The year was 1986, and Christchurch radio listeners finally got to enjoy full-time FM broadcasts. Prior to that, the best we had was some temporary transmissions from a short-term fair station set up for the A&P show. Radio U (Canterbury University) was the first to go to air on 90.5MHz.
It was a time when FM was still to some extent considered to be the domain of ‘Hi-fi enthusiasts’. Not everyone had FM radios, particularly not car radios, so this was quite a neat promotion from the third station to launch. The South Island’s first private FM broadcaster - C93FM.
Wow, these are awesome. I loved the one called Golden Years, about Radio Avon.
As an Australian I’ve never really fully understood the history of NZ radio with regards to the NZBC vs commercial operators, but this article explained a lot!
Diving deep into the archives (and as per TV4’s spreadsheet), 3ZM was a private radio station in Christchurch, established in 1924.
The modern 3ZM traces its history back to 1963 with the licensing of 3YD on 1400 kHz. In 1973, 3YD was rebranded as 3ZM (‘Z’ representing NZBC commercial and ‘M’ for Music) and joined with 1YD Auckland and 2ZM Wellington to form the youth-oriented ZM network (with 77ZK Hastings added in late 1983).
From that period here’s a Hot Rock 3ZM bumper sticker that was available from Atlantic gas stations.
Radio Avon was launched on August 4 1973 on 1290 kHz as Christchurch’s first private radio station of the modern era. By 1977 Avon had become a runaway success, knocking 3ZB off the top spot. In response, BCNZ decided to rebrand 3ZM as Radio Nova (cheekily, ‘Avon’ backwards) and adopt an early version of automated programming and a beautiful music format. As Nova’s change was about to take effect, Avon’s breakfast announcer, Murray Inglis (‘Muzza in the morning’) allegedly threw a tantrum in an ‘argument with station management’ and locked himself in the studio and continued to broadcast by himself for 48 hours. Only a very few station staff personnel knew the sit-in was really a stunt to keep people listening to Avon, which they did as the publicity overshadowed any hope of Nova’s success. The sit-in story as portrayed by Avon at the time made headlines around the world in papers like the New York Times.
The Nova experiment was short-lived and the automation gear ended up sitting forlornly in a corner of a room alongside Vintage Radio 3XP at Ferrymead Historic Park. 3ZM returned to a CHR format and moved to 1323 kHz in 1978.
Teenagers from all across the Canterbury Plains would listen to 3ZM. It was the station of a generation. Even teenagers in Dunedin (the DX capital of the world) would tune in. In fact, one teenager, upset with the interference from Radio Dunedin on 1305 kHz (the Southern Hemisphere’s oldest radio station), decided to burn down the local station’s transmitter in 1985. It took Radio Dunedin a week to get their transmitter up and running again, but at least that was a week of uninterrupted, interference-free 3ZM listening for Dunedin youngsters.
1ZB Chopper, as seen in the National Airways Corporation in-flight Magazine, October 1975. Not sure if it was a sponsorship deal at the time? Also not sure why the photo insists on orientating itself into a nose-dive!
The 80s. Back when chain letters were a thing. I guess a clever way of going ‘viral’ before the internet.
1ZM had been knocked back for an FM licence and they weren’t too happy about it. Hence notice the not too subtle ‘I’m for ZM, ZM’s For Me’ (ZM FM).
Back in then 1ZM was in the unfortunate predicament of being ‘limited sponsorship’.
As Wikipedia notes: For 1ZM this meant that although the station could still run paid-for advertisements, those messages could not have music underneath, mention price or be longer than 25 words. Within 2–3 years, both 1ZM’s financial and audience market share dropped significantly as advertisers and young listeners were attracted by the higher quality sound of the FM stations, despite the absence of long commercial breaks on 1ZM.
I remember at the time on 1251 they were referring to themselves on-air as ‘AM-ZM’ rather than 1ZM, another blatant snub at the fact they had been denied an FM licence.
Does anyone have any audio of Radio Hauraki’s conversion to 99.0 FM in Auckland, including a promo announcing the switch? The Radio Vault used to have it but now it’s gone. Cheers.
