Browsing: radio

News
Trade Me hosts record-breaking radio frequency auction as NZME and MediaWorks splash out millions
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In the digital age, the buying of radio frequencies seems almost archaic. The internet means that any major radio brand can now be accessed across the nation. And yet, in the recent Radio Spectrum auction, NZME broke a record by paying $7.4 million to retain the frequency it currently uses for Newstalk ZB in Christchurch. And while slightly more frugal than its competitor, MediaWorks Radio also pulled out the chequebook to pay $2.5 million for a frequency used for Mai FM in Waikato and $2 million for a frequency that will host George FM in Wellington. StopPress chats to MediaWorks group content director Leon Wratt and NZME Radio managing director Dean Buchanan to find out if it’s still worth paying that much for radio frequencies.

News
FCB picks up September Orca for taking over the airwaves
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Given the insight that Kiwi worker down their tools at 3.29 every Friday, at this time on 12 September FCB created a radio roadblock by playing Mitre 10’s ‘Bring on the Weekend’ song across six stations. And this creative—if somewhat unconventional approach—has now resulted in the agency winning an Orca award for the month of September.

News
Everyone wins in the radio survey (especially The Edge and Newstalk ZB)—UPDATED
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The radio survey is generally a competitive affair, which pits the two commercial radio networks against each other and invariably results in the liberal use of superlatives. The latest edition was no different. The releases from the respective networks read like pages torn out of a motivational speaker’s speech, drawing attention to all the positives that the result served up. MediaWorks used its release to draw attention to the fact that it overtook NZME in terms of overall station share in Auckland for the first time. And on the other side of the divide, NZME highlighted the continued dominance of Newstalk ZB, and singled out Mike Hosking for again having the number one breakfast show in New Zealand. PLUS: Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells celebrate Hauraki moving from 13th to 12th.

News
Ogilvy & Mather takes out July’s ORCA award for Tim Finn interruption, BIG’s Landrover gets merit
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Ogilvy & Mather has claimed July’s Orca Award for placing an advertising message inside a music track. At 55 seconds into ‘I See Red’, Tim Finn interrupts the song urging people to go online and sign ‘The Last 55 petition’ to help save the Maui’s Dolphins. Joe Holden from BIG scored a merit award with the stories of Landrover’s origins told in a “true oldschool storyteller’s” voice.

News
Hauraki breakfast team follow in successful stations’ footsteps, APN gets in on the cross-promotion action
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Radio Hauraki has fully embraced its 13th most-listened to breakfast show tag in recent months, with Jeremy Wells’ brilliant ‘Like Mike’ section being born out of a desire to replicate Mike Hosking’s morning success and a new online video series showing the team heeding memos from on high and doing a few things guaranteed to move them up the rankings, such as using t-shirt cannons and adding some sexual tension to the mix. And, as per usual, they’ve done it in slightly unusual, self-deprecating and moderately NSFW fashion.

News
The Edge offers all-expenses paid trip to Rugby World Cup to two mates who exchange vows
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Earlier this week The Edge was revealed as the brand behind Love You Man, a campaign that will undoubtedly ruffle the feathers of those with slightly more conservative views on the act of marriage. With the confirmation of Jay-Jay, Mike and Dom’s involvement came the announcement that the campaign forms part of a competition that will award a trip to next year’s Rugby World Cup to a pair of best mates who take their friendship to the next level by exchanging vows.

News
Colenso BBDO’s K9FM wins ORCA for June
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Colenso BBDO has won the June/July Orca award from the Radio Bureau with its doggie radio station K9FM, which already picked up a silver at the recent Cannes Lions. K9FM is a campaign for Colenso’s client Pedigree that dogs can listen to at home while their owners are out working. It stems from research that found that classical music calms dogs down, ambient sounds keep them stimulated and a relaxed voice eases their separation anxiety.

News
Want to reach Kiwis? NZ On Air media consumption study shows the old dogs are still dominant, but digital is nipping at their heels—UPDATED
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When it comes to reaching New Zealanders, ye olde traditional broadcast media is still on top, with the results of NZ On Air’s independent media consumption study showing the majority of Kiwis are still consuming lots of linear television and live radio every day. But music audiences, the young and the Asian community are leading the charge to digital platforms.

News
TRN launches Auckland radio station, extends ZM brand onto TV
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TRN has announced the launch of a new Auckland-based radio station and the extension of the ZM radio brand onto TV in the same week that MediaWorks is set to unveil the Edge TV. We chatted to chief content officer Dean Buchanan about these moves. PLUS: Radio Sport relegated to AM and TRN crashes The Edge TV launch party.

News
Cannes 2014: two Colenso campaigns shortlisted in Radio category
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Colenso BBDO is the only Kiwi agency still standing in the Radio category after the shortlist was announced overnight. The Auckland-based agency’s campaign for Memphis Meltdown has been shortlisted twice for the ‘Voice Transplant’ and ‘Listen to your Stomach’ spots and the agency also got received nominations for the ‘Talkies’, ‘Meditation’ and ‘K9FM’ spots created for Pedigree.

News
Radio New Zealand’s Paul Thompson on the decline of radio
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On 12 May, Radio New Zealand’s chief executive Paul Thompson delivered a speech at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Conference held in Glasgow—and his thoughts on the industry stood in stark contrast to the optimism that has been voiced by the respective PR teams of the commercial stations. From the first line of the speech, which is currently available on the Radio New Zealand website, it’s clear that Thompson is bracing himself for a significant challenge in the role that he only stepped into nine months ago.

