1XX's 50th Birthday (1971 - 2021)

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At 10.30am on the morning of Wednesday 30 June 1971, the Eastern Bay of Plenty had its very own voice on the radio. Based in Whakatane, 1XX went on the air for the very first time to the people of the Eastern Bay, broadcasting on 1240 kHz (AM).

An official opening ceremony took place in the 1XX carpark two hours later. This was broadcast live on 1XX and was 'blasted onto the air' by then Broadcasting Minister, Mr. H.J. Walker. He used a quarryman's plunger explosion device to push down which was then followed on air by an explosion sound effect and a 1XX station jingle.

1XX was owned and operated by Radio Whakatane Ltd, which was granted a private broadcasting licence for Whakatane by the Broadcasting Authority on 10 November 1970. It was founded by the late Ross Niederer, chairman of Radio Whakatane Ltd at the time.

1XX was the fourth private commercial radio station on the air in New Zealand, behind Auckland's private radio stations - Radio Hauraki and Radio i - and Hamilton's Radio Waikato. It became the first private commercial radio station broadcasting in a provincial area of New Zealand. 1XX was "City Radio - Country Style"!

The first song played on 1XX was "The House at Pooh Corner" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, written by Kenny Loggins. He later had hits with "Your Momma Don't Dance" in the 70s, and two movie soundtrack hits - "Footloose" (from "Footloose") and ‘"Danger Zone" (from "Top Gun") in the 80s.

The station went to air only on half power as not all the transmitter equipment had arrived in time from the UK.

The main 177 ft transmitter mast was in Awakeri and a repeater transmitter was installed in the Murupara/Galatea area a few months later. The Murupara area required this transmitter as the stations signal was not able to be picked up that well. The frequency of 1110AM was assigned for the Murupara area, and later went on to share the same 1240AM frequency of the main 1XX transmitter.

When 1XX began it ran for 19.5 hours a day. The on-air day started at 5am and went through until 12.30am daily, although there were a few summers in the mid-70s where special 24 hour licences were granted. This went through to about 1979. There was no Sunday advertising in those days, and there were no network news feeds either; the 1XX News crew covered all the news and sport - local, national and international.

50 years later, everything's changed and 1XX has launched the careers of distinguished broadcasters not only in the Eastern Bay of Plenty but throughout New Zealand as a whole.

Happy 50th birthday, 1XX!

From Patrick Te Pou

NOTE: I would like to apologise to you all for the quality of the audio.