F.—3

Sports Sessions.—The Commercial stations concentrated on providing complete coverage of results by means of sports flashes. The response from listeners indicated that the service is greatly appreciated. Financial Report. —Station time sales for the year reached a new peak of £258,205, representing an increase over the previous year's operations of £25,851. In addition, local and national community organizations of the non-profitmaking type received free courtesy advertisements to the value of £8,000, while the National Patriotic Appeals and various Government Departments, particularly those connected with the furtherance of the war effort, received substantial reductions in rates of an aggregate benefit of £6,000. The trading surplus for the year was £96,672, out of which £81,000 has been set aside to meet taxation demands. Engineering Section The National Broadcasting Service was at the 31st March, 1944, servicing the technical equipment of nineteen stations. These included the Commercial stations (marked C), and the technical details are as follows : —

Great difficulty was still experienced in obtaining technical equipment of all kinds, and consequently new development was limited. All available equipment was needed to maintain the existing services, and the technical staff was taxed to its utmost on operational'and maintenance duties. During the year the 2ZB studio equipment was redesigned and brought up to date, the 2YD transmitter was modernized, recording equipment installed at Auckland, and the recording equipment at other stations was redesigned to bring it up to present-day standards. A new receiving-station in the vicinity of Wellington will be completed in the near future, and listeners will benefit by clearer reception of overseas broadcasts which are rebroadcast throughout New Zealand. The aerial masts are at present being serviced, and the guys of the masts, which are 500 ft. high at Auckland and Dunedin and 700 ft. high at Titahi Bay, are being treated. The technical staff at the transmitters is in need of additional housing, and a total of eleven new houses for married officers are being erected at the transmitter sites at Titahi Bay, Opapa, Henderson, Gebbies Pass, Highcliff, and Dacre. Constructional work completed during the year by the Engineering Section included the assembling of equipment for the National Broadcasting Service mobile unit in the Pacific, and public address systems for the National Patriotic Fund Board in connection with the Kiwi Concert Party. Honrs of Transmission.- The total transmission time of National and Commercial stations was 80,483 hours, in which 53 hours were lost owing to technical faults and power failures. Receiving Licenses.-- During the year 375,453 receiving licenses were issued, an increase for the year of 7,290. James Shelley, Director of Broadcasting.

Approximate Cost of Paper.—Preparation, not given printing (557 copies), £10.

By Authority: E. V. Paul, Government Printer, Wellington.—l 944. Price 6'd.]

6

Station. Aerial Energy. Frequency. Wave-length. kW. Kilocycles. Metres. 1YA Auckland .. .. .. .. 10-00 650 462 1ZB Auckland (C) .. 1-00 1070 280 1YX Auckland .. .. .. .. 0-15 880 341 IZM Auckland .. .. .. .. 0-75 1250 240 2YA Wellington .. .. .. .. 60 -00 570 526 2ZJB Wellington (C) .. .. 1-00 1130 265 2ZA Palmerston North (C) .. .. 0-10 1400 214 2YB New Plymouth .. .. .. 0-03 810 370 2YC Wellington .. .. .. .. 5-00 840 357 2YD Wellington .. .. .. .. 0-20 990 303 2 YH Napier .. .. .. .. 5-00 750 395 2 YN Nelson .. .. .. .. 0-03 920 327 2ZJ Gisborne .. .. .. .. 0 - 10 980 306 3YA Christchurch .. .. .. 10-00 720 416 3ZB Christchurch (C) .. .. .. 1-00 1430 210 3YL Christchurch .. .. .. 0-30 1200 250 3ZR Greymouth .. .. .. 0-10 940 319 4YA Dunedin .. .. .. .. 10-00 790 380 4ZB Dunedin (C) .. .. 1-00 1310 229 4YO Dunedin .. .. .. 0-15 1140 263 4YZ Invercargill .. .. .. 5-00 680 441