2ZA was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radio ...

Palmerston North, New Zealand Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

History

Early years

2ZA 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 ...

, at the time was known as the National Broadcasting Service, in 1938, broadcasting on 940AM. The station was branded as

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

2ZA. In 1978 the station moved to 927AM after New Zealand changed from 10 kHz spacing on the AM band to 9 kHz spacing.

Switch to FM

In 1991 2ZA began broadcasting on 97.8FM in addition to the 927AM frequency. On air the station became known as ''AM-FM 2ZA''. In September 1992 AM-FM 2ZA was divided into two separate stations. The FM frequency was relaunched as a music station as ''The New 98FM'' and later shortened to ''98FM'', the AM frequency was used to run talkback, news and sports shows as ''The Manawatu's 2ZA''.

Rebranding as Greatest Hits 98FM

In 1993 Radio New Zealand began rebranding most of their local heritage stations as

Classic Hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

. At the time of rebranding there was already a local independent station in the Manawatu market branded as Classic Hits 828 and 98.6FM as a result Radio New Zealand chose to rename 98FM as ''Greatest Hits 98FM'' instead of Classic Hits, the station used the same logo as the other Classic Hits stations and on air imaging was similar to all other Classic Hits stations. At the same time the 927AM frequency used to broadcast ''The Manawatu's 2ZA'' was used to launch network station

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 ...

into the Manawatu with some local content initially retained. In 1994 rival station Classic Hits 828 and 98.6FM was rebranded as Magic 828 & 98.6FM and as result Radio New Zealand were able to rename Greatest Hits 98FM to Classic Hits 97.8FM.

Change of ownership and reduction in local programming

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 Radio New Zealand, which included, among other things, the

branded stations. 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 1997 Classic Hits 97.8FM was renamed to Classic Hits ZAFM, at the time Southland's Classic Hits station was also known as Classic Hits ZAFM. In 1998 Classic Hits ZAFM was reduced to just 4 hours of local programming between 6 and 10 am 7 days a week. Outside this time nationwide shows based from Auckland took over, and the announcers simply called the station Classic Hits. The breakfast show was shortened to a 3-hour show in 2012 on all Classic Hits stations and local weekend programming removed. In 2001 branding was changed to ''Classic Hits 97.8 ZAFM'' and changed to ''Classic Hits 97.8'' in 2008.

Rebranding as The Hits

On 28 April 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 cur ...

. 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. The Hits Wanganui daytime show presented by Daryl Mallett was networked into Manawatu. As of September 2017, the day show is presented by Jesse Archer, live from the Main Street studio.

References

External links

''2ZA Radio Golden Years Reinvented on Stage''
at the

Regent on Broadway The Regent on Broadway is a large theatre in Palmerston North, New Zealand, named so because it is the Regent Theatre on Broadway Avenue. History Designed in 1929 by Charles Holingshed of Sydney, the theatre complex was officially opened to t ...

Theme song to "Garner's Request Session"
broadcast Monday to Friday from 9 to 9.30am. (

Hubert Bath Hubert Charles Bath (6 November 188324 April 1945) was a British film composer, music director, and conductor. His credits include the music to the Oscar-winning documentary ''Wings Over Everest'' (1934), as well as to the films ''Tudor Rose'' ...

: 'March: Empire Builders', from '' Rhodes of Africa''. Gaumont British Symphony Orchestra cond. Louis Levy) {{Radio in New Zealand The Hits (radio station) Mass media in Palmerston North Defunct radio stations in New Zealand 1938 establishments in New Zealand Radio stations established in 1938