Wellington Access Radio 35th birthday, radio archive launch

For Immediate Release

Wellington Access Radio’s 35th birthday marks launch of radio archive

Wellington Access Radio is celebrating its 35th birthday and the archiving of its historical audio collection at Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision on April 27.

The station launched in April 1981 as the first community access radio broadcaster in New Zealand, providing a platform for content by, for and about the local community.

Programming features multiple languages, women’s, youth, children, sexual diversity and religious diversity broadcasts alongside community programming and New Zealand music.

Station Manager Kristen Paterson says the archived reel to reels and cassettes contain a wealth of fascinating audio.

“They give a real snapshot into the diversity of Wellington and events in the community over the years,” she says.

Ngā Taonga Radio Collections Developer, Gareth Watkins, received the collection in 2015. “We were delighted to acquire this culturally rich collection. The programmes broaden and enrich the national audio-visual collection with a variety of voices, opinions and communities – many underserved by mainstream media in the 1980s. For some communities, these early recordings will contain their first radio broadcasts in Aotearoa New Zealand”.

The 800+ taonga are now safely housed in Ngā Taonga’s Christchurch facility and have been added to the Archive’s digitisation schedule, further safeguarding the content for future generations. The collection catalogue can be found online at ngataonga.org.nz – search “Wellington Access Radio”.

Wellington Access Radio is funded by NZ on Air, and broadcasts on a non-commercial regional frequency allocated by The Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

The 35th birthday celebrations and archive launch will take place on Wednesday 27th April at Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision from 6-8pm.

The public are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to Kristen@accessradio.org.nz by 20 April.

© Scoop Media