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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
After 10 years and just over seven months, Magic as a terrestrial station ceases broadcasting tomorrow.
A station that I felt peaked with the top pairing of Mark Leishman and Geoff Bryan in the mornings. It felt like the splitting of their partnership, and then Mark’s departure in late 2022 was the beginning of the end.
The station’s success was most certainly helped by iconic voices of Bob Gentil and Mark Smith who were there from day one…and have been there ever since.
Has that “lucrative” market suddenly disappeared over the course of 10 years? Or has the constant tinkering, regular lineup changes and “rebrands” killed what many believe was an extremely popular station and format for that particular age group, particularly since Coast opted to move younger and take on The Breeze.
Given that nearly all the current most successful radio brands (Newstalk ZB, ZM, The Edge, More FM, The Rock, The Breeze) have existed without name changes or major overhauls for 30+ years, 10 years is a relatively short time for a top network station to come and go. Consistency, continuity and familiarity wins.
On to the next - all the best to those involved in ‘Breeze Classic’, and to all the voices on Magic over the past 10 years, thank you for the memories and the passion.
