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Building Programme The Service received no allocation of building resources from the Commissioner of Works for new projects during the year. In order that the coverage and expansion plan, held in abeyance since the commencement of hostilities in 1939, could proceed it was decided to erect temporary accommodation by using buildings constructed primarily for war purposes. The Service will by this means provide transmitter buildings at Paengaroa (for the Bay of Plenty station) and Kumara (for the West Coast, South Island, station). The completion of Broadcasting House in Wellington becomes imperative as the activities of the Service intensify and expand. The Head Office and Wellington stations are housed in nine different buildings, and the Service will continue to encounter great difficulties of co-ordination and administration so long as this position obtains. None of these buildings were planned for broadcasting activities, and ii\ some cases the accommodation is extremely poor. Nevertheless, it is realized that there are many pressing community needs to be met before the erection of permanent broadcasting studios can be considered. The building programme of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service also includes the erection of studios planned acoustically for broadcasting and of office accommodation in all towns where stations will operate. Negotiations have commenced for the purchase of studio-sites at various centres. Recording Studios During the year the recording facilities at Auckland were improved by the installation of the latest equipment. Work on similar equipment for Christchurch and Dunedin was commenced, and the recorders should be available for installation at an early date. At present the recording-equipment at these two centres is limited in the use to which it can be put. The replacements will enable recorded programmes to be produced locally and the available talent in the two centres explored and developed, as is now being done in Wellington and Auckland. Mobile Recording Unit The first of two mobile recording units commenced activities during the year under review, and it is hoped to place the second unit into commission in the South Island shortly. Visits were made to Wanganui and New Plymouth. The unit forms part of the scheme for exploring and developing talent in centres which are not at present served by a station. Its activities include the recording of artists, choirs, events, and talks of interest for broadcasting from local, district, and national stations. The first trip met with very favourable reception, and the success of programmes broadcast later justified the plan for operating mobile recording units held in abeyance since 1942. The Service, unlike other broadcasting organizations, cannot relay certain types of programmes as the telephone-lines will not carry the necessary range of frequencies. Until satisfactory relay lines are provided, the mobile unit will continue to cover certain musical festivities which take place in centres where there is ho broadcasting-station. The unit has enabled officers to test and verify the reactions of listeners to the programmes broadcast by the various stations. Practically without exception the reaction of rural listeners has been most favourable. Record-pressing Plant During the year a contract was let for the supply of a record-pressing plant. This will enable pressings to be taken from master disks of as many copies as required. Up to the present it has been necessary to send processing work to Australia.

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