Christchurch earthquake radio doco broadcasts with tragic timing

All last week Radio New Zealand International was promoting its documentary with the inside story on Radio New Brighton 102.1 FM, the emergency station that was set up to provide a reliable service in the aftermath the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch on February 22. Little did they know that another jolt would hit the city just hours before the program was due to air.

Due to air Monday, June 13 2011 through a variety of platforms this unique documentary includes on-air sound grabs, interviews with the people who set up the station, volunteer announcers, and local residents.

Listeners could tune in 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 their 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.

Also, 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.