Pirate station Radio Hawraki has transmitted its first scheduled transmission beyond New Zealand’s 3-mile territorial limit. The MV Tiri was anchored in the Colville Channel between the Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula.
The brainchild of journalist David Gapes, Hauraki challenged the monopoly of the conservative New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, whose programs had little appeal to 1960s teenagers. When attempts to obtain a private broadcasting license failed, Hauraki decided to broadcast from offshore.
Test broadcasts from Tiri began in earnest on December 1. The first song played three days later was the somewhat symbolic “Born Free” by Matt Monroe.
Over the next 3.5 years, legal challenges and incidents at sea tested the participants’ resolve. In January 1968, the Tiri collided with rocks on the Great Barrier Island. The replacement ship Kapuni (called Tiri II) also ran aground.
In March 1970, the Broadcasting Authority granted Radio Hauraki a license for the territory of Auckland. The last pirate broadcast of Hauraki was made on June 1, 1970. “Born Free closed the program. Hauraki’s triumph was tinged with tragedy when announcer Rick Grant was lost overboard on the flight back to Auckland that evening.