Some of the Wellington Regional Labour MPs - Charles, Marian Hobbs, Luamauvao Winnie Laban, Annette King and Darren Hughes - record a regular slot on Access Radio, currently broadcasting on 783 AM in New Zealand, and on the internet at link The slot is recorded on a Friday and plays on Saturdays.

Access Radio was the first community radio station to be established in New Zealand. The station began under the auspices of Radio New Zealand, in April 1981, broadcasting throughout the greater Wellington region on Radio New Zealand's 2YB transmitter. Since 1981 the station's airtime has risen from a largely experimental three hours weekly, to 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Access Radio remained under the patronage of Radio New Zealand until July 1993, when the Wellington Access Radio Broadcasting Society Incorporated took over the ownership and management of the station. Radio New Zealand relinquished the 783AM frequency and assisted the station in the purchase and installation of its own 10kw transmitter. Access Radio now has over eighty programmes in twenty-five different languages. It has a four-weekly schedule with programmes broadcasting on a daily, weekly, fortnightly or once-a-month basis. The frequency is also used by Samoa Capital Radio, who broadcast 38 hours of programming each week.

Charles has been supporting Access Radio in its bid for some of the non-commercial FM frequency that has recently been made available, so that it can be heard on the FM frequency as well as on the AM band and on the net.

To listen to past recordings of Charles and his colleagues, go to link

and follow the prompts.

Charles is pictured here at the Access Radio studio on 26 October with Sheila Linton, who is one of the volunteers who takes turns to interview him for his regular sl