Maori station to extend broadcast

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 14

Maori station to extend broadcast

PA Wellington The Wellington Maori radio station, Te Upoko o te Ika, intends to broadcast for 10 months next year, beginning in March. The station, which ran during May and June of this year, is run by the Wellington Maori Language Board, and broadcasts from Wellington to Waikanae. A station organiser, Mr. Piripi Walker, said that about $454,000 was needed for the 10 month plan. The Broadcasting Corporation and its new Maori Radio Board had turned down an application for $250,000 to assist the project. But the board was determined that the broadcast would go ahead, Mr Walker said. A hui would be held on October 3 at Tapu Te Ranga marae for Maori people to detemine how

the station would run its proposed broadcast next year. •. > . > Mr Walker, who works for Radio New Zealand, said Broadcasting Corporation; research during May and June, showed that 30 per cent Of the " Maori population over the age of 10 had listened to the station, from Wellington to the Kaplti Coast. The board, was delighted with the result, he said. “In commercial terms, 30 per cent of the, population means that, as a medium competing; for a Maori audience, we were . doing as. well as, if not better than, the Pakeha stations.’’ Mr Walker said, the board was * grateful • for assistance that Radio New Zealand was providing in a two-week course for 15 people to be held before : hext year’s broadcast;