RNZI Airs New Radio Heritage Documentary Earthquake Radio

Join us from Monday, June 13 2011 as we bring you the inside story on Radio New Brighton 102.1 FM, the emergency radio station for earthquake hit Christchurch, to be broadcast on the Mailbox program from Radio New Zealand International.

This unique documentary includes on-air sound grabs, interviews with the people who set up the station, volunteer announcers, and local residents. We usually research and write about radio stories, this time we were in the heart of the story ourselves.

You can listen directly via shortwave radio from RNZI in New Zealand, or audio on demand [for the following month] with full details of current broadcast frequencies [both DRM and analog] and times possible for your area as well as audio downloads at www.rnzi.com.

The report also backgrounds how the earthquake on February 22 2011 affected local radio stations, how they responded to the loss of their studios and yet still maintained 24/7 service, and broke the biggest news story in New Zealand for decades.

You'll also learn about JOYZ2U 77.2 FM and other disaster recovery FM stations set up in Japan after their earthquake, tsunami and nuclear triple hit just two days before Radio New Brighton went to air.

How the radio community in the two countries responded to the earthquakes has many similarities, but there are also key differences in how civil defence and local authorities regarded these emergency local radio stations. In one country they were ignored, in the other fully supported.

So join us from Monday, June 13 2011 as we explore these two recent examples of earthquake radio on the Mailbox program from Radio New Zealand International [www.rnzi.com].

You can also use our fully up to date guide to contemporary AM radio in Japan and New Zealand with free access to our PAL Radio Guides at our global website www.radioheritage.com.

Radio Heritage Foundation is a registered non-profit organization connecting popular culture, nostalgia and radio heritage across the Asia and Pacific region. Our website is www.radioheritage.com. To be removed from this mailing list send a return email with 'au revoir' in the subject line.

We currently have an urgent need for donations towards our operating costs as the donor base in New Zealand has been devastated by calls for earthquake relief. If you can help us, please make a donation today at our website www.radioheritage.com.

(Media Release, Radio Heritage Foundation, www.radioheritage.com , June 11 2011)