Magic.
This, or there is going to be a lot of on air integration between the two stations, are the only decent reasons I see for the rebrand.
It could be using the power of The Breeze brand to lift Magic’s current numbers, or the fact that the two formats will see too much overlap. But I don’t think that’s good enough reasons in the long term to put a name, what is effectively sounds like a rova digital station, on FM frequencies.
Magic should have just changed their format and put their current one on Rova under Magic Classic
1 Like
Got to hand it to Mediaworks, they sure know how to come up with a station name that matches the tagline perfectly
“You sure got a friend in Breeze Classic” 
Anything is better than “The songs you know and love
1 Like
The fact they’re not even fully retiring the Magic brand and instead sending it to a slow death by being buried in Rova is crazy.
Also a pity how close the NZ radio market is to completely dropping 50/60s music altogether through moves like these. Gotta chase those advertising dollars I guess.
Interesting to see how that will play out
I am sure they’ll all easily be able to jump on Rova, too.
1 Like
Looks like they’re dropping “The” in the Breeze as part of the refresh
2 Likes
Reckon eh, bet someone at Mediaworks thought they hit it out of the park adding “Classic” to the end of an existing brand name there.
The issue I have - apart from liking Magic (as do my teenage boys) - is since day 1, I’ve always associated The Breeze with easy listening music. If I hadn’t read this thread, I would have thought that Breeze Classic was…old easy listening music.
Or maybe that’s just me?
Mum and dad listen to magic not sure how the change will impact them to breeze classic shame music of their Era is being phased out
2 Likes
I forgot about this short lived experiment.
1 Like
Actually this reminds me of something Fifeshire in Nelson did back in the early 90s, I think 1993. They had Fifeshire FM (great station) then setup another one named Fifeshire Classic, which played all the oldies - the 50s, 60s and 70s, the Magic of its time.
I don’t know how well it rated, and unlike Fifeshire FM it was only available in the Nelson urban area (it didn’t extend to Murchison or Golden Bay like the former did). But I do know when Fifeshire got sold to Radio Otago and later became Radioworks, the first thing they did was shut down the Classic station and replace it with Solid Gold.
Does anyone else remember Fifeshire Classic?
https://www.rova.nz/articles/introducing-breeze-classic-radio-station
I missed the part where the magic rova channel is going to be hosted by Bob Gentil. Whether its a live shift or voice tracked, I reckon it’ll just be part of the transition and unlikely to stick around
Port FM did something similar in Ashburton too, though it might have still been Fox FM back in the mid-late 90’s. They stared “The Wireless” on their lower-powered frequency. Lasted a little white, maybe a couple of years?
It was indeed launched in 1993, and was replaced by Solid Gold around 1999.
Here’s how the ratings looked for its last couple of years.
1 Like
Updated iHeartRadio app now available in NZ. Includes some new features (presets, scan, lyrics). Still not as quick to load as the Rova app and lacks news articles, radio show content and videos. The one-up Rova has over iHeart is the local content.
2 Likes
I am picking magic will be slow phased out similar to what happened to gold on nzme
Online reports kim Blair who did some media work in both Australia and nz has passed away
1 Like