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Revision as of 04:39, 7 September 2006

This article refers to the defunct New Zealand radio station. For other uses, see Other Channel Z's

Channel Z was an alternative music radio station broadcasting in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand. In early 2005 the station was relaunched as Kiwi FM and only plays New Zealand music.

The Birth of Channel Z

Channel Z appeared on the air in Wellington, New Zealand, in mid August, 1996. Its founding programme director was John Diver. Channel Z was part of the More FM Group of stations, later to become the CanWest-owned RadioWorks Group. Early presenters included: Martin Devlin, John Diver, James Coleman, and Olivia.

Talkback

Talkback was a tradition on Channel Z. The very first talkback show on Channel Z - "Talk" - featured James Coleman and John Diver, together hosting a show that featured, among other things, "Cornish Hour", which began with the two hosts talking in Cornish accents. Cornish Hour - sponsored by the fictitious shortbread company, "McAndrews" - seldom ran longer than a few minutes and was in part inspired by the British motion picture, Blue Juice. After the departure of Martin Devlin, and James Coleman's move to the breakfast programme, "Talk" was hosted by John Diver and night-host Olivia. "Talk" aired on Sunday nights between 20:00 and 00:00.

Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury hosted the Auckland version of Talkback up until the end of 2005. Bomber's show had features that dealt with legal and health advice, promoted human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and World Vision, as well as poking fun at conservative groups and views.

Ironically, the date that Kiwi FM launched (February 6, 2005) was the date that Talkback was supposed to return for 2005... but it never did. Later in 2005, Martyn Bradbury (without the alias 'Bomber') joined Radio Live to host a weekly late night talk show on Sunday Night. This show, however, was quite different to the Channel Z based talkback show.

Later Years

In 1998, long time presenter, Pheobe Spiers and breakfast hosts Jon Bridges and Nathan Rarere joined the station. Channel Z Christchurch was launched in 1999, with Willy Macalister presenting a local daytime show, Melanie Wise on the night time show and networked mornings and drive shows. In 2001, major changes to Channel Z were made including the abolishment of local shows in both Wellington and Christchurch and everything being networked from Auckland. This was obviously not a positive move, especially for Wellingtonians (where Channel Z began). Jon & Nathan's breakfast show was also later canned in favour of a new show featuring James Coleman on his own, with Bomber and Clarke Gayford moving from Nights to Drive.

The End

In January 2005, Channel Z announced it was to relaunch as Kiwi FM, playing 100% New Zealand music on February 6, 2005. This announcement came with mixed views with skeptism that it would not work.

In mid 2005, many young New Zealanders who missed their favourite radio station Channel Z, started an online petition to try and convince a return. Banners, newspaper articles and flyers were produced to a large extent. Though unsuccessful, the spirit of Channel Z fans still endures. Many state the reason why they loved the station so much was it's non- mainstream playlist, entertaining and down to earth presenters, and of course Talk back with Bomber. Channel Z wll be greatly missed.The makers of the petition were Brian Kerhofs and Hayden McCabe, The home site is down, so there is only the petition. The two teenagers found some valid and informal statistics to why Channel Z should be brought back:

.Aproximatly 490,900 people listened to channel z, when it changed to kiwi that same number stopped listening to the new station.

.In it's first two months, kiwi fm dropped a total of 10,000 listeners in Aukland, Wellington and Christchurch.

.In august 2006, Neil Finn stopped Kiwi fm from being funded by the taxpayers and the government. and because of this it only has a yaer to prove itself as a station or it will be taken off the air, and changed back to Channel z or something similair.

Credit to www.bringbackz.co.nz for the info(website is down)

Other Channel Z's

• Channel Z was the title of a song by the B-52's about a fictional radio station whose motto is ‘‘Channel Z: All static, All day, Forever!’’

• Channel Z GmbH is a film production, HD post-production and visual effects company in Germany. The company did the screen design for the final draw for the 2006 World Cup in Germany for the ARD (Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen).

• Channel Z was the name for the prototype Amiga 1200 computer by Commodore

See also

• Channel Z: The Best Of Vol. 2

External links

• An article on the history of Channel Z

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