More FM

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

More FM  —  a radio network which started transmissions in 1991 and is currently operated by MediaWorks New Zealand ...

More FM is a New Zealand radio network that plays hot adult contemporary music, and is operated by MediaWorks New Zealand.  The station broadcasts in 25 centres throughout New Zealand on 81 transmitters with a mix of local and network programming targeting a 25 to 49-year-old audience and having the most local shows of any radio network in New Zealand.  Currently there are 11 different breakfast shows and 14 day shows on a network that has grown from a local Wellington station to a large network brand (which had the 3rd or 4th largest audience of all New Zealand's commercial radio stations in 2021), developed through expansion, acquisitions and re-branding of local stations already owned by MediaWorks.

More FM, with an on air position of Not too Heavy, Not too Soft, first began in Wellington on 6 May 1991 as a local radio station.  The very first station was started by Doug Gold and Craig Thompson; previously Doug Gold was the managing director of Wellington radio station Radio Windy.  Gold and Thompson were joined by fellow investors Chris Muirhead, Simon Swampy Marsh, Lyn Chung and Bill Mathieson.  The very first song to play on the first More FM station by breakfast show hosts Simon Swampy Marsh and Anemarie Gold was Rhythm of My Heart by Rod Stewart.  In the early nineties More FM began broadcasting in Christchurch and Auckland, both as local stations separate from the Wellington station.  In the late 90s More FM's parent company The More FM Group was sold to CanWest Mediaworks who at the time were the owners of TV3 New Zealand; the sale also included The Breeze in Wellington and Channel Z.  Programming was extended to Dunedin in 1997 as a local station, but networked from Christchurch during breakfast and evenings.  A fifth More FM station was started in the Waikato in 1999 as a totally local station.  In 2000 CanWest Mediaworks purchased RadioWorks which at that stage was operating 4 network brands across New Zealand and a local station in most markets across New Zealand.  RadioWorks later became known as MediaWorks.