More FM - MORE FM History

MORE FM History

MORE FM first began in Wellington on the 6th of May 1991 as a local radio station. In the early nineties MORE FM began broadcasting in Christchurch and Auckland both as local stations separate from the Wellington station. In the late nineties MORE FM's parent company The MORE FM Group was sold to CanWest Mediaworks who at the time were the owners of TV3 New Zealand, the sale also included The Breeze in Wellington and Channel Z. Programming was extended to Dunedin in 1997 as a local station but networked from Christchurch during breakfast and evenings. A fifth MORE FM station was started in the Waikato in 1999 as a totally local station.

In 2000 CanWest Mediaworks purchased RadioWorks which at that stage was operating 4 network brands across New Zealand and a local station in most markets across New Zealand. In 2004 MediaWorks began nationalising many of their local stations previously marketed as LocalWorks stations. Many of the easy listening stations were rebranded as The Breeze and the other stations which typically played Adult Contemporary or Hot AC music were rebranded as MORE FM, the change saw MORE FM extended to more than 15 markets with all stations initially retaining their local announcers. The number of stations was later expanded to 22 after MediaWorks purchased other independent stations and rebranded to MORE FM.

Evening and overnight network programming began in January 2005. The 'MORE FM Most Wanted' Night show was originally hosted by Dominic Bowden until the middle of 2005 and then by Tarsha Tolson until the middle of 2007 when Tarsha moved to Wellington to co-host the MORE FM breakfast show. The overnight show was originally hosted by Asher Bastion until he left to go to Life FM in June 2006 where he is currently Programme Director. Originally weekend evening and overnight programming remained local in each region but this was replaced with network based shows in late 2005. On Friday and Saturday nights MORE FM now operates a nationwide all request 'Club Classics' party mix show, hosted by professional DJ duo Sandon James and Rich Wilson - better known as the "Sweet Mix Kids". Weekend's are now seeing more network programming from Auckland, part of a growing trend for radio in New Zealand. Most stations now have no local programmes on a Sunday with the station entirely networked from Auckland across the weekend, with the exception of a Saturday morning breakfast show.

In August 2009 the first Network Drive show was created. The Wellington weekday Drive show team, 'Josh & Tom' Josh van Berkel and Tom McKenzie (ex-Classic Hits South Canterbury) were re-located to Auckland and their show was networked into 19 of the 22 MORE FM markets over the following months.

In March 2011 Josh & Tom announced they were leaving MORE FM. The structure of the day was reworked ending the traditional Breakfast/Day/Drive line up. From the 4th April 2011 the More FM stations are local in all markets with the network starting at 1pm, an hour earlier, consisting of a 1pm-4pm Afternoon show hosted by former MORE FM Waikato breakfast host Stu Tolan and a 4-7pm Drive show hosted by media personality Clarke Gayford. The main exception to this rule is the Christchurch More FM which operates as 92.1 More FM Canterbury. This station operates a live and local program from 6am-7pm every day of the week.

In October 2011, MORE FM's new breakfast show for Auckland, Waikato & Wellington was announced. The new breakfast show commencing November 7, 2011 is hosted by Marc Ellis, Amber Peebles & Stu Tolan. The 'local' host from 10am to 1pm reads local news and weather in their respective region as part of the networked breakfast show from 6am to 10am.

In October 29th 2012 Amber Peebles, co-host of the MORE FM breakfast team with Marc Ellis and Stu Tolan will be departing the show this December to pursue a television project in 2013. "I have loved working with the MORE FM team," says Amber. "I'll miss the banter with Marc and Stu but not the 4.30am starts! “I'm really looking forward to sleep-ins and listening from the comfort of my bed. 2013 is looking exciting and I've promised to come back on the show to let everyone know what's happening as soon as I can." Amber's replacement will be announced shortly, joining Marc Ellis and Stu Tolan in the New Year.