Producer Sally Round, recording for Country Life. Photo: Elena Smith-Beech
Informing, entertaining and connecting isolated farmers was a prime goal of the New Zealand Radio Broadcasting Company, which was officially incorporated in August 1925 and a forerunner to RNZ.
As RNZ celebrates that centenary, Country Life dips back into the archives to bring you some of the well-loved voices and shows from the rural team through the decades.
The stories include a laconic interview with Barry Crump about rabbiting, a hilarious spoof interview with a "macaroni farmer", and rural news scoops including the deliberate release of the RCV virus to control rabbit plagues in the South Island.
Kevin Ikin, a former member of the rural news team. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
A gathering of the rurals team in the 1990s: (left to right) Susan Murray, Andrew Melville, Robyn Cubey, Kevin Ikin, Mark Torley, Jill Galloway, Sasha Hardy, Ian MacLean, Heugh Chappell and Jackie Bedford. Photo:
David Knowles, left, Country Life's studio producer, with studio engineer Phil Benge, putting together Country Life. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.