So it’s now 14.5?
Interested to see how breakfast is going with the power couple of Gary and Simon no more and by 2019, both will have left the shift.
Also why any of these cities can’t support a station with local shifts around the clock is beyond me. Plain & simple: beancounters dictating management direction.
Will we might bemoan it, outside of key day parts there isn’t a huge demand for localism in NZ.
Sad? Yes, but it’s true. Everything in media is filtered through a national (some would say Auckland) lens and has been for a long time. People are used to hearing national voices speak to them.
Even that can be missing.
Is there a lack of local journos or at least local news bulletins on most commercial stations?
The only local news bulletins (perhaps outside of LPFM) are on Newstalk ZB in Wellington and Christchurch.
Other regional markets do have journalists feeding in to network bulletins.
Certainly though, all music radio bulletins (at least to my knowledge) are networked.
No demand or is it a lack of supply?
It’s vastly “easier” to network everything, and cheaper as you don’t have to pay local journo’s, on-air staff, copywriters, sales reps etc. Think back to the early 90’s when places like Ashburton (3ZE) had one full time station, manned from 6am to 6pm with all the roles listed above to now, where the descendant of that station today has one morning show mon-fri and a touch of weekend sports.
In that same time period they’ve had one community paper consolidate (a Fairfar one, so no surprises there), the local daily and the (Allied-Press owned) community paper both continue on.
Not that every market is the same as Ashburton (which has competition from Christchurch for both Newspaper and Radio), but you’ve got to ask, when it comes to networking radio is that really to do with lack of demand for local content/stories/updates?
Exactly! That’s what radio should be all about.
The plug is being pulled on NZ’s DAB trial…
Probably lack of demand.
By and large most people in regional centres don’t really want to see a return to crappy ‘buy, sell and exchange’ bulletinboards and pet lost and founds… Mid-cantabarians tend to identify as Cantabrians first and foremost. They don’t want to feel like country hicks and love the sound of big city radio (despite at times feeling like they’re living in an outer suburb of Auckland).
South Islanders had to put up with North Island ads on TV for years… suffering almost a decade of McDonalds commercials before the first restaurant even came to the Mainland (at Merivale).
I would call that a blessing, the aftertaste of McDonalds is not palatable to me. Is it not viable to have a South Island schedule of commercials? I realise the national population is akin to Melbourne however the much wider spread would indicate a better solution is needed.
@TV4 thanks for finding the article. It’s very well written to a depth and intelligence that is rarely found in Aus, perhaps that’s one of the few from NZ or wider?
Each market, with networked shows, still gets a mix of local and national commercials.
A bit simplistic. 3ZE in the 80’s had a journalist too, it wasn’t all lost dogs and rugby reports!
The problem is for local radio, that a lot of the services, like buy-sell-swap have been superseded by internet services (trade me), school cancellations (facebook) and no one seems to care about local news anymore.
And yes, I liked to listen to a ‘big city’ station when I was a mid-Canterbrian… C93FM was the best, but there were plenty of people who listened to 3ZE because it represented them, which was the whole point of local radio.
I guess people today look elsewhere for connectedness, often overseas.
ZM’s new drive show has been announced, with Bree Tomasel (ex-Sea FM Central Coast) and Clint Roberts (ex-George FM & The Edge) starting July 2.
Looks like the Jase & PJ highlights package from KIIS Melbourne will no longer be aired on the station never mind, I missed this at the bottom of the article
You will still be able to hear Jase & PJ on ZM and their new show will be announced soon!
Presumably a once a week highlights show…
Your probably right, Sunday mornings are free at the moment, either that or a 5-6am show before Fletch Vaughn & Megan.
On a semi related note its nice that ZM actually have a Saturday breakfast show these days with Adam & Eve 6-9am. Its been clip shows before that for some time.
Bree’s enjoyed a long stretch of gardening leave being off air over there. All expenses paid, her and her girlfriend.
What is the explanation from ZM as to why she hasn’t been put to air sooner?
She has been working at NZME since she arrived in NZ, behind the scenes stuff and prep for the show I guess. She has been doing videos and stuff already and has had a few on air spots on other shows.
I would say the hold up was her on air partner Clint Roberts who was poached from Mediaworks, he would have been unable to work until July and therefore couldn’t launch the duo until they were both available.
Correct.
Thanks @Reece
The 2nd radio ratings survey for NZ for 2018 has been released.
In Auckland, Newstalk ZB is #1 with 13.1%, followed by Mai FM with 10.6%, The Breeze with 8.3%, Coast with 8.1% & More FM with 6.9%.
Across NZ, Newstalk ZB is #1 with 10.9%, followed by More FM with 8.8%, The Breeze with 8%, The Sound with 7.8% & Coast with 7%.
Talk about a tale of two cities - look at the different performances of Mai this period:
Up 10.2 to 10.6 in Auckland for its best showing since 2004.
However, in Christchurch it’s been down 8.9 - 4.3 - 2.7 over the past three surveys - it worst showing ever there.