Shortland Street Studios - Gus Fisher Gallery

The former 1YA studios in Shortland Street symbolise the high point of New Zealand’s radio, or wireless years, as they would have been called then. The art deco building was completed in 1934 to a design by Norman Wade. In 2001 the building was refurbished by Warren & Mahoney to accommodate the University of Auckland's School of Creative & Performing Arts. It's worth having a look inside. Now known as the Kenneth Myers Centre, the building is home to the Gus Fisher Gallery which has a commitment to promote the evolution of visual arts and culture. Its well-curated exhibitions usually provide a stimulating insight into an aspect of the cultural scene.

**Auckland Icon of the radio years
**Does that tall radio mast and the spiky electric-Gothic brickwork remind you of something from an old prewar movie trailer? The former 1YA studios in Shortland Street symbolise the high point of New Zealand’s radio, or wireless years, as they would have been called then. In 1924 we had just 2800 licensed radio receivers; there were 50,000 by 1930 and 300,000 by 1939. Radio Service Ltd got the first of the new station licences, 1YA, in May 1923. Since 1925 it had been the flagship of the Radio Broadcasting Company, the private venture that operated the four YA stations under government contract. Behind Shortland Street’s solid brick walls, which shielded it from traffic noise, four storeys of studios catered for broadcasters’ every need. The largest, 20 x 12 x 7.6 metres, occupied two floors in the building and catered for concert presentations. A smaller one contained an ‘echo’ room used for generating special sound effects. Within a year of its commissioning, the studios and the rest of the YA network were nationalised by the Labour government. Video, as they say, killed the radio star. Later, television moved in and took over more of the building. In 1966 it commissioned the famous Studio One here, New Zealand’s biggest TV studio until Avalon opened in the Hutt Valley a decade later. From Studio One came 60s pop classics such as C’mon and other shows until the state broadcasters moved into a new purpose-built television centre in 1989. The old Shortland Street building is not quite done with the glamour life, though. Now owned by Auckland University, it houses the School of Creative and Performing Arts’ new Kenneth Myers Centre and boasts very modern studios.

© 2002 Original text – Gavin McLean.

Further reading: Patrick Day, The Radio Years, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1994.