TV preview: Pirate tale retelling of memorable moments

Earlier this year, the story of Radio Hauraki was massaged into a feature length film format, and released as 3 Mile Limit. Now Lippy Pictures have produced a Sunday Theatre docu-drama version, which documents the events which led to New Zealand's first private commercial radio station.

It mixes the talking heads of David Gapes, Derek Lowe, Ian Magan, Denis O'Callahan and the rest of the original pirate gang, with archival footage and photos, and dramatic re-enactments.

It's a story that's been told before (notably in 1996's Rock the Boat: The Story of Radio Hauraki 1965-1970 which can be viewed on nzonscreen.com), but here's 10 things we learned from Pirates of the Airwaves.

1. David Gapes was spurred into thinking about creating a pirate radio station by an Australian bloke giving him a bit of a ribbing at a pub in Wellington. The Aussie was bemoaning our lack of cosmopolitan culture -- no decent bars, cafes, or radio stations -- and Gapes found himself agreeing, at least with the radio part.

2. They were two separate groups planning on creating pirate rock n roll radio stations in the Hauraki Gulf at the same time, Gapes and Denis O'Callahan and Derek Lowe (ex NZBC) and Chris Parkinson. They found out about each other through a story in the NZ Herald, and decided to work together.

3. Gapes and Lowe had several conversations with Minister of Broadcasting and Marine, Jack Scott, early on, stating their intentions, and found that he was in favour of the idea of breaking the NZBC's monopoly, and hinted at a change in the board which would eventually lead to commercial licenses being granted.

4. It would be quite something to hear the tape they created to play to advertisers in order to convince them of the genius of a youthful rock radio station.

5. A man named Jim Franklin, who owned several old wooden scows was instrumental to getting the pirate station going, supplying them with the Tiri, for a cheap price.

6. When broadcasting began they weren't actually playing records on the boat. The shows were recorded at an Auckland studio a week in advance, flown to Great Barrier, and ferried out to the Tiri. The DJs couldn't talk about the news or weather because of the delay.

7. The records they played were often supplied by Air NZ pilots, who would go into Tower records in Los Angeles and pick up a copy of every album in the top 40.

8. There were a lot of parties. Particularly during the Friday night changeovers, where one set of crew would come in to shore, and another lot would leave.

9. They initially thought it would only take them a few weeks at sea before the licence was granted, but the whole campaign took 1111 days in the end.

10. The death of DJ Rick Grant didn't occur during a major storms -- they had several beachings and the first ship was wrecked on Great Barrier rocks -- but on their final night on board, in relatively calm weather. He slipped through a gap in the safety railing and was lost overboard as he went to look for a fresh pack of playing cards.

What: Pirates of the Airwaves
When and where: 8.30pm, Sunday on TV One

- TimeOut