Coast (New Zealand radio)

Coast

Broadcast area	12 markets in New Zealand
Slogan	"Timeless Music"
Format	50-70's Hit Music
Owner	The Radio Network
Website	http://www.thecoast.net.nz

Coast is a New Zealand radio network owned by The Radio Network that plays middle of the road music with an emphasis on music from the fifties and sixties. A live breakfast show presented by Brian "BK" Kelly, along with programmes presented by Gael Ludlow and Rick Morin from Auckland studios are broadcast across the network's fifteen stations, except for a local breakfast breakout for Hawera.

Coast begins every hour with a four minute Newstalk ZB news and sports bulletin and a MetService weather update. The rest of the hour consists of music, comments from the presenter on the music being played and issues of the day, and up to three commercial breaks of no more than 60 seconds each. There are also Newstalk ZB business news bulletins at 06:30, 12:30 and 17:30 on weekdays.

During weekdays, the national weather report is read out by the previous hour's presenter, however in the weekends a 30-second localised forecast is aired, pre-recorded for each market from the Newstalk ZB Timesaver Traffic Center. Other stations of TRN also air these forecasts on their stations.

Coast should not be confused with Coast FM, which is an unrelated, independently owned and operated radio network, based in Westport on the West Coast of the South Island.

The head office and main studios of Coast are located on the corner of Cook & Nelson Streets in Auckland City, along with the other seven stations of The Radio Network.

History

Coast originally started in Hawkes Bay in 2002 as a local station. The history of this station dates back to 1995 as The Wireless Station broadcasting on 1530 AM and playing music from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; The Wireless station was operated by the Hawke's Bay Media Group. The station was rebranded as Goodtime Gold in 1998, playing music from the 1960s and 1970s and in 1999 became Gold 1530. This station was sold to The Radio Network in 2000 and was rebranded as Jammin' Oldies 1530 or JO 1530. The final rebranding of the station was to the current name Coast 1530.

In 2004 the station became voice tracked from Auckland in preparation for the station's launch in the Auckland market. On 26 April 2004, Coast launched in Auckland with the Auckland-based programme being networked back to Hawkes Bay. Later in 2004, Coast was networked to other markets around New Zealand.

All Coast stations take the same networked programme from Auckland except Hawera, which has its own local breakfast show called The 1557 Breakfast. This show was originally played on Newstalk ZB in the Hawera region when Newstalk ZB broadcast on 1557 AM. After Newstalk ZB in Hawera moved to 1278 AM, this show was dropped and replaced with the Auckland-based show but later picked up by Coast.

That's the Story hosted by Ronnie Mackie is played between 7.00 am and 8.00 am on Sunday mornings where it was played on Classic Hits FM.

The breakfast host since the station's foundation, well-known radio veteran Mike Oliver, left the station in early 2011. 10 am – 3 pm host Jacqui Taite, who had also been with the station since its foundation, also left the station at the end of 2011. They were replaced by Brian "BK" Kelly and Gael Ludlow, respectively.

Schedule

• 6am-10am Monday-Friday & 6am-12pm Saturday : Brian "BK" Kelly
• 10am-3pm Monday-Friday : Gael Ludlow
• 3pm-8pm Monday-Friday & 12pm-6pm Saturday : Rick Morin
• 12pm-6pm Sunday : John "J.D." Dunstan

Frequencies

In the North Island:

• Northland - 900AM
• Auckland - 105.4FM
• Waikato - 105.0FM
• Tauranga - 97.4FM
• Rotorua - 96.7FM
• Gisborne - 87.6FM
• Taranaki - 1359AM, 88.2FM
• Taranaki: Hawera only - 1557AM
• Hawke's Bay - 1584AM
• Manawatu - 1548AM
• Kapiti - 95.9FM
• Wellington - 95.7FM

In the South Island:

• Nelson - 100.8FM
• Christchurch - 1593AM
• Dunedin - 954AM
• Southland - 92.4FM

External links

• Coast Official Website
• Radio Network's Information Site About Coast