Wairarapa FM was a radio station in Wairarapa, New Zealand broadcasting from studios in

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

. The station was started by

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 c ...

(which at the time was known as the National Broadcasting Service) in 1958 on 840AM with the callsign 2XB. The station was originally branded as its callsign 2XB. In 1968 2XB changed became known as 2ZD when the station changed callsigns. In 1978 the station moved to 846AM when AM frequency spacing in New Zealand was adjusted from 10 kHz to 9 kHz. During the 1980s the station became known on air as Radio Wairarapa. 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 Wairarapa. 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 Ne ...

, 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 correspondents ...

. In 1998 The Radio Network grouped all their local stations in smaller markets together to form the Community Radio Network. The station 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. Coinciding with the change Radio Wairarapa began broadcasting on 90.1FM and renamed to 90.1 Wairarapa FM. In 2001 the Community Radio Network was discontinued and all stations become part of the

Classic Hits FM The Hits is a Adult contemporary music#Hot adult contemporary, Hot adult contemporary music radio network, broadcasting to 26 markets across New Zealand. It was set up by New Zealand Government, Government broadcaster Radio New Zealand in 1993 ...

network, as a result Wairarapa FM was rebranded as ''Classic Hits Wairarapa FM''. The station continued to run a local breakfast but now outside breakfast all programming originated from the Classic Hits studios in Auckland. In 2010 the station moved to 90.3FM are part of a government alignment of frequencies around New Zealand, at this point the station became known as ''Classic Hits 90.3'' In 2013 the local breakfast show was dropped and Wairarapa listeners began hearing the Classic Hits Wellington breakfast show instead. On April 28, 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 curr ...

. 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 Ke ...

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 9am and 3pm. As the Wairarapa station already previously ran the local Wellington breakfast, and contained no local Waiarapa programming, the change was to run both the network breakfast and daytime show creating a complete networked station.

References

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...

Defunct radio stations in New Zealand {{NewZealand-radio-station-stub