Death of a Pioneer

Radio Station 2XM appears to have "had it". Under the regulations by which broadcasting in New Zealand is administered the licence to operate a private station becomes null and void with the death of the holder, so that when Mr Percy Stevens died, Radio 2XM died with him. Although strenuous efforts have been made to have the licence renewed, it is reasonably certain now that this cannot be done.

It was a sad, but apparently inevitable end to the long and interesting life of the station which, to the best of our knowledge, was the first licensed radio station in New Zealand. Outside the operations of the Broadcasting Corporation, only one private radio station remains, in Dunedin.

Mr Stevens was a pioneer of New Zealand radio, and 2XM was for more than 40 years an integral part of life in Gisborne. Generations of children "went on the air" with their varied talents in the Children's Sessions, as Robin and Billie Rennie are in the picture at left. The station was a tower of strength in any emergency. In the 1931 earthquake, when all other communications were broken, it brought news of the fate of people in Napier. In the 1948 flood, it stayed on the air continuously for three days and nights, and helped raise thousands of pounds for relief. When Tom Heeney fought Gene Tunney, excited residents gathered outside to hear the result. More thousands of pounds were raised for Patriotic Funds in wartime.

The modest, retiring, publicity-shy man who ran 2XM is best remembered by the picture above. In this rare photograph he is seen presiding at the microphone in the privacy of the control room. He had a complex about publicity or praise. Once, when an announcer was thanking a long list of people who helped in a time of crisis, he reserved a special note of appreciation for 2XM and its public-spirited owner until the end of his speech. There was a click on people's < unclear >rs</ unclear > after mention of 2XM. Back in the control room, Percy Stevens had cut the broadcast before his name could be mentioned. In our effort to assemble a photographic record of the station, we have been able to find only a handful of pictures. They are reproduced on these pages, and if they do the job but modestly, that is the way Percy Stevens would have wanted it.

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