FM broadcasting in New Zealand

FM broadcasting in New Zealand

State broadcasting

Radio NZ started broadcasting on FM in the 1970s.There is a TVNZ news report on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkTI_MMiPEQ

Commercial broadcasting

The very first station to broadcast on FM in New Zealand was a temporary station in Whakatane called FM 90.7. The station ran from the 5th of January 1982 until the 31st of January 1982. The very first permanent station in New Zealand to broadcast on FM was Magic 91FM in Auckland broadcasting on 91.0FM followed by 89 Stereo FM broadcasting on 89.4FM. Both stations are no longer in operation; Magic 91 is the local Auckland frequency for ZM and 89 Stereo FM today broadcasts a simulcasted FM version of Newstalk ZB.

Today the majority of radio stations in New Zealand broadcast on an FM frequency.

Frequency allocation

The UK and NZ until recently shared an FM broadcasting allocation of 88.0 - 105.0 MHz.This smaller allocation (less than 20 MHz [ie: 88 MHz - 108 MHz] , typical of FM in the rest of the world) can be traced to the 405 line system's VHF allocation block. The UK adopted the 405 line system but NZ did not. NZ's allocation for FM remained smaller as if NZ had adopted the 405 line system.

* NZ considered adopting the 405 line system in the late 1950s to early 1960s but adopted PAL instead. This impacted the frequency allocation block for FM broadcasting making it smaller.
* NZ's FM frequency allocation issue was not fixed until the late 1990s, when the band was expanded to the full 20 MHz.
* Both NZ and the UK have the standard global allocation of 88.0 - 108.0 for FM now.

Subcarriers

NZ permits Radio Data System subcarriers, but their adoption is not universal. Radio NZ uses RDS for its FM network, but commercial radio's adoption of the technology is not universal.