Foveaux FM

Foveaux FM

Broadcast area	Southland New Zealand
Frequency	89.2 FM 1224 AM 104.4 FM
Programming
Format	Adult Contemporary
Ownership
Owner	MediaWorks
History
First air date	1981
Call sign meaning	4XF

Foveaux FM was a local radio station in Invercargill New Zealand that began operating in May 1981. The station was named after Foveaux Strait which runs between the South Island of New Zealand and Stewart Island. The station was originally started by a group of investors as 4XF Foveaux Radio broadcasting on 1224 AM. In the late eighties the station was sold to Radio Otago and in 1991 Foveaux made the switch to FM when it began broadcasting on 89.2 FM and retained the AM frequency.

In October 2018, with trademark now owned by an Invercargill resident, Foveaux Radio began broadcast licensing tests over Invercargill City on 104.4 FM. This broadcast of Foveaux Radio has since been discontinued.

Format

Foveaux FM played a mixture the latest hits as well as older music, the station also ran several talk shows such as Talkback with John Husband on weekday mornings and a sports talk show on Sunday mornings called Sports Comment and Opinion. Evening programming catered to a younger audience with the station running a Top 9 at 9 countdown show. During the mid-to-late 1990s, the Foveaux FM night show was also simulcast on Resort Radio in Queenstown.

The Foveaux Radio logo from the 1980s

Foveaux was always a live and local station 24 hours a day however some specialist nationwide shows were played on the station over the years these included:

• The Other Top 40 (was on-air Saturdays in 1988)
• Coke Shake 30 Countdown (Saturday Afternoons 1992 – 1995)
• Power Jam Countdown (Saturday Afternoons 1995 – 1997)
• Keeping it Kiwi (Sunday 5PM 1994 – 2001)
• Counting the Beat (Sunday 10PM 1994 – 1997)
• Rock Your Radio (Sunday 11PM Kiwi Music Show) (1994–1997)
• Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 (Sunday Afternoons 2002)

Competition

The stations main competitor was 4ZA which is now known as The Hits Southland. Another local competitor was Hokonui Gold which broadcasts from Gore but both stations can be clearly heard across most of Southland. In response to changes in the local and New Zealand radio market, Foveaux FM moved many of their talk related shows to the AM frequency in the late 1990s these shows were later dropped. The station also moved away from targeting the younger audience in the early 2000s, The Top 9 at 9 was replaced by The Eighties at 8.

Studio Location

The Foveaux FM building on the Corner of Tay and Kelvin Streets in January 2005 when the station changed from Foveaux to More FM, as you can see half the building says Foveaux the other More FM.

The Foveaux FM studios were located on the corner or Tay and Kelvin street in Invercargill on the first floor of a building previously used as a hotel, which was known as the Cecil Hotel. The ground floor of the building was used for retail stores. In 2018 MORE FM Southland was relocated to the commercial building at 20 Don street in Invercargill. The original studio building was demolished in March 2020 along with most of the buildings in the surrounding block to make way for the Invercargill Central Mall development.

Rebranding to MORE FM

Foveaux FM was owned by Radio Otago up until 1999. Radio Otago merged with Energy Enterprises in 1999 to form RadioWorks.

In November 2004 Canwest RadioWorks decided to rebrand many of their local heritage stations with the well known More FM brand name and then on 15 January 2005 Foveaux FM became Southlands 89.2 More FM. The change also saw the station reduced to 13 hours a day of local programming when More FM introduced a networked night show and overnight show.

In October 2007 the original Foveaux Radio 1224AM frequency that had been continued to be used for the rebranded More FM station was reassigned to BSport. While BSport was launched as a rebranding of Radio Pacific the old Radio Pacific frequency was used to launch The Breeze into Southland.

Local programming on the rebranded MORE FM station has been reduced over the years. Today the breakfast show, hosted by Gretchen Blomfield and Simon Edwards and a Saturday morning breakfast show are the only regular local shows.

