Alwyn Owen

Jack Perkins began the iconic Radio NZ show Spectrum, with Alwyn Owen, in 1972, and whether or not by design it has become one of NZs most valuable libraries of oral history. Audio

The Catapult Cowboy, Messenger Mick, Simple Simon Green, The Skycop, all were heroes in comic books with names like 'Young Men of Great Britain', 'Beano' and 'Dandy'. From the late 19 century till… Audio

Alwyn Owen explores the lighter side of New Zealand's poetry of patriotism which was fashionable during the latter half of the 19 century and the early 20th. Our patriotic versifiers were eclectic… Audio

Spectrum's Alwyn Owen pays tribute to some of our worst - and funniest - New Zealand verse. Audio

Austrian born Rudolf Steiner lived from 1861 to 1925. His first school was established in 1919. The Nazis opposed his ideas but his schools and kindergartens spread rapidly around the world after… Audio

In 1913, 23-year-old Florence Harsant rode on horseback through the gumfields and isolated settlements of New Zealand's far north. Florence was working on behalf of the Women's Temperance Movement… Audio

Forty years ago to the day, 18 March 1972, the first Spectrum documentary was broadcast. Jack Perkins helped Alwyn Owen launch a human interest series which was designed as a counterbalance to the… Audio

Free enterprise and deregulation see the expansion of private radio and public radio is threatened. Audio

Technical and programme innovation along with a broadening cultural role for radio mark the post-war years. Audio

The Labour government's take-over of radio in 1936 sets an agenda of expansion interrupted only by war. Audio

We quickly embrace the first electronic mass-medium. A few hundred wire-fiddling enthusiasts in the early 1920s grow, even through the depression years, to 152,000 licence holders by 1935. Audio

Rotorua's thermal areas seen through the eyes of diarists around the turn of the century. Produced by Alwyn Owen from diaries and travel guides held in the Turnbull Library. Audio

Elsa Davis was Melbourne's unofficial Poet Laureate, and composer extraordinary. With enthusiasm and devotion, she chronicles events in song. She talks to Alwyn Owen, and demonstrates her talent… Audio

History is not only a written record of events, it also resides in people's memories. Through the audio recorder, this resource of memory can be preserved for today's and future generations. Over a… Audio

For the modern tourist, Rotorua presents a range of thermal virtuosity which has diminished little over the years. But exploration of the thermal area has lost much of the adventure it once had… Audio

Spectrum's Alwyn Owen presents the strange story of the phantom canoe which appeared on lake Tarawera 10 days before the eruption of mount Tarawera on June 10 1886. Audio