For decades radio 2ZA was a central part of Palmerston North. Founded in 1938 as part of a new and growing network of Government owned commercial stations, 2ZA did radical things like actually naming their announcers (who were anonymous in the non-commercial stations) and even building a personal brand around them in the 1950s. 

This slide continues this personality branding with a photo of 2ZA staff (presumably announcers) beside the station's logo. The 940KHZ frequency dates this slide to before 1978, and the 'Radio New Zealand' logo to after 1975. By the 1980s the 'call sign' frequencies of radio stations ('Z' for commercial, 'YC' for concert, 'YA' for Government non-commercial etc) were phased out in favour of today's numbered frequencies. Before then the lettered callsigns were often printed on radio tuning dials- which worked as long as the frequencies never changed! 

Radio New Zealand's commercial stations were privatized in 1996 and 2ZA (then known as 'Classic Hits') was no exception.  While not a Horowhenua based station, many locals will remember hearing the songs and voices of 2ZA, and the MAVtech Museum in Foxton has some 2ZA equipment on display. 

This is one of multiple cinema advertising slides on Kete Horowhenua from Barnao's Music Shop.

Barnao's Music Shop was trading in Levin from 1962-1988. It was the passion of Giuseppe Antonio Barnao whose love of music began when we was gifted a clarinet in 1942. He worked in a music shop the following year and his talents saw him join dance bands and serve as an Army Bandsman. He was a member of Levin bands for decades. A web search will reveal lots of archived interviews and articles about Mr. Barnao. Barnao's shop printed advertising sleeves for the records they sold. The reference to 'the swinginest music store in town' would date this slide to the 1960s/very early 1970s! This slide would have been used to advertise the shop during a film at the cinema. 

Amid the scores of patriotic songs of the First World War was a pacifist tune just as well known in its day: "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier". Written in America before their entry into the war as a way to keeping the country in peace, the song implores mothers to seek peace, least their sons become casualties. The lyrics went like this....

 Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,

Who may never return again.

Ten million mothers' hearts must break

For the ones who died in vain,

Head bowed down in sorrow

In her lonely years,

I heard a mother murmur thru' her tears:

Chorus

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder,

To shoot some other mother's darling boy?

Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,

It's time to lay the sword and gun away.

There'd be no war today,

If mothers all would say,

"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier."

Verse 2

What victory can cheer a mother's heart,

When she looks at her blighted home?

What victory can bring her back

All she cared to call her own?

Let each mother answer

In the years to be,

Remember that my boy belongs to me! 

The song became a hit amongst pacifists around the world and was known in New Zealand. It was mostly derided in the press- when it was sung at an Australian socialist rally soldiers who were in the audience disrupted the song, to the approval of most New Zealand papers but to the condemnation of the socialist 'Maoriland Worker' publication. 

Nonetheless, the song was effective enough for recruiting authorities to try and counter it. Patriotic films referenced the song before the hero decided to stand up for his country and join anyway. The slide shown here was displayed as part of a screening at the cinema and urges young men to join whilst quietly disparaging the song.

There are some common visual themes used here which are also seen in contemporary posters and political cartoons. Note the straight back and clean face of the military recruit and compare these to the hunched back of the 'shirker' whose hands rest idly in his pockets and whose face has a vacant expression. 

Of all the recruiting slides in MAVtech's collection, this one has the most fascinating background!

 This magic lantern slide is a delicately hand coloured photograph and one of a set used by travelling lanternists who dazzled and entertained in town halls across the world. There was no cheap way of printing colour photography at the time so each slide was done by hand- first by washing the slide, then preparing specially thinned paint (to allow enough light to shine through) and finally coating the results with a protective varnish. Many of these ornate slides illustrated popular music hall songs and religious hymns. This one appears to have been made for ‘Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep’ which first became popular in the mid-19th century.  A full set of slides covered the entire song whose lyrics went like this…. 

