Hold the line, caller

Fifty years on, RNZ National listeners need have no fear that the station's signature bird call faces extermination. 

- PAUL LITTLE

The bird call that precedes the news bulletins at 7 am and 9 am is one of the best-loved features of RNZ National's Morning Report. Its origins can be traced back to 1948 and a technical difficulty for a fledgling broadcasting service.

"It's my understanding," says former Morning Report co-presenter Geoff Robinson, "that it originated back in the days of the shortwave service. When a programme on the service didn't fill the allotted time slot they would play the sound to let listeners know that there was a station at the end of it and there would be a programme coming." That first bird was a tui that, according to an account in this magazine at the time, possessed a cry with "musical intervals which in pitch and rhythm suit the purpose very well".

The same piece described the auditory obstacles that hampered the first effort at getting a recording. These included a sudden breeze, a tomcat, vociferous children, a train whistle, a dog and a "woman [who] drove up in a car and called out an enthusiastic greeting to a friend".

Both the bird-call tradition and the shortwave service - have survived, and the former, in its present incarnation, will mark its harmonious half century at 1 minute to 7 on February 6.

Fifty years ago, there was just one bird as another report shamelessly noted, things were done "on the cheep" - and it could be heard seven times a day.

Over the years, the original recording has been supplemented by dozens of other birds whose names are hardly less euphonious than their calls. On any given day, you might hear tākapu, hoiho, pīpipi, kea, koekoeā, pipiwharauroa or riroriro.

Former night-time presenter Robert Taylor is credited with a large part in developing the bird-call tradition. Proving that punning has always been central, he played the call of a ruru on his Night Owl show.