Radio Waitaki was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Oamaru, New Zealand Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast; State Highway 1 ...

. Radio Waitaki began broadcasting on 1395AM on 5 July 1980, with the late John "JR" Ramsay behind the microphone. The station was originally a commercial station operated by the government owned

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and cu ...

and used the callsign 4ZW. Hosts included Russ Leadley, Tony Dudley, Charles Pierard, Mike Yardley, Scott Radovanovich, Luke Spittle, Steve Jukes, Mike Plant, Lana Searle, Sarah Van Der Kley, Dave Nicholas, Joel Palmer, Becky Morgan, Finley Brentwood and Sam Wilson. Past station managers include Lyall Flett (first manager), Chris Rowland, Roy Woodward, Phil Gully, Phil Stephens, Stella Nicholson, Nigel Newberry, Dan Lewis, Aaron Gillions and Gary Watling. In July 1996 the

New Zealand Government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

sold off the commercial arm of

, the sale included Radio Waitaki. The new owner was

The Radio Network New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the formal merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media, APN New Zealand; The Radio Net ...

, a subsidiary of

APN News & Media Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E), formerly known as APN News & Media, is an Australian media company. Divisions include broadcast radio and Out-of-home advertising. The company previously had assets in New Zealand, and previously owned Adshel ...

and

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly 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 fou ...

, which operated as a division of the

Australian Radio Network ARN is a group of commercial radio stations around Australia. It includes the Pure Gold, KIIS Network, CADA, ARN Regional and iHeartRadio brands. The company operates the ARN News service in Australia, which uses international correspondent ...

. In 1998 The Radio Network grouped all their local stations in smaller markets together to form the Community Radio Network. Radio Waitaki continued to run a local breakfast show between 6am and 10am but outside breakfast all stations part of the Community Radio Network took network programming from a central studio based in Taupo. In December 2000 the Community Radio Network was discontinued and all stations become part of the

Classic Hits FM The Hits is a Hot adult contemporary music radio network, broadcasting to 26 markets across New Zealand. It was set up by Government broadcaster Radio New Zealand in 1993 by consolidating existing stations into a single brand and has been priva ...

network, as a result Radio Waitaki was rebranded as Classic Hits Radio Waitaki. The station continued to run a local breakfast but now outside breakfast all programming originated from the Classic Hits studios in Auckland. A short time later Classic Hits began broadcasting on 98.4 FM, with the original 1395AM frequency becoming

Newstalk ZB Newstalk ZB is a nationwide New Zealand talk-radio network operated by NZME Radio. It is available in almost every radio market area in New Zealand, and has news reporters based in many of them. In addition to talkback, the network also broadc ...

. On 28 April 2014 all stations part of the Classic Hits network were rebranded as

The Hits The Hits was a music video channel broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned by Box Television. On 15 August 2008 it was rebranded as 4Music. Overview and availability The channel showcased a range of pop centred on chart hits and cur ...

. A networked breakfast presented by

Polly Gillespie Pauline "Polly" Gillespie is a New Zealand radio host, formerly on More FM. She co-hosted on '' The Polly and Grant Show'' Saturday mornings from 6-10am and the All-Day Breakfast show on Rova with her ex-husband, Grant Kereama. Gillespie and ...

and

Grant Kareama Grant Rodney Hokowhitu Kereama (born 30 May 1967) is a New Zealand radio host, formerly on '' The Polly and Grant Show'' on the ZM and More FM network. Kereama co-hosted his morning show with his ex-wife Polly Gillespie. Kereama began in ra ...

was introduced to almost all The Hits stations with the former breakfast announcer moved to present a 6-hour show between 9am and 3pm. The local 9am-3pm show was originally presented by Josh McIntyre, in 2014 Josh was moved to Timaru to present the same show for both The Hits in Timaru and Oamaru. With Polly and Grant leaving The Hits in 2017 all South Island stations reverted to local breakfast programming, today The Hits in Oamaru takes the Dunedin-based breakfast show.

References

Waitaki Waitaki District is a territorial authority district that is located in the Canterbury and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand. It straddles the traditional border between the two regions, the Waitaki River, and its seat is Oamaru. ...

Mass media in Oamaru Defunct radio stations in New Zealand {{NewZealand-radio-station-stub