About RNZ Pacific (RNZI)

RNZ Pacific (formerly known as RNZI) broadcasts in digital and analogue short wave to radio stations and individual listeners across the Pacific region. Around twenty Pacific radio stations relay RNZ Pacific material daily, and individual short-wave listeners and internet users across the world tune in directly to RNZ Pacific content. The RNZ Pacific signal can sometimes be heard as far away as Japan, North America, the Middle East and Europe.

Our website provides a comprehensive Pacific news service with the very latest Pacific stories and an extensive online news archive. Also available are transcripts of daily Pacific current affairs programme Dateline Pacific, a live audio feed, and on-demand and podcast audio for our programmes.

Flagship daily current affairs programme Pacific Waves is widely listened to across the region and is also broadcast by the BBC Pacific Service. The World Radio Network (WRN) - an international broadcaster operating out of London - also broadcasts RNZ Pacific material throughout the US, Europe, Africa and Asia.

RNZ Pacific broadcasts primarily in English but bulletins in selected Pacific languages can be heard in breakfast sessions.

RNZ Pacific news and programmes can also be heard in New Zealand on Radio New Zealand National, Tagata o te Moana on Saturday afternoons and Pacific Waves as part of Late Edition.

The service was named 2007 International Radio Station of the Year by the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB). RNZ Pacific also won the Most Innovative Partnership category recognising the way it works with local Pacific media.

Former awards have included Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Rolls-Royce Awards for Excellence.

Our studios are located in Radio New Zealand House, Wellington, New Zealand. The transmission station can be found at Rangitaiki in the middle of the North Island. Find out more about our transmitters and technical equipment.

History

In 1948 New Zealand launched a short-wave service to the Pacific - Radio New Zealand - with programming about New Zealand and the Pacific. Until 1990 the station broadcast on two 7.5 kW transmitters from Titahi Bay which had been left behind by the US military after the Second World War.

In the late 1980s, following growing political pressure to take a more active role in the Pacific area, the government upgraded the service. A new 100 kW transmitter was installed and on the same day the Commonwealth Games opened in Auckland the service was re-launched as Radio New Zealand International (RNZI).

In May 2017 RNZI’s online brand was changed to RNZ Pacific to more clearly reflect what the service does, and make content easier to find.

It is also in line with the service’s push to engage with the domestic Pasifika audience in New Zealand.

RNZ Pacific is funded through New Zealand’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage and run as part of New Zealand’s public broadcaster, Radio New Zealand.

Today RNZ Pacific is well respected and widely listened to across the Pacific and beyond.

Listen to a documentary celebrating 20 years of shortwave broadcasting as Radio New Zealand International

RNZ Pacific's Bellbird

Our Staff

The RNZ Pacific people are:

  • RNZ Pacific Manager:  Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor
  • Technical Manager: Adrian Sainsbury
  • News Editors: Susana Suisuiki, Lydia Lewis, Finau Fonua, Christina Persico, Don Wiseman
  • News: Koroi Hawkins, Walter Zweifel, Kelvin Anthony

 

Contact RNZ Pacific

RNZ Pacific
P O Box 123,
Wellington,
New Zealand.

  • Phone: + 64 4 474 1437

​Links

We are associated with a number of organisations.

We are part of RNZ, but we are funded by The Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

We are proud to be a member of Digital Radio Mondiale.

We are a member of:

The World Radio Network broadcasts a specially prepared programme about New Zealand.