I would’ve thought it would be the other way around. New Zealand radio pre-1990 was pretty straightforward. It was after deregulation in 1989 that things got really confusing. New stations started popping up all over the show, some of which lasted only a matter of months. A lot of stations changed frequencies as a result of the tender wars too.
I’ve a bit of a database brewing… hang fire and I’ll see what I can tidy up for you. Do you do Excel?
I’ll take any info in any form, but Excel would be handy.
It’s more that I can’t really work out the history of public vs private radio in NZ. It seemed to change a lot more than say the ABC in Australia. Also some commercial stations in Australia have been around 80+ years.
That’s a fair point. A number of Radio New Zealand’s community stations started out as private operations. For example, 1ZH Hamilton was originally 1XH. Likewise with 2ZN Nelson, which began as 2XN, and so on.
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Yep that’s the bit that’s confusing. I’d find a timeline very interesting and any other information. I know there was a bit of swapping and changing of the very early stations in Australia too, but only in the very early days.
I documented most of the changes from the 1970s onwards but finding any information prior to that can be tough. I’ve never had a great interest in the early era of New Zealand radio so I don’t have much information from that period. The 70s, 80s and 90s is my area of expertise.
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The Edge on rova now says “The edge Digital” instead of “the edge (location)
Not quite true… Hamilton’s station was originally 2XN, but it was part of the NZBC, it was never a private station then… X’s denoted a mix of purely commercial (Z) and non-commercial (Y) stations at that time.
Nelson’s 2XN was 2YN from 1937-1947, that one was a private station, 2ZR, which ran from 1932-1936. Basically all radio stations in NZ from 1937 were Govt owned except for 2ZM Gisborne (until 1944 when owner Percy Stevens died) and 4ZD (Dunedin) until Mediaworks bought that one. Callsigns with an X in them didn’t denote private stations again until Radio Hauraki spang up.
I’ve been building a wee timeline on-and-off for a past 15 years or so, but I’ve only got to the 1970’s (when the confusion begins, I guess). I posted a consolidated NZ Radio dial image from the 1920’s a while back, in the NZ Radio History thread. I should post some more at some stage, when I get some time.
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Thanks for the clarification. As I said, my area of expertise is from the 1970s onwards.
Out of interest, where are you getting all of your information from for the early era of New Zealand radio?
I just pulled the 1990 1ZH/ZHFM conversion recording from the archives and in their blurb about the station’s history, they say “today marks the end of 40 years broadcasting by 1ZH and 1XH”. There’s no mention of a 2XN. I’d also be surprised if a Hamilton station used a call-sign that was prefixed with a 2.
Just going back to my timeline plans. I’m wanting to major brands have subsumed local stations. With that in mind, what is the best year to start from?
Most of my info comes from NZ Yearbooks (via Stats NZ website), Papers Past (literally searching under “Radio” and callsigns to find articles on launch, as well as going through the A to J’s), Archives NZ’s Archway search engine and Digital NZ (lots of ZM photos there).
Digital NZ is probably the best place to start looking for stuff, as it will capture most content available through NZ’s museums.
Sorry, I mucked that up, must have had Nelson on my mind. Hamilton was 1XH from launch in 1949 (1310kHz).
Edit: Meant to add the Link to Digital NZ, here it is.
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Thanks for that, @TV4. Some really useful and interesting info there. Your early era research combined with my post-1970 research would probably complement each other very nicely.
All good. I had no idea that some government owned stations had ‘X’ call-signs prior to 1966, so that’s been a really helpful thing to learn. Cheers for that.
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It’s good to know that between us three, we can probably put together quite an extensive history.
I’m currently working on a timeline for Coast, as a proof of concept.
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So, I’ve completed an initial draft, but there are a couple of points I should make first.
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I would normally share these timelines on Google Sheets, but due to formatting issues, all I can provide right now is a PDF version.
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There are several sections which are striped out. This is because I was unable to get clear data (launch/closure dates, predecessor, etc.). I welcome any and all information which will help put in more accuracy.
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This is my first timeline for a NZ radio station. My speciality lies with the UK, so if you see any errors, please say so.
Coast Timeline.pdf (127.5 KB)
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At a glance, I would say that this is about 75% incorrect. For example, there was never an Easy Listening i station in Dunedin. I suspect you got that information from Wikipedia. Unfortunately, the New Zealand radio articles on Wikipedia are riddled with errors and are not a very reliable source of information.
Also, looking at Napier on your timeline. Coast has been on three different frequencies there over the years. Yes, the current FM frequency had Hauraki on it beforehand, but that wasn’t the first station to use that frequency. And Coast’s original AM frequency in Hawke’s Bay was home to at least four other stations before Coast launched. In fact, that is the market where Coast originated. I’m not sure how you’re going to be able to accurately represent that on a timeline.
This project may be a lot harder than you think. I don’t have time to pick through all of the errors and retrieve the correct information, sorry. My own projects are on hold right now for the same reason.
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I did have my concerns about the accuracy of the information. To be honest, that’s why I was asking for other sources, and why I’ve pushed this first one out to see how well it goes. I suppose one the big issues is that stations seem to change names and frequencies a lot more often, and the format doesn’t really lend itself well to managing those situations. Here in the UK, brands and frequencies rarely shift.
What I might be better off doing is picking a market, and tracing how services have changed based on frequency.
Sample.pdf (228.9 KB)
That’s exactly the problem. And it’s the nature of New Zealand radio. I mean, look at Radio Hauraki in Hawke’s Bay. They have been on four different frequencies over the years. similarly, Coast in Wellington has been on three different frequencies in the 17 years it has been broadcasting there. Most of these kinds of changes aren’t really documented anywhere official.
That might be a more feasible option, depending on the market you choose. Good luck!
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