From spinning records and draping nostalgic music over The Historic Village back in the 1980s, Village Radio’s legacy is still thriving in Tauranga 40 years later.

This year Village Radio is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and volunteers recently marked the milestone by having a party at Matua Bowls Club.

Winding back to the station’s beginning, Village Radio held its first ever broadcast on April 13, 1984, from the first floor of the historic Town Board building. This was thanks to five men – Setfton Freeman, Brian Carter, Jim Hartstong, Tas Davey and George Christopherson – who have all since passed away. The Weekend Sun has been told the inaugural broadcast coincided with commemorations for the 21st anniversary of the City of Tauranga.

Back in the day

Ninety-five-year-old Kel Raine was a part of the radio action in its early days, joining in 1986.

“When [the radio] first opened it wasn’t on air … they just played records over the speaker in the studio there.”

Kel says one of his mates, who he worked with in the post office in the telephone exchange, got him into Village Radio.

“My mate was down there and he said: ‘How about coming down to spin a few discs at the radio station?’”

The equipment in the station was originally from Radio 1ZD, Tauranga, and the transmitter loaned to the station from Radio New Zealand was the original 1ZB transmitter when it broadcasted from Waterview in Auckland.

Old radio tech came with its own set of challenges too, says Kel.

“One time the power transformer inside the transmitter had packed up and I spent hours, right into the middle of the night, rewiring it to get it back on air again. The transformer is so very heavy in those things, and of course I had to lift it out of the cabinet to work on it, and I got myself a hernia. I had to go and get that sewed up.”

Weekday broadcasts

Twenty years after its first broadcast in 1984, weekday broadcasts began in 2004. Previously, Village Radio had only broadcasted on Sundays and public holidays. This is when a new announcer-operated studio was set up to save wearing out the older equipment – some of which is more than half a century old.

Today, Village Radio doubles as a museum with its official name being Tauranga Village Radio Museum Incorporated. Photo: supplied.

Today Village Radio doubles as a museum with its official name being Tauranga Village Radio Museum Incorporated. Perhaps the radio station’s most prized historical piece is the 1937 Collins transmitter. It’s special, being only the second one known to be operating in the world, and was restored by Village Radio technicians Russ Bain, George Stewart and Neil Walsh. Today the Collins transmitter is only used for special occasions.

Sounds a plenty

Slightly more modern, Village Radio now relies on its 1960s Toshiba value transmitter. Only retiring in 2017, Kel has been a part of the radio’s history as a volunteer for 31 years.

“I love classical music but I like the pop music as well, so I have a fairly wide range of likes in the music field.”

In its 40 years the radio has compiled an extensive record library with about 125,000 tracks of music, 50,000 titles and more than 10,000 artists.

Village Radio technician and announcer George Stewart and chairman Steve Lambie back in 2014. Photo: file.

“I just loved playing the records there. It was just a lot of fun,” says Kel. “It’s nice to have some people that enjoy your music.”

Village Radio is a community-based station, with all of its announcers, technicians and support staff being volunteers. Tune in on 1368AM and hear the nostalgic tunes for yourself.