Radio, the only time I listen nowadays is when driving, usually to the Coast network of stations playing my kind of music from the 60s, 70s and 80s.
I used to listen to talk back on Radio Pacific while driving but it was too distracting. Too many people ringing in who needed the benefit of my opinion. Easier not to listen.
Radio was the only home entertainment system in most New Zealand homes until about 1960 when television started.
We had radiograms which also played records and even the odd tape recorder but technology had yet to really take over family life.
When the old radios were turned on a light would come on but nothing would happen for a minute or two while the radio "warmed up".
Family entertainment revolved around cards and games, books and the old radio in the corner.
Rugby followers would arise in the middle of the night to listen to the All Blacks playing tests in the United Kingdom, scratchy, short-wave commentary.
Sitting quietly in the lounge or kitchen with the radio low so as to not waken others. Occasions where dads and sons, even the odd daughter, actually managed some quality time together.
Radio has held a grasp on New Zealand life for more than 100 years now with the first public broadcast happening on November 17, 1921.
The grasp has waxed and waned over the years due to the arrival of television and other entertainment and information distractions.
The Golden Years of radio are described in Te Ara, the encyclopaedia of New Zealand, as 1936 to 1960.
Radio was full of quiz shows, comedy, drama and other light entertainment as well as somewhat high-brow content on the National Programme, still going today.
If you were home sick from school in the 50s and 60s you would have seen your mother listening to Aunt Daisy offering advice on all things involving home-cookery and housekeeping.
You would hear the latest from Portia Faces Life, the radio version of Days of Our Lives.
Evening listening could include Life with Dexter or Gunsmoke. Selwyn Toogood's quiz show, It's In The Bag, travelling the country entertaining the public in small country halls and large town halls from 1954 until 1973 when it started broadcasting on television.
It continued long after Toogood's retirement in the 1980s, well into the 1990s under different hosts.
Television's arrival slowly but inexorably diverted the public away from radio.
When television aerials started appearing in our street about early 1961 shows only ran for three hours per day initially, building up over time to closing time about 11.30pm, with God Save The Queen first then, in the 1970s the Goodnight Kiwi sending us to bed.
Of course, not everyone wanted or could afford television in the early days.
It was an expensive luxury by today's standards. In 1966 the typical black and white "consolette" 23-inch television cost £131.
In the same year, the average weekly wage in New Zealand was about £20 or $40, about £1000 per year.
So the cost of a television was a huge chunk of income for many families where only Dad worked or Mum might have a part-time job.
Somehow most families seemed to bite the bullet over the course of the 1960s, using hire purchase mostly, to purchase the flash black and white televisions up to the ultimate of the 26-inch screen.
Some did not bother, sticking with radio and the old home entertainment activities until well into the 1970s.
Today radio still thrives, but in many different formats. Not so much dramas and serials but talk back, music, community news and services. It is still entertaining and a huge part of New Zealand culture.
Television has gone gangbusters now with the old big three channels from the 1970s, now TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and TV3, still loyally broadcasting to their audiences in the face of strong competition from Sky, Spark, and a myriad of streaming channels now available.
After all these changes radio still exists in most homes.
A 2021 survey shows that 3.5 million New Zealanders listen to commercial radio weekly, still a strong force in the home entertainment scene.
I wonder what Gossamer Wump would say.
Rob Rattenbury retired six years and published a book on his younger life in policing. He now writes a weekly column published in the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post.
