4ZA

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Southland's 4ZA

Broadcast area	Southland New Zealand
Frequency	98.8 FM & 864 AM (until 1994)
First air date	1956
Format	Adult Contemporary
Callsign meaning	4ZA
Owner	Radio New Zealand (at time of rebranding) now The Radio Network

4ZA was a local radio station in Southland New Zealand. 4ZA began broadcasting in Southland on 820 AM in 1956 as a commercial station operated by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. With the change in band frequency spacing in late 1978, 4ZA moved to 864 AM. Before 1989 Radio stations in New Zealand were assigned call signs, 4ZA was branded as its call sign name 4ZA until 1993 when it became Classic Hits ZAFM.

In 1979 John "Boggy" Mcdowall joined the station and years later took on the role as the breakfast show host. Despite all the changes made to the station Boggy still hosts a very similar breakfast show today.

4ZA made the move to FM in 1991 when it began broadcasting on 98.8FM, 4ZA was the first commercial station in Southland to broadcast on FM. Years later 4ZA also switched to FM in Te Anau broadcasting on 90.4FM. Between 1991 and 1993 4ZA ran a country music show on the AM frequency on Sunday mornings and a Classic Hits show at the same time on the FM frequency, the same was done weekday mornings where Talkback would run on the AM frequency, it was at this time that announcers started calling the station Classic Hits 4ZA-FM. From 7pm to 6am the station carried RNZ Community Network programming in simulated stereo.

In 1993 Radio New Zealand rebranded many of their heritage stations as Classic Hits but some of the stations maintained part of the heritage name into the branding. For 4ZA the station became known as Classic Hits ZAFM and for most locals the change was seamless it was like the announcers just started calling the station ZA-FM instead of 4ZA-FM. The 7pm to 6am show was replaced with a stereo feed from Auckland branded Classic Hits, and originally with Auckland advertising.

In 1994 Classic Hits ZAFM stopped broadcasting on AM and the 864AM frequency was used by Newstalk ZB as it still is today. In 1996 Radio New Zealand sold their commercial operation as a result all Classic Hits branded stations were sold to The Radio Network.

In 1998 Classic Hits ZAFM was reduced to just 4 hours of local programming between 6AM and 10AM 7 days a week, outside this time nationwide shows based from Auckland took over and the announcers simply called the station Classic Hits. The change has seen the station turn into a network station with a local breakfast show, competitions are now held nationwide. In the past local listeners enjoyed local competitions such as Rices Sound of Southland but now this is a nationwide competition known as The Secret Sound. Also calling the studio is done by using a nationwide 0800 phone number instead of a local Invercargill number even during the breakfast show.

In 2001 all Classic Hits stations were renamed to included the full frequency in the branding for Classic Hits ZAFM this meant the station became Classic Hits 98.8 ZAFM. From 2005 onwards the "ZA" was dropped from much of the station branding particularly the case with branding created from Auckland however locally announcers still included the "ZA" in the branding. Today the station is branded as Classic Hits 98-8, local announcers normally call the station Classic Hits (as with the network announcers) or Southland's Classic Hits.

2006 marked the 50th anniversary of 4ZA and Classic Hits ZAFM and in October a reunion was held for all employees that ever worked on this station.

In 2012 local programming was reduced even further when all Classic Hits station in New Zealand were reduced to 3 hours local programming with the local breakfast show ending at 9AM.

Breakfast Show

John "Boggy" McDowell still hosts the breakfast show and has been doing so for over 30 years now. His current co-host is James Mcrobbie. Malcolm Gayfer reads local news and the sports news during breakfast which includes local sports news as well as national and international sports news. "Bertie Budgies" birthday calls were first introduced in the 1980s and remained a major part of the breakfast show until 2011, the intro jingle to Bertie Budgies birthday calls remained in place until 2009 when it was replaced with the same birthday calls intro used on other Classic Hits stations. In 2011 this was reduced to Boggy just reading out the birthdays. "Wooly Woofter Awards" on Wednesdays were part of the breakfast show from the 1980s until 2008. While the breakfast show remains local and still has that Southland touch music played on the station is actually selected by the Programme Directors in Auckland and even the same songs play in the same sequence across all Classic Hits stations in the country.

At weekends breakfast programming remained local on Saturdays until the end of 2011 and Sundays until the end of 2009. The Saturday show was presented by Darren Ludlow between 2006 and 2010 and the Sunday show was typically presented by the 95-6ZM Black Thunder Driver. Ludlow had worked on 4ZA in the late 1980s and early 1990s before moving to presenting breakfast on Foveaux FM. He returned in 2006 to present the local Saturday breakfast. In 2010 funding was cut by The Radio Network for local weekend programming however the local Saturday breakfast show remained on the air thanks to Ludlow being prepared to present this show without pay. Ludlow left in 2011 to take on the role of station manager at Radio Southland and Andy Mack (who at the time read local sport during breakfast and contributed on-air) began presenting the Saturday morning show until he left in July 2011, Boggy or Tracy covered this show until the end of 2011. At the end of 2011 all Classic Hits stations that still had local weekend breakfast shows were required to drop their local breakfast show.

On April 2nd 2012 an announcement was made about the future of the Classic Hits Southland breakfast show. It was announced that Boggy's then co-host Tracy Kilkelly would leave the station on Thursday the 5th of April and the following week former More FM Southland breakfast presenter James McRobie would take Tracy's place. The second announcement was that Boggy would leave Classic Hits 98-8 Southland at the end of 2012 and become the Drive show presenter on Coast in early 2013, a nationwide station operated by The Radio Network. At this point James McRobie will become the new main presenter for the Classic Hits Southland breakfast show. It is unknown as to whether Boggy will be required to move to Auckland to present his new show on Coast whether the show will be presented from Southland.

Studio Location

The 4ZA studios are located on the corner of Don and Deveron Street in the Invercargill CDB. The building is a two story building with a court yard in the middle. During the stations heyday the entire building was occupied by 4ZA with the studios on the first floor. With the reduction of local programming many of the offices in the building became empty. Today the first floor of the building is now occupied by the Southern Institute of Technology known as the SIT Sound campus or ZA Campus. SIT use this campus for music and radio related courses. The top floor of the building is occupied by The Radio Network and the building is now known as Radio Network House.

Coordinates: 45°24′51″S 167°43′00″E / -45.414259°N 167.716779°E / -45.414259; 167.716779