@nztv To be honest, it was Ravinder Hunia who is currently a part of the Sky Sport team … I think.
Bit like Jono and Ben on the hits. Horrible duo too to be honest.
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Great to see The Breeze doing very well point of difference to coast local shows in 7 centres which is evident in the ratings I still feel Coast is lacking an identity , presenters feel out of place on station ie : John Dunstan sounds too old for the format.
Am confused with the ratings for Magic are the allowed to include to different magic brands into one ie talk/ Music combined as it’s not giving enough indication on how well the talk format is rating.
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Yea, they are. It’s getting around the system a bit, but they share ad logs/sales etc.
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Probably not the end. I think most of the local Breeze shows set up in recent years have been at the expense of a local breakfast on More FM, so its not necessarily more local hours.
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Does anyone feel Radio LIVE’s closure was premature and could of benefited from the amount of news this year and a global pandemic. I can’t help but feel they could of grown this year. Just my thoughts.
Dunno. Mediaworks had to do something with it though, they’d given it a fair whack for considerably longer time that they had for their TV efforts.
Yeah fair enough, they did let it run from 2005 until 2019. I guess Newstalk ZB is too entrenched to have a viable alternative.
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Both of these are maternity covers.
Yeah I think they gave Radio Live a good go but it was pretty bland talkback… just my opinion. I don’t think Magic Talk is too bad considering it seems like they have half the budget. Peter Williams & Sean Plunket are kind of the Leighton Smith & Larry Williams, polarising but they know the audience they 're after. Heather du Plessis Allan is a much easier listen than Ryan Bridge though.
I know that the ratings combine Magic Talk & Music, but even so it surprises me that Simon Barnett & Phil Gifford are behind Magic in the last few surveys - considering how popular Simon was on music radio.
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The Edge Breakfast producer Alexandra Mullin is moving to George Breakfast next year to co-host and as a producer as well.
Both are good gets for NZME. Hayley and Vaughan bounce off each other well, and such a big name in Hilary Barry for the pick up
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I’m enjoying The Sound’s album side Friday today. Fantastic mix of albums and artists.
A few thoughts on this…
As TV4 said, they gave it a good go but never really made a dent in ZB’s figures for a sustained period of time. They had to either blow it all up and start again (Magic Talk) or not do any talk completely.
There was some missteps from Radio Live too. Those who were on the side could probably say more but there was never an easy relationship with TV3 and its staffers/reporters, who failed to co-operate on a lot of stories/crosses etc.
It also never quite got breakfast right. Martin Devlin was their first host - which kind of made sense as he rated relatively well for Radio Sport - but it turns out he didn’t care about news enough. Marcus Lush was okay, but his style is not the hard interview, it’s connecting with people - the obscure, the weird and the wonderful - as seen by his success on ZB nights.
As the saying goes - win the breakfast, win the day - and what ZB has always had is Holmes then Hosking who provoke but also provide a compelling news product. The best shot Live had was when they went with Paul Henry but my complaint (and it remains with the AM Show) is that it’s not personal enough for a radio show, with the nature of TV delivery making it feel like you’re being talked at rather than to.
What would have been interesting is if Hosking had signed with Radio Live as was mooted when they started. Would have completely ruined ZB’s succession plan but all it did was force ZB to stage manage Holmes out with a end date, rather than a promise.
Magic Talk needs to go completely different I think. Do a double header breakfast, maybe led by a strong female - ditch the TV element - and go to a different format.
The other thing I’ll add - Radio Live missed a few chances as well. They closely considered bringing on a local Canterbury breakfast at the end of 2008 when John Dunne and Ken Ellis were cut from ZB Christchurch when Hosking was slated to take over from Holmes at the start of 2009. They were number one in the market when they left (or at least top two with More, depending on how different books swung). Hosking went off a cliff when he started ratings wise, but has slowly built that back up now and it’s Christchurch’s top breakfast again. If Live had kicked off a Canterbury breakfast show ij 2009, it may have just come off and ignited the network. If there’s one market where they value parochialism over the rest of the country, it is Canterbury/Christchurch.
Anyway, this has got super long!
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Understand from an industry source that Magic Talk and Music will be separated out from 2021.
ZB afternoons has always been a tricky area - they’ve gone lighter in that slot for ages - Danny Watson, Kerre and Mark, then Si and Phil. A lot of more lifestyley. Music seems to rule the workday though and talk doesn’t really work as office listening.
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@OnAir Here are the two obvious questions.
Will Magic return to its roots as an all music station with a particular focus on ‘the greatest hits of all time’ (i.e. ranging from the 1950s to the early 1980s) compared to The Sound as ‘the home of classic rock’ (to me)?
And will Magic Talk be no longer a part of the Magic network and revert back to a PROPER talk radio format by changing its name?
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
am doing a scroll of the rova app across the weekend and forget stations Like rock90s and sound classic which you do not hear on the main stream stations
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There are some really great music+ stations on rova! Often prefer listening to those channels than the “mainstream” ones.
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100% heard some old forgotten songs
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How do we like the new hits news intro and CHR imaging?!
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