Announcers

Announcer	Show	Duration	Last known station
Rob Holding	6 am – 9 am Breakfast Show	1990–1991	Spent 17 years with New Zealand's Rhema. Currently runs a LPFM station HIS-fm in Katikati www.hisfm.co.nz
Carl Mills	10 am – 2 pm Midday Show	1994–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)	Left More FM in December 2009. Starting in a new position as breakfast host on Hokonui Gold, Gore from 18 January 2010.
Chris Diack	Mornings	1981–1987	LPFM stations
Chris Hurring	Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and a production engineer after 2001	1995–1998 and 2001–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)	More FM/Mediaworks Taupo from 2005-2010. More Fm/Mediaworks Nelson 2010-2012. Currently employed at Mediaworks Auckland as Group Imaging Production Engineer for both Radio Live and The Sound.
Aileen Wallace	Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and graveyard shifts (12 AM – 6 AM). Also sourced, wrote and voiced news and commercials. Only female announcer in Invercargill during her time.	1992–1994	Left to become a sound technician with Radio New Zealand Sound Archives. Later worked as a writer and researcher at Natural History New Zealand.
Blair Hawkins (Evil)	started part-time while at high school, Night and mid-dawn announcer and temp production engineer.	Full-time from November 1984 – 1987	Helped set up and run Southlands Access radio station and resident DJ for various niteclubs.
Ross Ronald	All shows, started as NZ's youngest full-time broadcaster in early 1983 and progressed through airshifts, sales, programme director and various guises of breakfast show for 21 years.	1983–2004
Craig Waddell (Wal)	Co-host of the breakfast show with Darren Ludlow	1994–2002	Various shows on Hokonui Gold
Darren Ludlow	Breakfast show co-hosted by Craig Waddell	1992–2002	Invercargill City Council member and station manager for Radio Southland
Daryl Shuttleworth	Started with just 80s on Sunday nights, Saturday morning host for 10 years, did 10 - 2 weekdays for 4 years, also breakfast fill in.	2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)	Hosted the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM and the daytime show until 2014.Currently has a show called Live Life Live on Radio Southland.
Eryn Breading	10 – 2 pm Daytime Show	2001–2004	Breakfast show on More FM, Taranaki, now living in England working for radio company.
Gretchen Blomfield	Breakfast show co-hosted by James McRobie	2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)	Hosts the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM.
Iain Stables		Mid 1990s	Drivetime show on The Edge FM (early 2000s) ZM Drive show 2003 - 2008 Hit Radio X105 Wellington Drive Show 2009 - 2010
James McRobie	Breakfast show co-hosted by Gretchen Blomfield	2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)	Hosted the breakfast show on the rebranded More FM and moved to rival station Classic Hits 98.8 (now known as The Hits) in 2012 replacing long standing breakfast host John "Boggy" McDowell. Left the radio industry in 2018.
John Husband	Morning 9 – 10AM Talkback Show (show ran exclusively on the 1224AM frequency after 1997)	1980s – 2002 when show was discontinued	Hosted talkback TV shows on Southland TV (since cancelled). Curator of Anderson Park Art Gallery.
Kelly Burdon	Night show and Weekend announcer	2001–2003	Event and venue co-ordinator for NAPP London, UK.
Marcus Lush	Breakfast show co-hosted by Megan Nichol	2002–2004	Night show on Newstalk ZB (presented from NZME Southland Studios) and Invercargill City Councilor
Mark McCarron		1980s - 1990s	Breakfast show announcer on The Sound and the stations predecessor Solid Gold.
Megan Nichol	Breakfast show co-hosted by Marcus Lush	2002–2004	Journalist for TVNZ in Dunedin, now living in England
Shaun Summerfield		1993	Sports presenter for 3 News
Ryan Boswell	Night show and weekend announcer	2003–2005	Journalist for Newstalk ZB in Auckland
Steve Muir	Originally Overnight shift and later 10AM – 5PM Announcer	1994–2000
Tony Bennett	Foveaux Radio's very first station producer	1981–1985

Other early names include Jeff Nuth (Day 1 Brekky announcer) Lloyd Keown, Brian Neilson, Luke Terry, Chris Diack, Alan Davis, Mark Stallard, Geoff Baraclough, Blair Hawkins, Craig Farr, Juanita Rae, Larissa Kellet, Grant Millman, Malcolm Jordan, Karen Scott, Peter Wells, Rob Caig, John MacDonald, Jason MacDonald, Warren Filer, Dave Mahoney (PD & Breakfast host), Jim Healy, Mike Rehu and Dave Wallace