Classic Hits Twelve 51 (1987)
Channel: Patrick Te Pou
Date: 07/01/2021

A Classic Hits Twelve 51 commercial - screened on TVNZ in December 1987. This commercial featured an appearance by Mark Bennett, who went on to become the voice of talk radio through Radio Pacific (then RadioLIVE, now Magic Talk) many years later.

HISTORY
1ZM (or 1251ZM as it was known since New Zealand altered its AM band frequency spacing in late 1978) still running on 1251AM as a limited commercial station by 1987. With its final attempt unsuccessful under the old Broadcasting Warrant scheme, a decision was made to attempt a further re-format and a 'Classic Hits' format was first introduced.

This format had been successful for a number of years in the United States. The small, tightly rotated playlist of 'Hit Radio' tunes was abandoned and the station instead targeted all people aged 25-44 with a playlist containing over 3,500 songs, playing everything from Dean Martin to AC/DC. 

The 1987 version of Classic Hits was unlike anything else available at that time. The re-formatting was essentially an attempt to recover audience, but was still costing Radio New Zealand (RNZ) over $1 million per annum to operate as it was the only "commercial station" legally required to run without any commercials. With the change to the Classic Hits format, 1251ZM became what was known as "Classic Hits Twelve 51" and the ZM name was dropped.

The change in name marked the birth of the Classic Hits brand that would eventually be rolled out to other radio stations throughout New Zealand. The ZM stations in Wellington and Christchurch were not affected by the requirement to run limited commercials and went on to switch to FM stations during the mid-1980s.

The Lange Government's liberalisation of the Broadcasting Warrant system (which was ultimately abolished during 1989/90) saw the station finally win the right in December 1989 to broadcast in stereo on 97.4FM in Auckland and broadcast commercials. Classic Hits Twelve 51 became "Classic Hits 97FM", and the 1251AM frequency licence was transferred to Christian broadcaster Radio Rhema (now Rhema) in early 1990.

In 1992 Classic Hits 97FM in Auckland changed its logo to a green diamond with the words "Classic Hits" on a banner above and the 97FM frequency inside the diamond. A year later RNZ decided to rebrand many of its local stations to use the same logo as Classic Hits 97FM with the station's local frequency in the middle. The on-air imaging was standardized across all stations now branded as Classic Hits but initially all stations remained live and local.

In 1996 the Bolger Government sold the RNZ commercial group of stations to a new, privately owned company called The Radio Network (TRN). The sale included all stations branded as Newstalk ZB (AM) and Classic Hits (FM), as well as the ZM stations. 

From 1998 most Classic Hits stations were reduced to a local breakfast show between 6-10am and outside these times took network programming from the Classic Hits 97FM studio in Auckland. The announcers on Classic Hits 97FM Auckland started producing two voice breaks outside of breakfast programming: a local voice break for Auckland listeners and a second voice break targeted at a national audience.

Classic Hits became what is now known as "The Hits" in 2014.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to YouTube channel Sleek822 for the use of this clip.