News
Spotify and Pandora’s connected cars intrude on radio’s safe zone
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When in-car tape and CD players were first released, various analysts predicted the possible demise of the radio industry on account of the fact that people could customise their own playlists to personalise the listening experience. And while the industry managed to survive the tape deck and CD shuttle, the digital age is posing a new threat to radio’s continued dominance of in-car listening.

News
FCB and Colenso win at ORCA, but comedic trio steals the show with satirical analyses of ads
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In contrast to the major advertising awards shows that are typified by large round tables, three-course meals and formal attire, the ORCA Awards, held last night at the Nathan Club in Auckland, was a stripped down affair that took a tongue-in-cheek look at the ads created by the six finalists. Over the course of the event, the organisers released a series of videos of radio personalities Bryce Casey, Guy Williams and Dave Fane sharing their often hilarious thoughts on the shortlisted ads.

News
New Zealand Radio Awards: MediaWorks collects mountain of awards, TRN dominates talkback
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Although radio usually sits in the background while the in vogue content delivery mediums soak up the limelight, the last few weeks have bucked that trend and brought radio to the centre of a varied range of media discussions. And given that radio is currently attracting so much attention, it’s only fitting that the New Zealand Radio Awards last night celebrated the best talent among those who are often heard and rarely seen (although, this is changing). As was the case last year, MediaWorks again led the charge in terms of numbers by picking up a total of 29 gongs throughout the course of the night, followed by TRN with 15 and Radio New Zealand with nine.

News
Stepping out of radio’s dark ages: TRN rebrands Classic Hits and incorporates cross-channel content delivery
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At an ad-hoc conference held this morning at Ponsonby Central, TRN announced several significant changes to its offering. The key announcements, delivered via TRN’s chief executive Jane Hastings, chief content officer Dean Buchanan and commercial director Laura Maxwell-Hansen, were presented as part of the overarching ‘Change is Now’ campaign, which will serve to promote all the updates over coming months. In addition to rebranding Classic Hits, TRN has also invested in a multimedia studio and shuffled its staff.

News
Radio survey results: the battle for ears continues across the radio divide
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The moment TNS New Zealand releases its radio survey results, the media industry generally buzzes in competitive chaos as everyone vies to get the often confusing statistics published as quickly as possible. Given that we all know that the storm is coming, this one of the few times when interviews are scheduled weeks in advance, questions are emailed pre-emptively and past results are collated in an anticipatory move. This year did not disappoint, and we were again given a fair dose of chaos. So without further ado, here’s a breakdown of some of the key trends recorded in the latest results.

News
ZM and Pride & Joy collaborate to kickstart career of a ‘remarkable unemployee’
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ZM, part of The Radio Network (TRN), has teamed up with ice cream franchise Pride & Joy to give a $30,000 franchise opportunity to a lucky New Zealander, who shows the drive and determination necessary to run a successful business. Pride and Joy co-founders James Coddington and Tony Balfour say that they are focused on providing opportunities for remarkable people among today’s unemployed and underemployed.

News
A brief history of Morning Report told through theme tunes
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This morning, Susie Ferguson and Guyon Espiner hit the airwaves as the new co-presenters of Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report, and the start of their tenure coincided with the release of new theme music for the long-running show. Since 1970, each decade of the show’s history has been given its own theme tune, and the new version, which comes a day after Geoff Robinson’s last show, serves to usher in a new era for the radio show.

News
BuzzDial: inside a local start-up’s mission to become ‘the Google analytics of TV’
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You can tell by the particularly un-Kiwi job title on Ross Howard’s business card (Senior Vice President of Product & Design) that BuzzDial, the fledgling tech start-up he co-founded with similarly accomplished digital media bods Tom Cotter and Geoff Devereux, is looking much further afield than the small local market. And with M-Com’s Adam Clark coming on board as chairman, Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 fund investing in the business and positive responses to the product from a number of global broadcasters, it seems to be off to a pretty good start.

News
Owning the airwaves: APN acquires TRN, iHeartRadio and ARN
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APN News & Media Limited today announced in a release that it will acquire full ownership of The Radio Network (TRN) and Australian Radio Network (ARN) from US-based Clear Channel Communications for $246.5 million. This move will give APN 100 percent control of what it claims is the largest network of radio stations across the trans-Tasman region.

News
Radio New Zealand shuffles its lineup—UPDATED
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Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has announced that Simon Mercep will leave the Morning Report in April when Geoff Robinson, the co-host on the show, retires. And according to a Herald report, the empty seats left at the Morning Report by the imminent departure of the two hosts will be filled by Auckland-based Guyon Espiner and, if speculation is to be trusted, Wellington journalist Susie Ferguson, who has previously filled in on the show.

Opinion
Guy Williams on offensive Tweets, being a craplebrity and Kobe jumping over an Aston Martin
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Although Guy Williams isn’t actively involved in the advertising industry beyond appearing in the odd promo for one of his shows, his ability to consistently deliver a humorous message no matter which medium he is working in is something that many marketers and brands strive to do with their campaigns. So, in order to learn his secrets, we sent the lanky comedian a few questions.

News
MediaWorks Radio laughs at itself, gets stars to walk a mile in colleagues’ shoes
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The radio survey results always make for entertaining/confusing reading. There’s certainly no shortage of self-aggrandisement (‘We’re number one* in shemales^ aged 48-49# between 10pm and 10:15pm!’​) and MediaWorks Radio was pretty chuffed with its performance in this round. So, to showcase the network’s galaxy of stars and its ability to reach Kiwi audiences, it created an entertaining and very self-deprecating clip showing its DJs swapping stations and attempting to appeal to very different demographics than they’re accustomed to. Mark Leishman reprezent biatches!

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