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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Radio Broadcasting in New Guinea: The Port Moresby Story - 4PM
The first mediumwave broadcasting station located on the island of New Guinea was installed into a dwelling in the downtown area of the island's largest town, Port Moresby. This station was installed by the Australian radio company, AWA, and it was inaugurated under the unusual callsign 4PM.
It was back in the year 1934 that the administrators from each of the islands in the South Pacific participated in a regular meeting, and one of the matters on the agenda was the establishment of a radio broadcasting station in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The concept at the time was that programming for this station could be relayed from the AWA commercial broadcasting station 4TO located in Townsville, Queensland.
Early in the following year, AWA made a formal offer to the government, stating that they would establish this new radio station. At the time, they were already active in Port Moresby with their maritime communication station, VIG.
The location for this new broadcasting station was in a regular home located on Musgrave Street, opposite St. Mary's Cathedral, and overlooking Ela Beach. An AWA-made 100 watt transmitter was installed, and the official opening of station 4PM took place on October 25, 1935.
Even though the abbreviation, 4 pm, usually indicates the time as 4 o'clock in the afternoon, yet the letters in the callsign for this new radio station, PM, really indicated Port Moresby. The number 4 in the callsign indicated the state of Queensland in Australia, and by extension, therefore, Papua New Guinea.
Interestingly, three other radio broadcasting stations in Australia have been on the air under the PM callsign. Station 2PM is located in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, and this callsign indicates the regional city of location, Port Macquarie. Station 6PM was located in Perth, Western Australia, where at the time the callsign actually did also indicate the time of the day. And then there was 9PM, which we will tell you about shortly.
The daily schedule for radio station 4PM was quite limited with just two separate sessions of just one hour each, and no broadcasts on Sundays. All programming was locally produced, somewhat amateurishly, and no relays were taken off air from the other AWA station, 4TO, in Townsville, Queensland, as was suggested earlier.
The programming in Port Moresby consisted of news, local and Australian music, talks, locally produced drama, with some advertising. However, the income from local advertising was never enough to support the station, and AWA in Sydney subsidized the operation of this station during the seven years of its on-air operation.
The operating channel for station 4PM was variously listed as 1360 or 1365 kHz. This did not indicate a faulty transmitter, but rather, in those days, mediumwave channels were listed in metres, instead of kilocycles, and conversion into kilocycles, or kilohertz as we know it today, was simply an approximation. Their actual operating channel was listed as 221 metres, equivalent to 1357.47 kHz.
It was on Tuesday December 16, 1941, that 4PM Port Moresby left the air. At the time the stated reasons for the closure were that there was a shortage of skilled manpower, together with difficult financial circumstances. Subsequently, another reason was added, which indeed was quite valid, and that is that they did not want incoming bombers to use the radio signal as a homing beacon.
The station left the air on Tuesday, and on Thursday it was declared closed. Two months later the mediumwave electronic equipment was removed from downtown and taken to Wonga Cottage on the edge of Port Moresby, where it was refurbished and modified for use as a telegraph transmitter. It was in use in this way on shortwave for electronic communication with the AWA communication station VIT in Townsville. We would suggest that this transmitter was finally scrapped around the late 1940s.
Now, interestingly, after things settled down in the Pacific, two radio lists from that era show another broadcasting station in Port Moresby, this time with the callsign 9PM. A listing in an official American government publication shows this station on 1010 kHz, with a power of 100 watts, and ownership by AWA. It is difficult to determine whether this station was ever on the air, or whether it was simply a projected listing.
Thus it was that the 100 watt mediumwave transmitter was on the air mediumwave as 4PM for seven years, and then as one of the shortwave transmitters at Wonga Cottage as VIG for another half dozen years.
Reception reports addressed to mediumwave 4PM were acknowledged with a shiny black and white QSL card showing tribal men climbing a coconut palm tree. This is a very rare QSL card, though the Hocken Library in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand does hold two copies of this historic QSL card.
So why was this small and apparently insignificant station so important? Well, it was the first radio broadcasting station on the island of New Guinea, and in addition, its programming was heard at times on relay over the shortwave transmitter VIG.