Happy 80th to The Listener

In the pre-internet era of the 1970s and 1980s, The Listener magazine was a vital source of weekly information on New Zealand cultural life: it held the monopoly on television and radio listings, published Top 20 music charts and reviewed books, albums, theatre and film. The Listener is celebrating its 80^th birthday and today Sarah Johnston from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision is going to look back at the history of this institution.

The cover of the first edition of “The Listener”, June 1939. (RNZ collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision)

1974 Listener cover featuring radio and television announcer Marama Martin (Alexander Turnbull Library)

Bogor cartoon from The Listener (Courtesy Bauer Media and Burton Silver)

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.