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1949 NEW ZEALAND

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND BROADCASTING SERVICE FOR THE TWELVE MONTHS ENDING 31st MARCH, 1949

Presented to Both Houses of the General Assembly Pursuant to the Provisions of the Broadcasting Act, 1936

I have the honour to submit the annual report on the operations of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service for the year ending 31st March, 1949, in accordance with the provisions of section 18 (1) of the Broadcasting Act, 1936. The year was marked by expansion in all fields. The Service has successfully reabsorbed the large numbers of its staff who were on active service during the war ; and the staff position, linked with development policies introduced after the war, enabled the Service to make some important innovations. One outstanding development was the entry of New Zealand into the field of short-wave broadcasting on Dominion Day, 1948, when the first regular short-wave programmes were transmitted to the eastern coast of Australia and the islands of the Western Pacific. Another was the opening of Station 3XC Timaru, the first of the composite stations which will broadcast both commercial and non-commerical programmes. In the technical field an increasing use was made of equipment designed, tested, and manufactured in the workshops of the Service. During the year the Service co-operated with musical societies in the four main centres in the production of the opera "Carmen." The resulting stimulus to local musical activity, and to public interest in opera, encouraged the Service to co-operate later with Messrs. J. C. Williamson, Ltd., in arranging a Dominion-wide tour by the Internationa] Opera Company. This tour, which is still in progress, has been an outstanding musical and artistic success. The popularity of broadcasting was again reflected in an increase in licence figures. There were 434,014 licences held on 31st March, 1949, an increase of 11,323 over the figures for the previous year.