History
The Rock began on 1 December 1991 in Hamilton as The Rock 93FM by Grant Hislop, Joe Dennehy and Martin Dempster trading as Nevada Resources Ltd. The original line-up included Chris Clarke on breakfast (replaced by Mark Bunting after 2 months) and Roger Farrelly on Drive. Originally, The Rock 93FM was based in the basement of Radio New Zealand Broadcasting House in Hamilton, this headquarters was the studios for ZHFM. The transmitter was originally located on the top of Waikato Hospital. In 1993 The Rock moved to their new premises at 564 Victoria Street in Hamilton. Grant purchased a collection of FM frequencies from the Christian Broadcasting Association and transferred them to Nevada. Using the first of these frequencies a local version of The Rock was started in Taranaki in 1993, this station was originally broadcast on 100FM but after both the Hamilton and Taranaki stations were sold to Energy Enterprises The Rock in Taranki moved to 95.6FM. A third The Rock station was started in the Bay of Plenty in 1996 with local programming. In 1997 The Rock created a regional network by replacing the Taranaki and Bay of Plenty stations with the Hamilton based The Rock station and also networked into Rotorua. In 1998 The Rock began networking to other regions in the North Island. In 1999 The Rock relocated their studios to Auckland and began broadcasting there, later that year RadioWorks bought Radio Otago and as a result the station was networked into the South Island. In Christchurch, Radio Otago had already been operating their own rock station called C93FM and this station was networked to Dunedin and Invercargill, C93FM actually played a Classic rock format similar to Radio Hauraki. RadioWorks replaced C93FM in Dunedin and Invercargill with The Rock and kept C93FM operating in Christchurch but changed its format to Adult Contemporary and launched The Rock on a separate frequency. C93 no longer operates as the station failed to attract new listeners after the format change. Today The Rock broadcasts over most of New Zealand. Their slogan is "Music, It's about the only thing we take seriously".
The only remaining original members of The Rock crew are Rog, Tracey Donaldson and Paul Martin aka The Axeman. Tracey started at The Rock in 1991 and left for her OE (Overseas Experience) in 1996 but returned to The Rock in 2003. The Axeman is the longest-serving member of The Rock, having been with it soon since early 1992, hosting his show "The Axe Attack" every Sunday night. Other DJs to have left include Greenman, who went on his OE to the UK, Beachy (Christopher Beach) who moved into sales, and Julie.
Currently, regular on-air announcers include Roger Farrelly, Bryce Casey, Leah Panapa and Andrew Mulligan as hosts The Morning Rumble, The Rock's breakfast show between 5.30am - 9am. Tracey Donaldon (9am-1pm) and Jason Mac (1pm-4pm) cover the workday, with Robert and Jono's Drive taking over the afternoons from 4-7pm. Duncan Heyde and Mike 'Gumbo' Garvey host the night show "Rock Nights" from 7pm until midnight.
Read more about this topic: The Rock (Radio Station)
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