By Paul Tolenaars
Former Senior Technician, Auckland Radio ZLD
To mark the 50th anniversary of the official opening of the Musick Memorial Radio Station, I organised a reunion of ZLD/ZLF operators, technicians, riggers, engineers. etc. including Civil Aviation Authority staff.
It was held at 3pm, Sunday 12 January 1992 in the Howick Club.
I had a lot of assistance from Kevin Trye, Maurice Searle, Cilla Hardy, Paul Chamberlin and Dave Currie, among others. Les Attwood, the organiser of the first big reunion at Waipuna Lodge, was very helpful.
Telecom Networks & International provided some funding on the basis I did no advertising, and did not let the public see the exhibit, not even Howick Club members. The media were expressly prohibited – a real pity.
Whites Aviation – Air Logistics provided about a hundred 10×8 photos (such as the ones on this page) on loan for the display. We had a big display and lots of captions. I think Whites gave the collection to the National Library in Wellington.
The reunion did not involve an official visit to the station. However, we made a video recording of the operations and showed it on the projector screen at the Howick Club.
I organised for a lapel pin to be made through the marketing person at TNI in Wellington. It was supposed to have a flying boat on it, but the person in Wellington who placed the order ended up approving a float plane.
(This seems to have been a trend. A couple of years earlier I had organised pins to recognise the role of ZLD in handling communications for the 1989-1990 Whitbread yacht race – and they too turned out wrong, featuring a satellite dish instead of a radio mast.)
The pins were given out at the reunion and to other ZLD staff who were unable to attend. I was a bit embarrassed about how the pins were so wrong, but people seemed to be happy to get them.
Editor’s note: Unfortunately, the VHS video created for the reunion has disappeared. If you have it, we would appreciate hearing from you so that we can make a copy and share it on this website. Contact us.