Foveaux FM was a local radio station in Invercargill, New Zealand that began operating in May 1981. The station was named after Foveaux Strait which runs between the South Island of New Zealand and Stewart Island. The station was originally started by a group of investors as 4XF Foveaux Radio broadcasting on 1224 AM. In the late eighties the station was sold to Radio Otago and in 1991 Foveaux made the switch to FM when it began broadcasting on 89.2 FM and retained the AM frequency.
In October 2018, with trademark now owned by an Invercargill resident, Foveaux Radio began broadcast licensing tests over Invercargill City on 104.4 FM. This broadcast of Foveaux Radio has since been discontinued.
Format
Foveaux FM played a mixture the latest hits as well as older music, the station also ran several talk shows such as Talkback with John Husband on weekday mornings and a sports talk show on Sunday mornings called Sports Comment and Opinion. Evening programming catered to a younger audience with the station running a Top 9 at 9 countdown show. During the mid-to-late 1990s, the Foveaux FM night show was also simulcast on Resort Radio in Queenstown.
The Foveaux Radio logo from the 1980s
Foveaux was always a live and local station 24 hours a day however some specialist nationwide shows were played on the station over the years these included:
The stations main competitor was 4ZA which is now known as The Hits Southland. Another local competitor was Hokonui Gold which broadcasts from Gore but both stations can be clearly heard across most of Southland.
In response to changes in the local and New Zealand radio market, Foveaux FM moved many of their talk related shows to the AM frequency in the late 1990s these shows were later dropped. The station also moved away from targeting the younger audience in the early 2000s, The Top 9 at 9 was replaced by The Eighties at 8.
Studio Location
The Foveaux FM building on the corner of Tay and Kelvin Streets in January 2005 when the station rebranded from Foveaux to More FM, with half the building as Foveaux and the other More FM.
The Foveaux FM studios were located on the corner of Tay and Kelvin street in Invercargill on the first floor of a building previously used as a hotel, which was known as the Cecil Hotel. The ground floor of the building was used for retail stores. In 2018 MORE FM Southland was relocated to the commercial building at 20 Don Street in Invercargill. The original studio building was demolished in March 2020 along with most of the buildings in the surrounding block to make way for the Invercargill Central Mall development.
Rebranding to MORE FM
Foveaux FM was owned by Radio Otago up until 1999. Radio Otago merged with Energy Enterprises in 1999 to form RadioWorks.
In November 2004 Canwest RadioWorks decided to rebrand many of their local heritage stations with the well known More FM brand name and then on 15 January 2005 Foveaux FM became Southlands 89.2 More FM. The change also saw the station reduced to 13 hours a day of local programming when More FM introduced a networked night show and overnight show.
In October 2007 the original Foveaux Radio 1224AM frequency that had been continued to be used for the rebranded More FM station was reassigned to BSport. While BSport was launched as a rebranding of Radio Pacific the old Radio Pacific frequency was used to launch The Breeze into Southland.
Local programming on the rebranded MORE FM station has been reduced over the years. Today the breakfast show, hosted by Gretchen Blomfield and Simon Edwards and a Saturday morning breakfast show are the only regular local shows.
Spent 17 years with New Zealand's Rhema. Currently runs a LPFM station HIS-fm in Katikati www.hisfm.co.nz
Carl Mills
10 am – 2 pm Midday Show
1994–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)
Left More FM in December 2009. Starting in a new position as breakfast host on Hokonui Gold, Gore from 18 January 2010.
Chris Diack
Mornings
1981–1987
LPFM stations
Chris Hurring
Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and a production engineer after 2001
1995–1998 and 2001–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)
More FM/Mediaworks Taupo from 2005–2010. More Fm/Mediaworks Nelson 2010–2012.
Currently[when?] employed at Mediaworks Auckland as Group Imaging Production Engineer for both Radio Live and The Sound.
Aileen Wallace
Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and graveyard shifts (12 AM – 6 AM). Also sourced, wrote and voiced news and commercials.
Only female announcer in Invercargill during her time.
1992–1994
Left to become a sound technician with Radio New Zealand Sound Archives. Later worked as a writer and researcher at Natural History New Zealand.
Blair Hawkins (Evil)
started part-time while at high school, Night and mid-dawn announcer and temp production engineer.
Full-time from November 1984 – 1987
Helped set up and run Southlands Access radio station and resident DJ for various niteclubs.
Ross Ronald
All shows, started as NZ's youngest full-time broadcaster in early 1983 and progressed through airshifts, sales, programme director and various guises of breakfast show for 21 years.
Invercargill City Council member and station manager for Radio Southland
Daryl Shuttleworth
Started with just 80s on Sunday nights, Saturday morning host for 10 years, did 10 – 2 weekdays for 4 years, also breakfast fill in.
2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)
Hosted the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM and the daytime show until 2014.Currently has a show called Live Life Live on Radio Southland.
Eryn Breading
10 – 2 pm Daytime Show
2001–2004
Breakfast show on More FM, Taranaki, now[when?] living in England working for radio company.
Gretchen Blomfield
Breakfast show co-hosted by James McRobie
2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)
Hosts the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM.
Drivetime show on The Edge FM (early 2000s) ZM Drive show 2003 – 2008 Hit Radio X105 Wellington Drive Show 2009 – 2010
James McRobie
Breakfast show co-hosted by Gretchen Blomfield
2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM)
Hosted the breakfast show on the rebranded More FM and moved to rival station Classic Hits 98.8 (now known as The Hits) in 2012 replacing long standing breakfast host John "Boggy" McDowell. Left the radio industry in 2018.
John Husband
Morning 9 – 10AM Talkback Show (show ran exclusively on the 1224AM frequency after 1997)
1980s – 2002 when show was discontinued
Hosted talkback TV shows on Southland TV (since cancelled). Curator of Anderson Park Art Gallery.
Originally Overnight shift and later 10AM – 5PM Announcer
1994–2000
Tony Bennett
Foveaux Radio's very first station producer
1981–1985
Other early names include Jeff Nuth (Day 1 Brekky announcer) Lloyd Keown, Brian Neilson, Luke Terry, Chris Diack, Alan Davis, Mark Stallard, Geoff Baraclough, Blair Hawkins, Craig Farr, Juanita Rae, Larissa Kellet, Grant Millman, Malcolm Jordan, Karen Scott, Peter Wells, Rob Caig, John MacDonald, Jason MacDonald, Warren Filer, Dave Mahoney (PD & Breakfast host), Jim Healy, Mike Rehu and Dave Wallace
