Sounds FM was a radio station in the
Marlborough region of New Zealand. Sounds FM had its origins as a school-based radio station,
X-Static FM operated by ''The X-Static Society.'' The station was based at
Marlborough Boys' College
Marlborough Boys' College is a state single-sex secondary school in Blenheim, New Zealand. The school was established as Marlborough High School in 1899 (renamed Marlborough College in 1919). The school its current form in was established in 1963 ...
and broadcast on 89FM with the callsign 2STA. This station originally went to air in 1986 and only operated on a part-time basis during school lunch times and some evenings. The station was rebranded as ''Marlborough's 89FM'' in 1988 and remained at Marlborough Boys College until 1989 when the station moved to new premises at the
Blenheim Blenheim ( ) is the English name of Blindheim, a village in Bavaria, Germany, which was the site of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Almost all places and other things called Blenheim are named directly or indirectly in honour of the battle.
Places ...
Post Office Building; by this time the station was broadcasting from 6AM to 12AM. In 1990 this station went off the air and ''The X-Static Society'' a year later launched a new station ''Sounds 93FM''.
Sounds 93FM began on 16 August 1991 originally from The X-Static Society premises. The station originally broadcast on 92.9FM in Blenheim, and 94.5FM (now 94.7FM) in
Picton and to
Kaikoura.
In 1992, Sounds 93FM ran a networked show between 22:00-06:00 each day with the programme coming from
Fifeshire FM in
Nelson creating an "Over The Top" network - Over The Top referring to the top part of the South Island. This arrangement ended in 1993, and Sounds FM resumed their own overnight programming.
The station was later sold to
Marlborough Media and the name shortened to ''Sounds FM''. The relay to Kaikoura was dropped in the late 1990s but then re-established in early 2007 on 90.3FM (now 89.9FM). Marlborough Media also operated a second station called
Easy FM
Easy FM is a radio station in Beijing, China on 91.5 FM. It is a member of the China Radio International group of radio stations. The programs are mostly in English (some of them being bilingual), while the commercials are in Mandarin Chinese. I ...
. In December 2007 Marlborough Media was sold to
MediaWorks and in August 2008 Sounds FM was rebranded as
More FM.
Programming during the morning remains locally produced from the former Sounds FM studios. The breakfast show is the Simon Barnett and Gary McCormick show, networked from More FM Canterbury. From 15:00 onwards, the station is networked from the Auckland More FM studio, like most of the other More FM stations.
The local morning show (from 10:00-15:00) is currently hosted by Georgia Watt. Former host Glen Kirby left the station in 2015, along with Natasha Knox, who returned in 2017. Josh Fogden left the station in 2017.
References
External links
New Zealand Herald - South Island radio stations join the networkMediaWorks Website - Radioworks acquires Marlborough Stations
{{coord missing, New Zealand
Radio stations in New Zealand
Mass media in Blenheim, New Zealand
Defunct radio stations in New Zealand
More FM