expanded around the country in the 1940 s space was at a premium and most of the old discs were thrown out. The precious 10,000 discs that do survive could well have suffered the same fate had the then

New Zealand Broadcasting Service not decided in 1956 to establish a national archive at Timaru.

The inevitable question is why Timaru? Apparently, back in the

19505, the local radio station was one of the few with ample space for such a venture. Also its dry climate and location away from the earthquake zone clinched the matter.

The archive remains solely under the umbrella of Radio New Zealand and does not receive any government or public funding. “For that reason we see our role primarily to support radio and television,” says Mr Sullivan.

“At the same time we also make our material generally available to the public for a fee and only if it is not restricted by

copywright. • “That ranges from someone

whose grandmother used to sing on the wireless right through to researchers, universities, and people writing books.” The producers of the television series, “Country GP” frequently called upon the services of Mr Sullivan and his team of Steve Riley, Sandra Powell, and Joy Fowler. More recently, they have been assisting the producer of a series on Bernard Freyberg, V.C., which is due for screening in the near future.

“We’ve probably got more on sound of Freyberg than they would find in original film taken of him,” says Mr Sullivan. The collection of the Second World War forms a major part of the historical archives. Much of the material was recorded by mobile units which followed New Zealand troops through the Middle East, Italy, and the Pacific interviewing soldiers and describing the battles and events they saw. The mobile units recorded 1200 discs and continued after the war doing the same with the “J” Force occupation troops in Japan. The range of the historical archive covers every’ field imaginable. A quick look through the catalogues representing thousands of hours of radio uncovers some interesting recordings — , Sir Apirana Ngata speaking at the Poho-O-Rawiri meeting house in 1938; Florence Nightingale talking about her work in the Crimean War; 93-year-old William Mason, of Middlemarch, recalling Cathedral Square in 1874 when huge blue gums grew there, and a recording of Kenneth Landfrey, the soldier who blew the bugle signal for the change of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854.

One recording picked at random, and which proved enjoyable listening, came from the poet, Denis Glover, who was lamenting the passing of the Sumner tram. It was recorded in 1952.

"Where would you find such a rattle and a bump and bump as on the Sumner tram,” says a saddened Glover. "Where would you find so many friends, so many draughts as on the Sumner tram... :

"But they’re taking it away. Nobody but me seems to give a damn about the tram. They’re all making a fuss about a bus.”

Material continues to flow in from radio stations around New Zealand which the archives staff will have to edit and index. Tapes of last year’s Timaru byelection will soon be assessed. Of the 200 to 300 hours of radio time the tapes represent, only about two hours will be retained, just enough to give what Mr Sullivan calls the flavour of the campaign. The library material made up of more recent recordings held in the archives comprises 60,000 78 r.m.p. gramophone discs, 5000 45 r.p.m. discs, 5000 LP albums, and 5000 tapes, as well as a complete run of the “Listener” magazine, other broadcasting publications, and photographs of radio history.

Here one finds comedy — courtesy of the 8.8. C., “Take It From Here,” "The Goon Show,” and “Hancock’s Half Hour,” recordings of the National Symphony Orchestra, Selwyn Toogood’s “It’s In the Bag,” and documentaries such as one completed in 1979 on poverty and unemployment in east Christchurch.

“If you’re doing it all the time you get to the stage of being able to judge what is worth keeping. Just as in a rugby commentary you’re not going to keep the full 80 minutes but rather the highlights of the scoring moves. That’s the sort of selection process that has to go on.” Magnetic tape has been used in recording since the 19505,

before which it was all done on to acetate discs with either a steel or aluminium base. The fact the tapes can be easily erased and used again presents a few problems for the archives. “Part of our job is to ensure that everybody in radio is aware that if an interview or programme they’ve done is at all likely, to be important, than to make sure we get a copy before the tape is erased.” While a substantial volume of material comes into the archive a similarly large proportion of recordings goes out to meet the requests of community stations. Among recent programmes have been music and memories of the 19605, mystery voice promotions, today in history with on-the-spot recordings. Mr Sullivan enjoys the historical nature of the work but admits one of the highlights of his job is finding a blooper to add to the well known sporting bloopers collection. “It’s not in any sense poking fun at the people making the bloopers, as we all make them; it’s just good fun to find one. We have six tapes, or three hours, of bloopers which is quite a lot when you think the average blooper is only about 30 second long.” The public enjoys them as well. Of all the tapes released by Sound Archives, sporting bloopers continues to to top the best-selling list.