River City FM was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

in Whanganui, 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 known as the National Broadcasting Service at the time) in October 1949 broadcasting on 1200AM with the callsign 2XA. The callsign was later changed to 2ZW and the station was rebranded as 2ZW. In 1978 2ZW moved to 1197AM after New Zealand changed from 10 kHz spacing on the AM band to 9 kHz spacing. 2ZW was rebranded as ''River City Radio'' in 1988 and ''89.6 River City FM'' in 1993 after the station began broadcasting on 89.6FM. 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

; the sale included River City FM. 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 merger of APN New Zealand (a division of APN News & Media), the Radio Network (formerly part of ...

, a subsidiary of

APN News & Media ARN Media Ltd., formerly Here, There & Everywhere and 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 Adsh ...

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 ARN Media Ltd., formerly Here, There & Everywhere and 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 Adsh ...

. In 1998 The Radio Network grouped all their local stations in smaller markets together to form the Community Radio Network. River City FM continued to run a local breakfast show between 6 am and 10 am but outside breakfast all stations part of the Community Radio Network took network programming from a central studio based in Taupo. In 2001 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 River City FM was rebranded as ''Classic Hits 89.6 River City FM''. The station continued to run a local breakfast but now outside breakfast all programming originated from the Classic Hits studios in Auckland. At the same time the original 1197AM frequency was replaced with

Newstalk ZB Newstalk ZB is a nationwide New Zealand talk radio, talk-radio network operated by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, NZME Radio. It is available in almost every media market, radio market area in New Zealand, and has news reporters based in m ...

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

The Hits The Hits was a music video Television channel, channel broadcast in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, owned by Box Television. On 15 August 2008 it was rebranded as 4Music. Overview and availability The channel showcased a ra ...

. A networked breakfast presented by

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

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 radi ...

was introduced to almost all The Hits stations with the former breakfast announcer moved to present a 6-hour show between 9 am and 3 pm. The local daytime programme is presented by Jesse Archer who can also be heard on The Hits Manawatu. The current station is located on the corner of Guyton and Campbell Streets, Whanganui.

References

Wanganui Whanganui, also spelt Wanganui, is a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest nav ...

Mass media in Whanganui Defunct radio stations in New Zealand Radio stations established in 1949 Radio stations disestablished in 2014 {{NewZealand-radio-station-stub

See also

References