Gilbert Stringer & New Zealand Public Broadcasting in the 1960s

Abstract

Gilbert Stringer was the inaugural director-general of the New Zealand Broad-casting Corporation (NZBC) from its institution in 1962 to his retirement in July 1970. He was a career public servant who, by 1962, had already spent many years in New Zealand broadcasting. My intention is to examine his contribution to New Zealand public broadcasting, which I am dating, if at all, from the inauguration of the NZBC in 1962. Thus I am arguing that previous broadcasting in New Zealand was not public. In practice this means distinguishing government and public broadcasting and my focus is largely on the extent to which the NZBC can be regarded as a public as opposed to a government broadcaster.