Big River Radio was a local radio station in

Balclutha, New Zealand Balclutha ( mi, Iwikatea) is a town in South Otago, lying towards the end of the Clutha River, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is about halfway between Dunedin and Gore on the Main South Line railway, State Highway 1 a ...

broadcasting a local breakfast show. The 92.9 FM frequency covered central Balclutha, while the 93.7 FM frequency could be heard throughout the South Otago and Northern Southland area (including

Gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...

). The station was first started in 1992 as way of rebroadcasting Dunedin's

4XO Radio 4XO was a local radio station in Dunedin, New Zealand which began on 20 November 1971 as one of the first privately owned commercial radio stations in the country. The callsign/station identity 4XO was assigned because 4 meant the area of ...

to the Balclutha region as the hilly geographic location of the township means Dunedin radio stations can not be picked up clearly in Balclutha. The station initially was limited to just a local show on Saturday mornings from a clients premises but after a permanent studio was built the station extended local programming to 7am - 12pm weekdays with 4XO relayed outside these times. In 1999 the stations owner

Radio Otago Radio Otago was a radio company that operated a group of local radio stations in radio markets around New Zealand from the 1970s to the late 1990s. Radio Otago was started in 1971 when Dunedin station 4XO was started, 4XO was originally branded a ...

was sold to

RadioWorks MediaWorks New Zealand is a New Zealand-based company specialising in radio, outdoor advertising and interactive media. It is jointly owned by U.S. company Oaktree Capital Management and out-of-home advertising company QMS. It operates nine n ...

and in 2000 local programming was extended to 4pm each weekday and 7am - 12pm weekends. In 2002 the station was extended into the afternoon giving it ten hours local content Monday to Friday with a further four hours on Saturday morning. In 2004 RadioWorks rebranded most of its local stations as

More FM More FM is a New Zealand radio network that plays hot adult contemporary music. It is operated by MediaWorks New Zealand. More FM broadcasts in 25 centres throughout New Zealand on 81 transmitters with a mix of local and network programming. ...

but Big River Radio was not affected by this change. Since 2009 the station was known on air as More FM's Big River Radio during local programming and played exactly the same songs in the same sequence as the other More FM stations. All other times the station relayed Dunedin's 97.4 More FM with Dunedin advertising. Previous award-winning breakfast host Brad Jeffrey left the station in November 2010 to take on the role of Operations Manager and 10-2 host at Times FM in Orewa, before returning to the station in November 2013. As of 2018 the station is now known as More FM Balclutha and contains no local programming. The station is now separate from More FM in Dunedin and runs different network shows to those heard in Dunedin.

References

Radio stations in New Zealand Mass media in Balclutha, New Zealand {{NewZealand-radio-station-stub