95 BOP FM was a radio station in Tauranga, New Zealand. The station was started by

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...

(which was then known as the National Broadcasting Service) in 1961. The station was originally branded as it is callsign 1ZD and broadcasts on 1000AM. In 1978, the AM band in New Zealand was changed from 10 kHz spacing to 9 kHz spacing as a result 1ZD moved to 1008AM. In the 1980s, 1ZD became known as ''Radio BOP'' and relocated to the Bay Savings Bank building on Devonport Road in Tauranga. In the late 1980s, the station was known as ''Hits & Memories BOP'' In 1990, the station began broadcasting on 95.0FM and became known as ''95 BOP FM'', the AM frequency was now used to broadcast an easy listening format as ''Easy BOP AM''. The same year 95 BOP FM relocated to Harrington House on Harrington Street In 1993, Radio New Zealand rebranded many of their heritage stations as Classic Hits. For 95 BOP FM the station became known as ''Classic Hits 95 BOP FM''. In the early nineties, Radio New Zealand also began rolling Newstalk ZB out across the country. The 1008AM frequency was replaced with Newstalk ZB. In July 1996, the

New Zealand Government The New Zealand Government () is the central government through which political authority is exercised in New Zealand. As in most other parliamentary democracies, the term "Government" refers chiefly to the executive branch, and more specifica ...

sold off the commercial arm of

, which included, among other things, the Classic Hits branded stations. The new owner was The Radio Network, a subsidiary of APN News & Media and

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

, which operated as a division of the Australian Radio Network. In 1998, Classic Hits 95 BOP FM was reduced to just 4 hours of local programming between 6 and 10 am 7 days a week. Outside this time nationwide shows based from Auckland took over, and the network announcers simply called the station Classic Hits. The breakfast show was shortened to a 3-hour show in 2012 on all Classic Hits stations and local weekend programming was removed. On 28 April 2014, all stations part of the Classic Hits network were rebranded as The Hits. A networked breakfast presented by Polly Gillespie and Grant Kareama was introduced to almost all The Hits stations with the former breakfast announcer moved to present a 6-hour show between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm. The daytime show on The Hits Bay of Plenty is hosted by Will Johnston.

References

{{Radio in New Zealand

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

Mass media in Tauranga Defunct radio stations in New Zealand Radio stations established in 1961 Radio stations disestablished in 2014