Rock’d in the cradle of the deep

I lay me down in peace to sleep;

Secure I rest upon the wave

For thou oh Lord, hast power to save.

I know thou wilt not slight my call,

For thou dost mark the sparrow’s fall!

And calm and peaceful is my sleep

Rock’d in the cradle of the deep,

And clam and peaceful is my sleep

Rock’d in the cradle of the deep. And such the trust that still were mine

Tho’ stormy winds swept o’er the brine.

Or though the tempest’s fiery breath

Roused me from sleep to wreck and death!

In ocean cave still safe with thee,

The germ of immortality;

And calm and peaceful is my sleep

Rock’d in the cradle of the deep,

And calm and peaceful is my sleep

Rock’d in the cradle of the deep   

MAVtech’s slide was made by Bamforth and Company who were based in the English town of Holmfirth. They started making lantern slides in 1883 and later branched out into silent films and seaside postcards.  An online source suggests that this slide was made in 1901. At the time, Major Joseph Perry of the Salvation Army was in the midst of his sensationally popular touring shows which mixed entertainment and a religious service. When they began in the 1890s they consisted of magic lantern performances and live music but Perry later branched out into cinema. He became the most prolific filmmaker in New Zealand at the time. 

There were still some magic lantern shows in 1901 and this popular Christian song would have been perfect for Perry’s tour. Newspapers reveal that Perry did host shows in Palmerston North and Wanganui in 1905, 1906 and 1907- might the slide have been shown there?  

‘Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep’ was a popular song in New Zealand and was sung live at many concerts. Our reliance on shipping (and the high amount of shipwrecks in recent memory) gave the nautical theme even more interest. In Christchurch one rendition in 1897 was backed up with illustrations from a magic lantern. Did another company make a series of slides before Bamforth? Or was this slide made earlier than first thought??  

 This slide was made in the late 1890s by Bamforth and Company- a firm based in Holmfirth, England. Bamforth began making magic lantern slides in 1883 and later made silent films and seaside postcards.  This slide is exquisite! Such a magnificent slide would have been beyond the purse of most hobbyists and instead it would have been bought by the professional ‘lanternist’ who used the magic lantern projector (powered by limelight, whale oil or carbon arc lamps) to entertain paying customers in halls throughout the world. 

Adding to the entertainment value of these slides, Bamforth often used them to illustrate the lyrics of popular songs. Love ballads and religious songs were especially common. This slide illustrates part of ‘The Flight of Ages’- whose lyrics are below. 

The Flight of Ages

 I heard a song, a tender song, 'Twas sung for me alone,

In the hush of a golden twilight, When all the world was gone ;

And as long as my heart is beating, As long as my eyes have tears,

I shall hear the echces ringing From out the golden years.

I have a rose, a white, white rose. 'Twas given me long ago, When the song had fallen to silence,

And the stars were dim and low ; It lies in an old book faded,

Between the pages white, But the ages cannot dim the dream

It brought to me that night. I have a love, the love of years, Bright as the purest star,

As radiant, sweet, and wonderful, As hopeless and as far;

I have a love, the love of years, It's light alone I see,

And I must worship hope and love, However far it be. It is the love that speaks to me Is that sweet song of old,

It is, the dream of golden years, Those petals white unfold:

And every star may fall from heaven, And every rose decay,

But the ages cannot change my love Or take my dream- or take my dream away.

The slide was part of a numbered set and the lanternist would have ordered them all to match the lyrics sung live by a singer. We know that these lantern shows were popular in the Manawatu in the 1890s and early 1900s before being supplanted by travelling cinemas. In fact, many of New Zealand’s cinema pioneers began their careers with the magic lantern. 

The phrase ‘from life models’ on the slide boasts that these are hand coloured photographs which professional models posed for. Each slide was coloured by hand in Holmfirth, adding to their beauty and their price.  

Whites Radio Service was trading on Foxton's Main Street in 1960 and stayed in it's site as late as 1987 (and possibly later) according to Kete Horowhenua's Foxton Historical Society posts. 

