Office Staff To Be Recruited Locally

Northern Advocate, 7 May 1948, Page 6

Office Staff To Be Recruited Locally

WHANGAREI'S RADIO STATION

WHANGAREI’S new radio station will be equal in strength to those at Nelson, Palmerston North, and new stations to be erected at Hamilton, Wanganui and Timaru, all with 2-kilowatt output, e office i nc i U( ji n gr typists, will be recruited locally.

The Director of Broadcasting (Professor James Shelley), in reply to a letter from the Northern Advocate, asking for details of the new station, wrote saying that he was unable to give replies to 1 many of the questions. These would be covered by the Minister in Charge of Broadcasting when he issued a statement regarding the station. “With reference to your query concerning the code sign, please note that the call-sign IXW was not available j to the service,” he wrote. RANGE 700 MILES I “The allocation or call-signs is controlled by the Post and Telegraph Department which issues licences for • transmitters.” “With regard to the staffing of the station it is likely that the majority of the staff will be appointed there , after having received training at other stations throughout New Zealand,” the Professor went on. “The office staff, including typists will, of course, be recruited locally.” Regarding the effective range .of the new station, a prominent Whangarei electrician who operates a private transmitting station, said today that reception should be fairly reliable up to 700 miles at least. ‘‘The North should be adequately covered without any trouble. Reception in Kaitaia and Kaikohe will

be as good as a local station, I think. However it is very difficult to say for certain. “Whangarei is in a bad area. Radio reception to and from Auckland on high frequency is bad; it's good in Hamilton, but bad again in Rotorua. “However a lot of Australian stations are one kilowatt or less and their reception here is very good,” he concluded. As at Whangarei, Hamilton, Wanganui and Timaru, where new stations of the same output are to be built, temporary accommodation is likely to be used until the shortage ot building materials cries and a permanent structure car be erected.