Board lacks finance for Maori radio

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 13

Board lacks finance for Maori radio

PA Wellington The Wellington Maori Language Board hopes to launch two months of part-time. Maori radio broadcasting in Wellington later this year, said the board’s chairman, Mr Huirangi Waikerepuru, yesterday. However, the board faced a shortfall of $30,000 to meet the costs of the planned daily fourhour morning broadcasts from the unused 2ZM AM transmitter. The Broadcasting Cor-

poration had agreed to underwrite $lO,OOO of the $40,000 required, but Radio New Zealand insisted on charging full market prices for the equipment, Mr Waikerepuru said. The board met the Minister of Broadcasting, Mr Hunt, earlier this week. “However, the Minister said he had no power to require the B.C.N.Z. to increase its assistance to us,” Mr Waikerepuru said. “We have been promised the AM 2ZM

radio station when it moved to FM ... since 1983. “The need for a local Maori station with a local sound is something we have long identified,” he said. The board would launch an appeal for corporate sponsorship, and would go ahead with its licence application. The station, which would run from May until the end of June, would provide a news service, music and talk-back.