Radio - 100 years Old Today - 17 November 2021

THE PIGEON HAS JUST LANDED - ADDITIONAL NEWS

Radio Hauraki’s boat Tiri on rocks 1968

Addition to last article 

In this article, the Pigeon has just landed with additional information which can’t be left out of the 100 years of NZ Radio article below, as it touched the hearts of so many young people in the 1960s.

Radio became increasing state controlled from the 1930s but the reforms into a private activity started in the 1960s.

It can’t be forgotten that those pirates of radio, Radio Hauraki were the forerunner of private radio as we know it today.

Radio Hauraki a New Zealand rock music station started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand. It operated illegally on a boat, the Tire, on the Hauraki Gulf in international waters until 1970, to break the monopoly held by the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Unfortunately, the Radio Hauraki’s boat Tiri was caught in a storm in January 1968, ran on to rocks and the final broadcast from the Tiri was "Hauraki News: Hauraki crew is abandoning ship. … (as I was listening to the programme at night I thought it was a joke from the pirates, but I could also hear water gushing) The "Tiri" crashed on to rocks, but was later towed back to Auckland and the broadcasting equipment was salvaged. However, the Tiri herself was beyond repair and was replaced four days later by the Kapuni, christened Tiri II by her new crew.

In April of the same year Tiri ll found herself beached again at Whangaparapara Harbour, a victim of the same storm that resulted in the Wahine disaster. After repairs she was back at sea in five days. Between this time and June 1968, Tiri II would end up beached at Uretiti Beach and caught several times broadcasting from New Zealand waters by radio inspectors. Just before Christmas 1968, Radio Hauraki became New Zealand's first 24 hour broadcaster.

In mid-1970, the state monopoly on radio frequencies was broken, with the New Zealand Broadcasting Authority finally allowing Radio Hauraki to broadcast on land, legally. The Radio Hauraki crew had spent 1,111 days at sea. The final broadcast from the sea-bound Hauraki Pirates was a documentary on the station's history until that point, finishing at 10:00 pm when Tiri II turned and headed for Auckland playing "Born Free" continually. During their final voyage back to shore, announcer Rick Grant was lost overboard.

Pigeon Post News 2021