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Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
Thsi episode marks the 25th anniversary of the invention of the transistor and its impact on technology.
Sir Charles Moses, secretary-general of the Asian Broadcasting Union, comments by telephone about the impact of transistor technology, which was invented in 1948.
Television scientist Ron Walton explains what a transistor actually is. Nigel Clough, NZBC technical training officer demonstrates a transistor in action.
Professor John Bardeen, a double Nobel Prize winner and one of the inventors of the transistor is interviewed [by telephone] about its development.
The development of transistors for computers is discussed. Robert A. Gardiner, chief electronics engineer, Johnson Space Centre, is interviewed by telephone from Houston about the implications of the transistor for the United States space programme.
Sir Charles Moses talks from Australia about the impact of transistor radios on developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In New Zealand, John Joyce, NZBC commercial radio planner, talks about how the transistor has helped radio hold its own against television. It has made radio portable.
Dr Les Cleveland of Victoria University says people are now suffering from a deluge of communication and entertainment, and need to learn how not to listen, or when not to listen.