There was an earlier radio shop, owned by a Mister R.Cull, on the same site in 1941. 

In 1960 there were just over 577,000 New Zealand radio licences in 1960 and this number was just under 700,000 a decade later so Foxton's radio shop must have been very busy indeed! Even when television arrived it was not portable so radio remained competitive. 

But this slide, played during cinema intermissions, was not advertising radios. Instead it was advertising records. With the very conservative stewardship of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (later the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation) Kiwi airwaves didn't feature many of the most daring rock and pop tracks and none of the protest songs sung on university campuses. If you wanted to hear them you needed to buy a copy of your own!

Note the 'Disneyland' name on one of the pictured labels. Who said Foxton was missing out on overseas trends in music!

MAVtech, the keeper of this slide, is home to Radio Foxton which broadcasts on 105.4FM- FM radio wasn't an option in the 1960s.

Note: This slide has some damage- especially to it's top left hand corner.

 One of the smallest record labels in the country, TALA was set up in Levin in 1957. In the beginning it stood for 'To Assist Levin Artists' but, with few local acts coming forward, it was changed to 'To Assist Local Artists'. Either way, this label had around forty releases, each featuring New Zealand artists. 

The label's owner, Wally Clark, was quick to pick up on international trends in music and always found local bands who were playing the right tune. This particular tune is by the Warren Sisters who were one of Clark's original TALA talents. 'Lace Covered Windows' was released in around 1968 and was among the last TALA releases.

Follow the link below for a picture of these artists on Kete 

https://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/item/b734f09f-9000-4f64-a332-7f4c1bb84990

Wally Clark was also a professional photographer who also cornered the Levin TV hire market- a very busy man!  

 One of the smallest record labels in the country, TALA was set up in Levin in 1957. In the beginning it stood for 'To Assist Levin Artists' but, with few local acts coming forward, it was changed to 'To Assist Local Artists'. Either way, this label had around forty releases, each featuring New Zealand artists.

The label's owner, Wally Clark, was quick to pick up on international trends in music and always found local bands who were playing the right tune. This particular tune is by the Warren Sisters who were one of Clark's original TALA talents. 'Lace Covered Windows' was released in around 1968 and was among the last TALA releases.

Follow the link below for a picture of these artists on Kete 

https://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/item/b734f09f-9000-4f64-a332-7f4c1bb84990

Wally Clark was also a professional photographer who also cornered the Levin TV hire market- a very busy man! 

'Columbus' was the 'house brand' of the Radio Corporation of New Zealand Limited- a New Zealand company. Just as radio travels over waves so did the company's logo. Signs like this one would have been displayed by all retailers of Columbus radios. This radio range was sold from 1937 until 1961.

Radio Corporation of New Zealand Limited also founded TANZA- New Zealand's very first local record label in 1949. In fact, New Zealand made radios were popular right up until the late 1980s. But Columbus had set sail over the horizon by then.

You can see this sign in person at MAVtech- a technology museum located in Foxton's Coronation Hall. You'll also see lots of Columbus radios as well!

A vintage gramophone from 'His Master's Voice' (The Gramophone Company Ltd) from around 1910. This model belonged to the Burr family and seldom left Foxton in over a century! It is now on display with many other vintage musical machines at MAVtech in Foxton's Coronation Hall. 

This gramophone was made before electric amplifiers were invented so needed a large horn to make itself heard. There was no volume control- putting a sock (or cloth) into the horn was the only way of quietening down a gramophone!

Three sisters Diane, Kathy, and Pirihira are pictured here with the 'Platters'.The Warren Sisters were known for their harmonious voices. The sisters come from a family that was very musical, as most of their brothers and sisters played and sang in bands.

Easter 2012 saw the inaugural Waitarere Beach Festival

In May of 2011 Levin library hosted a series of local amateur musicians to celebrate Music Month