Brad and Laura have confirmed on their show that they are leaving. Laura’s last show is this Friday, Brad’s in the near future.
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Crazy to let Laura go, she would have been good with Jono and Ben
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Most definitely, Laura has proven (or had to prove) again and again that she can be teamed with anyone, NZME’s loss. Brad and Laura’s cume figure in the last survey wasn’t too bad either.
I think Megan Papas who appears on their show sometimes would also be a good option.
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Southern Cross Country Radio launches next week (30 October) and will feature well known radio personalities such as Mike Puru, Dan Bernstone, Hamish Denton and Mark Leishman.
Newest addition is Miranda Easten, a country singer/songwriter from Canterbury; she has recently hosted her own country show on Plains FM (Christchurch). The American Country Countdown, a weekly country chart show hosted by Kix Brooks (Brooks & Dunn), can also be heard on Southern Cross Country Radio.
To find out more, please click their link below.
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Told you it would be an online station 
In any case, most country songs from after 1980 are garbage, so hard pass for me.
Very hard to launch a linear station when you don’t have the frequencies.
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I recognise a few names there - Dan was one of my tutors at the NZRTS as well as being on ZM (and later More FM), Mike Puru obviously well-known already - now I know why he left Flava. With Mark Leishman there does this mean he won’t be doing National Radio anymore? And Hamish Denton I remember from Radio Central in Alexandra in the mid-90s.
Some pretty impressive talent there, and I guess with it being all online there’s very minimal overheads compared to a typical station, ie, no transmitter fees, etc. I wonder if they will ever acquire terrestrial frequencies, or just remain 100% online? Also are they doing news/sport/weather etc or just music and the announcers?
With regards to the streaming options, will it be on the likes of TuneIn or iHeartRadio? I couldn’t see it on the former when I looked just now - looks like you can only stream directly from their website, which is a bit of a pain for smartphones (for example).
Edit: Ways To Listen - Southern Cross Country Radio NZ okay I can see an app and coming soon for iHeartRadio. Would be nice to have it on TuneIn as well though.
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@my_names_mr_burns Southern Cross Country Radio is an online-only radio brand and does not broadcast on AM or FM frequencies nationwide.
Oh I did see that but I was wondering if there was any chance in the future they might look into branching out into the terrestrial space. Mind you, running online only is probably a great deal cheaper than the costs associated with doing it via terrestrial.
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left /was pushed:
“We did as best as we could. Anika left because she was finding it tough with all her commitments, including kids and TV shows. Then the dynamics changed slightly and they thought moving me aside was the best plan of attack. I’ve been here before and I didn’t take it personally. I was just a player in a big puzzle and I didn’t fit in that particular square.”
“Then with the Flava thing happening, I thought, ‘Do I hang around here and keep trying to do radio or do I have some years in France running a little bed and breakfast?’ I realised there’s another side to life.”
With an aim to make the shift in mid-2024, Mike plans on selling up in Auckland and working on a new Kiwi country music radio station from a home studio in France.
Article here
He missed out on RNZ nights, Emile Donovan got the job instead
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Interesting, I guess he won’t be moving to France now then? Mind you, he could probably do his show online from over there.
A move to France seems like it could still happen … the power of internet radio means you can really do it from anywhere!
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I believe one of Tova’s producers at Today FM (RIP) moved to Italy during that station’s short life… and continued to produce her show from there!
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This afternoon, McGoldrick will turn off the microphone for the final time on The Hits Drive show.
She has a long association with The Hits, having hosted its Breakfast show, the 3pm Pick-Up hour and - for the past two years - Drive with Brad Watson.
She has the radio bug and says she’ll be returning at some stage “for sure”, continuing to be heard through the NZME network next year.
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Good news.
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Policy changes made in the 1990’s meant that all the radio frequencies were hoarded by what are now NZME and Mediaworks. No other country has ceded that much control to so few.
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Not just internet radio. One of my work colleagues works remotely from Ireland.
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The world is full of homesick Kiwis (including radio personalities and journalists), according to a Vogel’s bread TV commercial from the early 2000s.
Sounds like a PR spin line, must be the radio equivalent of what ‘special projects’ is to TV.
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It seems like we’re not far off it here in the UK. The number of independent stations is dwindling each year. Most have been taken over by either Bauer or Global. Another two stations in Oxfordshire are shutting this weekend after being bought out by Bauer.
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