The Radio Heritage Foundation continues to expand its coverage of Samoan radio media history with the release of two new features at its global website www.radioheritage.net.
'While in Apia, I decided to start a radio station' confided former RNZAF [Royal NZ Air Force] technician Alan Roycroft when reminiscing about his early days in Pacific radio.
You'll read about nightly dance band broadcasts from the back porch of the famous Aggie Greys hotel, Alan's network of 'news spies' around Apia and learn the reason why, in some 120 studio installations from then on, he always positioned the console so that the announcer sat facing the door.
What started as a converted aeronautical beacon broadcasting 'AP AP AP' as the identification for Apia, became 'pirate radio' ZMAP and later gave birth to the familiar 2AP known fondly by generations of Samoans.
A mid-1990's 'Samoan Radio Journey' is another new feature at www.radioheritage.net.
'We turned a corner on the Cross Island Road, and there sat a stumpy little radio tower, almost hidden in the misty rain'. A personal exploration of the broadcasting scene in Samoa at the time describes how the local audiences embraced popular culture from around the Pacific via their radio sets and TV screens.
Both stories include unique images of radio facilities and historic radio memorabilia from around Samoa, and build on a growing number of features about Samoa and American Samoa already on-line at www.radioheritage.net.
As well as ZMAP Apia, Samoa and Samoan Radio Journey, you'll enjoy Samoan Radio Sale [backgrounding the sale of 2AP Radio], Radio in Samoa [including 5ZA Apia from the 1930's], This is WVUV [memories from a WVUV Pago Pago DJ] and WVUV Radio Romance [personal memories of the US sailor who fell in love and built the original WVUV Radio during WWII].
This comprehensive coverage of early and contemporary radio in the two Samoas forms part of the ongoing Pacific radio heritage project undertaken by the Radio Heritage Foundation at www.radioheritage.net.
