Radio Hauraki is a New Zealand rock music station that started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand and operated illegally until 1970 to break the monopoly held by the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. From its founding until 2012 Hauraki played a mix of classic and mainstream rock music. In 2013, it changed its music content, playing modern rock and alternative rock from the last 25–30 years. As of 2019 more classic rock and progressive rock is being increasingly played. In its modern legal form, Radio Hauraki's head office and main studios are now located at 2 Graham Street in the Auckland CBD, as one of eight stations of NZME Radio. Private commercial radio stations had operated from the earliest days of broadcasting, but the government began to close them down, the process accelerating after World War II. To break the state monopoly, Radio Hauraki was originally formed as a pirate station in the Hauraki Gulf, in a history that saw the loss of one life. History Early years The concept of Radio Hauraki originated with a group of journalists who felt dissatisfied with New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) radio stations, and with the politics involved with broadcasting in New Zealand. Private stations were able to apply for licences to operate, but the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS) stonewalled all applications. A small group involving David Gapes, Derek Lowe, Ian Magan, Chris Parkinson and Denis O'Callahan decided, with legal assistance, to start a private venture operating in international waters, outside of the confines of the monopolistic government departments of the NZBC, which ran all land-based radio stations, and of the New Zealand Post Office, which managed the radio spectrum. Gapes, Lowe, Magan, Parkinson and O'Callahan eventually broke the radio monopoly, thus allowing private radio to become widespread in New Zealand. The five men bought a boat and tried to make it seaworthy, however the Marine Department continuously rejected their application for a warrant of fitness for the ship. So in 1966 the crew set sail anyway without the WOF. However the ship got caught on a drawbridge in the Auckland Viaduct and the crew were arrested. When they went to court the judge ruled in favour of them and in late 1966, the Tiri, the boat chosen to carry the transmitter, anchored in the Hauraki Gulf outside the