The Planet 97FM was a

hit music ''Hit Music'' was a weekly British chart newsletter; sister publication to ''Music Week''. ''Hit Music'' existed for almost nine years, supplying the official UK music charts (as compiled by Gallup and later OCC/CIN). The founding editors were ...

radio station in

Nelson, New Zealand (Let him, who has earned it, bear the palm) , image_map = Nelson CC.PNG , mapsize = 200px , map_caption = , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = ...

History

The station was founded in 1999 by Kevin Ihaia who was the former manager and founder of

Fifeshire FM Fifeshire FM was a Nelson, New Zealand radio station owned by RadioWorks. The station broadcast on 93.0FM in Nelson, 92.0FM in Motueka and Tākaka, and 94.1FM in Murchison. Fifeshire FM first started as a summer station known as Radio Fifeshir ...

in Nelson. Ihaia left Fifeshire in 1998 after the station was sold to

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 ...

. Several ex-Fifeshire staff followed him to the new station. Ihaia left the station in 2001 and died in 2004. Originally The Planet was a locally owned and operated station playing

Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet s ...

music. In 2001 the station was purchased by

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 ...

(TRN) and the music format was changed from

to a

Hit Music ''Hit Music'' was a weekly British chart newsletter; sister publication to ''Music Week''. ''Hit Music'' existed for almost nine years, supplying the official UK music charts (as compiled by Gallup and later OCC/CIN). The founding editors were ...

format similar to the format used on network station ZM. The Planet FM slogan was changed to ''Today's Hit Music'' the same slogan used by ZM. Following the sale the station also moved its studios from 1 Haven Road in Nelson to The Radio Network's Nelson premises on Selwyn street. In April 2004 TRN purchased the frequency that had previously been leased and The Planet FM was replaced with ZM with the station branded as ''97ZM''. Local content was replaced with content from the ZM network and The Planet brand was phased out altogether.

External links

Web archive of the Planet FM website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Planet 97FM ZM (radio station) Mass media in Nelson, New Zealand Defunct radio stations in New Zealand Radio stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in New Zealand