I remember when Peter Williams was the New Zealand representative on Channel Nine’s World Series Cup commentary team.
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Agreed. It is confusing. Especially as what was suggested/leaked on first mention hasn’t come to fruition.
$$$. Low rating station. I am sure all the replacements across the day will likely being paid less than their predecessors in that slot. Or at least the collective sum will be less. I understand producers have been axed or made to work double/longer shifts, although that’s only a whisper.
It’ll gradually age up as required. There can be a lot of money in advertising to old folk, even if they aren’t a popular demographic. Think rest homes etc!
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Hasn’t been helped by some presenters on the station telling listeners the talkback offering will be moving to AM across the country and they will need to switch. For a lot of markets there won’t be any frequency change required, no doubt helped by Magic and Radio Live broadcasting mostly on FM frequencies already.
Music is what the Magic Music station is for there isn’t a real need to duplicate it during ‘Talkback’ hours.
The format as it is targets a gap in the market that no one else serves and it doesn’t perform too badly for a network that started from nothing in 2015.
A format like this would cross over with The Breeze and essentially serve the same audience they would both be chasing.
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I’m not nearly dead and still listen to 60’s music… just not on commercial radio.
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Although this studios days are numbered anyway am I right in thinking it will only be used for the drive, evenings and the remaining weekend programmes?
The AM show comes from a TV studio, Peter Williams - Tauranga, Sean Plunkett - Wellington and Tony Amos - Tauranga.
From my understanding it will be
Peter Williams - Tauranga
Sean Plunket - Auckland (overheard he is moving to Auckland)
Ryan Bridge - Auckland and Wellington
Leah Panapa - Auckland
Tony Amos - Tauranga
Rural Exchange - Auckland
Home and Garden - Auckland
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Will Magic Talk remain at Mediaworks HQ? or will it move to the new site in
development?
Will be moving with all other radio stations. Magic Talk will be managed as part of the radio division. As I understand it Radio Live is operated as part of the news operation.
My understanding is that Magic Talk is staying as is where is for the foreseeable future, but nothing is ever set in stone.
Here is the schedule as to my understanding
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Wow. All that fantastic weekend programming is gone. Surely if they wanted to cut costs in that respect, talkback at Mediaworks would be axed altogether?
I guess they’re wanting to preserve their market share?
Thanks for the clarification and info Grady. The Radio Live studio at Flower Street wouldn’t be very old either would it? Maybe 3-4 years old.
The weekend schedule makes sense in regards to costs. I think NZ is missing a pure talkback offering on weekends. Lifestyle and sports shows on Live and ZB are primarily driven by presenters and interviews. For me it would be the only time id tune in regularly to talkback.
I do wonder why they are relaunching this Saturday rather than Monday, some may think talkback has been axed from the station altogether.
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We moved in there December 2016 coinsiding with the later launch of Newshub,
There is a slightly different schedule this Saturday with Tony Amos on till 4am I think.
This station is sounding a lot more promising.
To begin with the whole thing sounded very bizarre (Unsure if Mediaworks always planned on having a full talk line up during the week or whether that was an afterthought, what with the news websites reporting that it was going to be Garner in the morning with some Everly Brothers & the Bee Gees mixed in).
I have a feeling NZME will end up kicking themselves for not signing Peter Williams with NTZB. I think he will be very good.
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I’m guessing they’ve done their research and determined “hard news” talkback wouldn’t be that popular on weekends.
Even hard core talkback station 2GB goes a lot softer on weekends with a lot of sport and lifestyle.
It would seem to be a programming strategy that’s reasonably widespread.
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Just found this vintage NZ Top 40 from 1986 which may be of interest to some on here:
I’m downloading it to listen later (use offliberty.com for this).
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MediaWorks’ new talk and lifestyle channel Magic Talk, launches tomorrow, Saturday 19th January.
Magic Talk will operate on the following frequencies:
Whanganui 96FM, Auckland & Rodney 702AM, Tauranga 1107AM / 100.6FM, Rotorua 1107AM /
95.1FM, Hawkes Bay 1368AM, Manuwatu & Palmerston North 93.8FM, Kapiti 99.1FM, Whanganui
96FM, Wairarapa 98.3FM, Wellington 98.9FM / 1233AM, Blenheim 95.3FM, Nelson 96FM, Timaru
105.9FM, Christchurch & Ashburton 99.3FM, Oamaru 100.8FM, Dunedin 96.6FM, Queenstown
91.2FM, Southland 94.0FM, Whakatane 95.1FM, South Waikato 98FM, Gisborne 94.9FM, Kaikoura
89.1FM, Northland 90.8FM, Whangarei 100.7FM, Waikato 100.2FM, Taranaki 89.2FM, Alexandra
95.9FM, McKenzie Country 91.0FM, Picton 92.3FM.
I’m intrigued, I’ll admit. But I can’t see Peter wanting to do it long term - he moved to Tauranga to retire…and that has always been one of Live’s issues - the number of talent tweaks and not always through their own fault.
Henry only ever lasted a year or two at a tone, either on drive or breakfast. The drive host changed so often since the 05 launch (Henry, Ralston, Impey, Maggie Barry, Ali Mau, Bridge and Owen…and probably someone I’m forgetting too) whereas ZB has had Larry Williams through that entire period.
Devlin on brekky in 2005 was on the face of it a good signing but he didn’t quite have the passion for news, especially when big stories broke. Lush was an odd replacement too, nights is his forte and he knows how to connect with people.
Garner?
Oh yeah!