Newstalk ZB is a nationwide talk radio network in New Zealand operated by The Radio Network (TRN), a joint venture between the American radio company iHeartMedia and the Flemish media corporation Mediahuis. It is available in almost every radio market in New Zealand, and many of them employ reporters. In addition to feedback, the network also broadcasts news, interviews, music, and sports (in partnership with its sister network Radio Sport). The network’s hosts are Kate Hoxby, Mike Hosking, Kerry Woodham, Simon Barnett, James Daniels, Heather du Plessis-Allan, Marcus Lash, Andrew Dickens and Jack Tam. There is a local morning show in Wellington and Christchurch.
The majority of the network’s programming is produced in Auckland, but Wellington and Christchurch produce some local programming, and most markets produce their own local news and weather updates.
Newstalk ZB’s history dates back to 1926 when Auckland station 1ZB first began broadcasting at 10:70am, the station moved to 1090 kHz in 1931, 1190 kHz in 1933 and 1080 kHz in 1978. The station’s brand name was the station call sign 1ZB. The ZB station was installed in four main centers of New Zealand: 1ZB Auckland, 2ZB Wellington, 3ZB Christchurch and 4ZB Dunedin. Until 1987, the four ZB stations were music stations featuring local and network content. Each individual station in the Newstalk ZB network has its own history, with most stations starting out as local AM radio stations operated by Radio New Zealand.
1ZB originally operated from Broadcasting House, a purpose-built modernist theater and studio building on Durham Street, from 1941 until its demolition in 1990.
In the mid-1980s, 1ZB Auckland lost a number of its key on-air personalities to privately owned Radio i, including Merv Smith, who had hosted the 1ZB breakfast program for over twenty years. Subsequently, the station’s ratings plummeted as a large number of listeners moved to other stations. In 1987, the decision was made to re-launch 1ZB as a talk station under the Newstalk 1ZB brand. Although the change was not popular at first, the station showed growth by the end of the first year and by 1989, the breakfast show presented by Paul Holmes was the number one show in Auckland. In February 1993, in Auckland, Newstalk 1ZB began broadcasting on 89.4 FM, as well as its original frequency of 1080 AM, when local station 89X (formerly 89FM) ceased operations. Radio New Zealand had acquired the station a year earlier and decided to close it and use the frequency for Newstalk 1ZB. The current nationwide number 0800 Newstalk ZB (0800 80 10 80) actually comes from the original 1080am frequency in Auckland, which is still in use today.
In the late eighties and early nineties, Radio New Zealand switched many of its local traditional stations to FM, but retained an AM frequency in each region, airing the same program on both frequencies. Following the success of the feedback format in Auckland, in 1991 it was decided to switch 2ZB Wellington and 3ZB Christchurch to the feedback format. At the same time, new FM music stations B90 FM (Wellington) and B98 FM (Christchurch) were launched in Wellington and Christchurch. In the early nineties, many of Radio New Zealand’s local stations that had switched to FM began airing morning talk shows on AM while continuing to play music on FM.
In 1996, Radio New Zealand sold its commercial operations and Newstalk ZB, along with Classic Hits and ZM, became part of The Radio Network. In 2001, Newstalk ZB was expanded into smaller community markets in New Zealand. The smaller regions did not have their local stations renamed Classic Hits in the early nineties, and many of these stations were still broadcasting on AM frequencies only. These stations were merged in 1998 to become part of the Community Radio Network, in 2001 all Community Radio Network stations were renamed Classic Hits and at this point started broadcasting on FM if the station was already on FM, leaving the AM frequency now used for Newstalk ZB broadcasting.
The audience of Newstalk ZB in Auckland plummeted in 2002 as music radio stations became more popular, raising doubts about the network’s future viability. However, in 2013, the station had the highest market share of any commercial station nationwide.
Following the Christchurch earthquake on September 4, 2010 and the major aftershock on February 22, 2011, programming in Christchurch was severely affected. After both earthquakes, the station broadcast in place of other radio stations in Christchurch operated by TRN, the local studios located on Worcester Street in Christchurch were evacuated. The local news services in Christchurch were temporarily replaced by an online news feed that mainly contained earthquake-related news that all of New Zealand had heard about. Local news readers reported the earthquake throughout New Zealand.
The local morning show remained on the air, but was broadcast from a temporary location. After the first earthquake, it was at Whitebait Studios in Christchurch, and after the February earthquake in February, it was a hotel in Christchurch. TRN Christchurch never returned to its premises on Worcester Street and eventually settled in a new location. The building was demolished in August 2012 in New Zealand’s first-ever controlled demolition of a building using explosives.