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Radio Stations

Radio One 91FM

Radio One 91FM

Radio One 91FM is Dunedin’s student radio station, broadcasting on 91.0MHz from the University of Otago since 6 February 1984. Owned and operated by OUSA, the station played a central role in the Dunedin Sound era of the early 1980s, championing Flying Nun Records artists including The Chills, The Bats, Sneaky Feelings, and The Verlaines when commercial radio would not. Among its alumni are Shayne Carter, Jan Hellriegel, and Lesley Paris. In 1987 it became the first radio station in the world to broadcast news of the Fiji coup. Still active as the voice of Ōtepoti student music culture.

95bFM

95bFM

95bFM is Auckland’s student and independent radio station, broadcasting on 95.0FM from the University of Auckland since 1969 — first as the pirate Radio Bosom and then as the licensed 95bFM from 1990. New Zealand’s longest-standing independent broadcaster, it championed Flying Nun Records and first broke Sister Underground, OMC, Che Fu and Savage on Auckland radio, founded the bNet NZ Music Awards in 1999, and in 2005 conducted the interview in which Don Brash admitted foreknowledge of the Exclusive Brethren’s election campaign.

RDU 98.5FM

RDU 98.5FM is Christchurch’s independent alternative radio station, founded on 23 February 1976 as Radio U under the University of Canterbury Students’ Association. It became the first FM station in Christchurch in 1986 as UFM, and rebranded as RDU 98.5FM in 2002. Controversially privatised in 2006 when sold to James Meharry and Karyn South for $2, the station survived the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes by broadcasting from a converted horse truck, and moved to its permanent home in the Boxed Quarter in 2015. In 2026 RDU marks its 50th anniversary as a cornerstone of Christchurch’s independent music culture.

George FM logo

George FM

George FM is a New Zealand dance and electronic music radio station founded in 1998 by brothers Thane and Richard Kirby from a spare bedroom in Grey Lynn, Auckland. Starting as a volunteer-run low-power FM station, it went city-wide in 2001 through a partnership with the Manukau Urban Māori Authority, became commercial in 2003, and was acquired by MediaWorks in 2009. Now broadcasting nationally — including on 95.3FM in Christchurch — George FM is New Zealand’s leading dance radio brand, drawing around 202,000 weekly listeners with a presenter-led format that gives DJs full control over their music selection.

C93FM

C93FM was a Christchurch independent FM radio station that broadcast on 92.9MHz from 1986 to 2001. Founded as a classic rock station, it passed through several formats — 93FM Gold, Classic Hits, Adult Contemporary — before closing in April 2001. Its most significant contribution to New Zealand music was the 1988 Rockquest, a local band competition conceived by station employee Ron Kjestrup that grew, under new organizers, into the national Smokefreerockquest.