Radio Dunedin - One of the oldest stations in the world

This year marks 100 years since the first radio transmission in New Zealand and the man behind it is also responsible for laying the foundation for the oldest radio station in the country - Radio Dunedin. Sonia Yee finds out why Radio Dunedin couldn't broadcast the weather during World War 2, and more...

Radio has always been a form of entertainment that takes you somewhere else. And when longtime Radio Dunedin presenter, Lyndsay Rackley was a teenager, it provided the ultimate escape.

'I'd go to sleep with the headphones on and listen to YA and ZB and Life with Dexter," he says.

Listen to the podcast to find out more

Rackley says he feels lucky that he's been around for the past 60 years at Radio Dunedin which is due to celebrate its 99th birthday in the coming months.

Considered one of the oldest stations in the world, it is the longest running station in New Zealand and five-weeks older than the BBC. And to this day has continued to run as an independent station since its inception in October 1922.

But the reason the first station began in Dunedin is its connection to the first radio transmission in New Zealand, which came out of an Otago University lab 100 years ago, headed by Professor Robert Jack, who was the Head of the Physics Department.

Together with some of his students he constructed a small transmitter with parts imported from Britain to create the first successful transmission on 17 November 1921.

Professor Jack was a legend, and without him, Radio Dunedin may not have come into being, at least not so early.

Gordon Paine who is the President of the Otago Radio Association and also a current presenter says in the early days Radio Dunedin, then known as 4XT, broadcast right through World War II. But there were restrictions in place.

"They weren't allowed to broadcast the weather forecast in case the enemy heard it and decided it was a good day to bomb Dunedin."

Paine volunteered for the first time at Radio Dunedin as a teenager. A big music fan, he says Radio Dunedin played the latest offerings from overseas, which other stations in NZ during the 60s and 70s didn't play.

"Back in the 60s the music industry in New Zealand was strictly controlled, so a lot of our famous bands and singers were not doing their own material."

Instead they were mimicking the big hits from overseas.

And because of this, the international record companies wouldn't allow these overseas hits to come in. Through an exchange - Radio Dunedin was playing religious programmes from the States, in turn, they supplied the station with the latest records.

As a volunteer, Paine also had a chance to meet one of his idols after he took over the Country and Western show…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details