NEW 1YA TRANSMITTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21776, 16 April 1934, Page 10

NEW IYA TRANSMITTER

BUILDING AT HENDERSON TENDER OF £BOOO LET, WORK TO BEGIN SHORTLY The tender of Watson and Holmes, of Auckland, has been accepted by the New Zealand Broadcasting Board for tho erection of premises to accommodate tho powerful new transmitter for IYA to bo erected near Henderson, according to an announcement made on Saturday by Mr. G. 11. Hutchinson, Auckland member of the board. It is understood tho price is about £BOOO, tho lowest of 14 tenders received. The tendering was very close, tho first five all boing within £SOO of one another. Tho work will bo put in hand shortly. Tho building will bo 90ft. by 64ft., and will comprise a transmitting hall, offices, an engine room to liouso emergency electric-power plant, and an emergency studio from which recorded items can bo broadcast if a fault occurs in tho land line from the studio. There will bo a 1000-gallon storage tank for tho cooling of tho valves. Water will bo obtained from a bore and from tanks. Tho site for the transmitter is an area of 15£ acres near Lincoln Road Bridge, about two and a-half miles beyond tho Henderson township, on the main road to Holonsville. The fact that it is bordered by tho sea and is adjacent to swamp country will ensure splendid earthing, which is more important than tho former belief that high country was necessary for a transmitting station. Work on tho actual transmitting plant is well under way in Australia, the tender having been let in February. With a power of 10 kilowatts, which is 20 times that of the present IYA, four times that of the new 3YA and double that of 2YA, the new transmitter will be as powerful as any Australian station, and double the strength of 2FC and 2BL, Sydney, and 3LO and 3AR, Melbourne. In addition to the emergency studio at the transmitting station, there will be an emergency transmitter at the new studio being erected in Shorthand Street, so that there will be two complete plants. It is believed tlie Broadcasting Board is considering placing one of the present 100 ft. masts of IYA in Karangahape Road on the top of the new studio when it is completed. Good progress continues to be made on the studio building and most of the foundations have already been put in. The single 500 ft. mast of latticed steel for the new transmitter is at present under construction in Australia. Both the new studio and the transmitter will be in operation before the end of the year. AUCKLAND STAFF CHANGES NEW PROGRAMME ORGANISER Although no official announcement has yet been made, it is understood that Mr. T. J. Kirk-Burnnand, programme organiser at 4YA, Dunedin, is to be transferred to IYA, Auckland, as programme organiser. Mr. KirkBurnnand, who was formerly of Auckland, and has been in the broadcasting service for about five years, will replace Mr. H. C. Trim, who will be transferred to the head office of the Broadcasting Board at Wellington. Mr. Kirk-Burnnand, who plays the piano, organ, violin and cornet, studied pianoforte and violin under Mr. Colin Muston and at Auckland University College under Professor W. E. Thomas. A brief period of orchestral work in Canada followed. Later he returned to New Zealand and went to Dunedin, where he conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra for a time and then the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society. For some time ho conducted the Kaikorai Band. At present he is official accompanist to the Dunedin Returned Soldiers' Choir, one of the finest male choirs in New Zealand.