RNZ to set up new youth music station

Radio New Zealand is moving to set up a new station, focused on music to attract a younger audience.

The plan for a new youth and music focused radio station has been in the pipeline as a dream at the public broadcaster for years.

On Thursday, it made the first real step towards setting up a new brand, posting a job advert for a lead programmer to be responsible for a ‘‘new music brand’’.

It was unclear if this new brand would be on the radio or purely online. The job advert said this new brand would operate across ‘‘all available platforms’’.

In April, RNZ head of radio and music David Allan told Stuff he was looking at the possibility of launching a digital radio station, which would focus on music rather than talk shows.

Allan declined to comment on Thursday but RNZ spokesman John Barr said no decisions had been made about what the new brand would look like.

RNZ operates three radio stations: RNZ National, classical music station RNZ Concert and a radio service for the Pacific region called RNZ International.

It tried to launch a website to attract a younger audience, called The Wireless, but that was folded in 2018.

Last year, RNZ hired the former boss of dance music station George FM, Willy Macalister, as its music director. One of his first orders of business was to conduct a company-wide review of music programmes and offerings, including RNZ Concert.

The advert said this would be a ‘‘once in a lifetime opportunity’’ for a programmer to work ‘‘on air and online’’.

The new hire would be responsible for ‘‘development, launch and ongoing execution of the RNZ Music ‘new brand’,’’ the broadcaster said.

The creation of a new station at RNZ left a question mark over the future of RNZ Concert.

Barr confirmed RNZ Concert would continue in some form but he could not say if that meant it would continue to broadcast on FM radio as it currently does. – RNZ