George FM

George FM is a New Zealand dance music radio station, owned and operated by MediaWorks from Ponsonby Road headquarters and relayed on Freeview[1] and radio frequencies around New Zealand. Its seventy-five regular presenters and additional guest presenters host the station's twenty-four-hour mix of house, breaks, drum and bass, dubstep, electro, soul, downbeat, jazz, funk, indie electronica, hip-hop and other dance and electronica music.

Broadcast areaNew Zealand
SloganNZ's Dance and Electronic Music Station
FormatDance radio
OwnerMediaWorks New Zealand
WebcastLive Stream
WebsiteOfficial website

The network was set up as a volunteer-run low power station based in a Grey Lynn spare bedroom in 1998. It became a commercial station with paid staff by 2003, began to be relayed to other centres in subsequent years, became a Freeview station on 1 May 2008 and was bought out by MediaWorks on 16 February 2009. It continues to retain a laid-back style: news is limited to informal news, weather, traffic and surf reports hourly during breakfast and drive shows and the choice of music and presenting style is entirely that of programme hosts.

Programmes

Breakfast

The George FM Breakfast is hosted by Kara Rickard, General Lee and Tammy Davis. The show airs from 6-10am Monday to Thursday and 6-9am Fridays. It was previously hosted by Nick Dwyer and Dean Campbell from 2009 to 2013, Clarke Gayford and Aroha Harawira in 2014, then by station co-founder Thane Kirby and Kara Rickard in 2015 and 2016. From February 2017, Clint Roberts and Kara Rickard hosted, with comedian Pax Assadi in early 2017. Tammy Davis took on the role of third host in May 2017. In March 2018, Roberts left, and was replaced by Stu Tolan. On November 11, 2019 General Lee and Stu Tolan swapped roles, General Lee now hosts Breakfast and Stu Tolan hosts Weekdays. Kimbra has guest-hosted the programme on a number of occasions,[2][3] and PNC, Scribe and David Dallas performed a live freestyle rap on the show in 2012.[4]

In 2013, New Zealand artists were invited to cover popular George FM tunes in a regular Friday on-air and online video feature called 'Damn! I Wish I Was Your Cover', akin to Like a Version on Triple J. The segment featured Ruby Frost covering Disclosure's "White Noise",[5] Tahuna Breaks covering Daft Punk's "Get Lucky",[6] Anna Coddington covering Major Lazer's "Get Free",[7] Six60 covering Rudimental's "Feel The Love",[8] Tali covering Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming Pools",[9] and Lips covering Kavinsky's "Nightcall".[10]

Weekdays

Weekdays are currently hosted by Sin Howard 10am - 3pm. Former hosts include Aroha, Dean Campbell, General Lee and Stu Tolan.

Drive

Dan Aux has hosted the drive programme since 2015 (3pm - 7pm), replacing a previous 2009 to 2014 award-winning drive programme with Thane Kirby and Kara Rickard. Gracie Taylor hosted in 2015 with Dan Aux.

Weeknights

Nights are hosted by Brook Gibson 7pm - midnight.[11] This block features guest mixes, live DJ mix-shows, interviews and more.

Thursday night's schedule features more genre-specific shows - Big Bad Heavy Radio showcases bass music, Silk Cuts in Session is dedicated to UK garage, and the late-night Olly Thomas show is dedicated to dance music. Friday nights are focused on dance and dance-pop - with OurHouse with Tim Phin, Diplo and Friends, and the acid house and electronic show All Gone Pete Tong.

Weekends

Weekend mornings begin with Chillsville 6am - 10am for both days. Saturday's line up includes two-hour genre-specific shows from 10.00am. Nice 'N' Urlich with Peter Urlich and Bevan Keys showcases new house and dance, Saturday Revival with Hamish and Rangi features a dance mix, The Dose is dedicated to soul and funk music, SaturDan hosted by George Drive host Dan Aux features the biggest DJ mixes in 60 minute ad free sections from 3pm. Saturday night's playlist is exclusively dance with the commercial-free Saturday House Party from 7:00pm to 3:00am.

The Sunday schedule includes multi-genre shows like Ear Shot with Cian, Logg Cabin Radio and Sunday Sweetmix. George FM's long-running soul music Sunday flagship, Chocolate Sundae with Gene Rivers, broadcasts in the late afternoon. The Sunday night schedule features the multi-genre Bahaco and hip-hop show The Melting Pot.

Stations
This is a map of George FM frequencies operating in 2016.

George FM broadcasts a network programme on full-power FM and low-power FM frequencies.[12] It also broadcasts via the Freeview and Rova platforms.

It was previously available on low-power frequencies in Whangarei, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier, New Plymouth, Whanganui, Te Anau and Invercargill.[13][14][15] The network has retained low-power broadcasts in Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and has full-power broadcasts in Nelson and Queenstown.

Frequencies

References
  1. More than 100,000 Freeview boxes sold
  2. "Kimbra on George FM". Toby Ricketts. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  3. "Video: Kimbra Co-hosts George FM Breakfast". George FM. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  4. "George FM Freestyle - PNC, Scribe, David Dallas". P Money. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  5. 'White Noise'
  6. Get Lucky
  7. Get Free
  8. Feel The Love
  9. Swimming Pools
  10. Nightcall
  11. "George Nights". George FM. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  12. "George FM frequency list". Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  13. "The New Zealand Radio Guide Full Power FM Stations". radioheritage.net. Radio Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  14. "About - Home - George FM". georgefm.co.nz. MediaWorks New Zealand. Archived from the original on 17 October 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  15. "About - Home - George FM". georgefm.co.nz. MediaWorks New Zealand. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015.

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