Hawke's Bay 'Autocrat' could rule oldest telly comp

The hunt is on for the oldest working television set in the country and it could be in the front foyer of Rapley's Electronics' Hastings store.
The 1964 "autocrat" TV, a 23-inch wooden four-legged relic, was gifted to the shop by an unknown Hastings woman about five years ago. Rapley's Electronics owner Neville Rapley said they received a phone call out of the blue with the offer.
"If we didn't want it, it was going to the dump. We stripped it and tidied it up." Mr Rapley said the set was in a "reasonable" condition and the black and white picture quality and sound were both "pretty good". The set was limited to channels one and two, as TV3 was beyond its tuning range.
The autocrat was not for sale and Mr Rapley said it was hard to put a price tag on it, as it was more a collector's item and dependent on demand. "It's not worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's a memento of the industry. It's like a vintage car."
But come May 25 the old dinosaur could win Mr Rapley a swish new set with the Going Digital "New Zealand's Oldest Telly" competition.
The promotion was giving the owner of the country's oldest working television a new 46-inch television with built-in Freeview video, plus home theatre system.
The competition was running to remind people they didn't have to buy a new television when the country changes over to digital.
Hawke's Bay was set to be the first region in the country to make the switch on September 30 next year.
Going Digital community advisor Murray Sawyer said from that date, the 25 per cent of TV owners with analogue televisions would be watching a blank screen unless they bought a digital decoder box to convert the digital signal into analogue.
He was excited about the change-over, which he said would bring movie-like quality with better sound, clearer images and had more space in the band-width for more channels.
Most televisions already came with Freeview/HD built in, but Mr Sawyer suggested would-be buyers double-check before purchasing a set. Those with Freeview and Sky already had digital television and did not have to make any changes.
Mr Sawyer said entries for the oldest telly competition were starting to come and said Mr Rapley's autocrat definitely "put him in the running".
The first non-experimental television broadcast in New Zealand beamed into Auckland homes for three hours on June 1, 1960. For more information on the Oldest Telly competition and going digital, visit www.goingdigital.co.nz or call 0800 838 800.