The Rock (radio network)

The Rock
Broadcast area New Zealand
Slogan "All your Rock Anthems."
Frequency Various
First air date 1992
Format Music (Rock)
ERP N/A
Class Terrestrial/Internet
Owner MediaWorks New Zealand
Website http://www.therock.net.nz

The Rock is a New Zealand rock music radio station. The station is known to broadcast material of a controversial nature, and has in the past had some issues with the Broadcasting Standards Authority with a number of complaints upheld against it. The station is targeted exclusively towards males aged 25-44, but in spite of this also has a significant female fan base. It plays a broad range of rock music, from old favourites right through to newly released rock singles, and commits a notable amount of airtime to showcasing up-and-coming New Zealand rock acts.

The Rock's major competitors are Radio Hauraki, ZM and The Hits. The Rock have a number of weekly features and countdowns which distinguish it from other radio stations, including The Rock 1000, in which the biggest 1000 rock songs in history are voted on and counted down annually; and previously "Wind Up Your Wife Wednesday", during which afternoon announcers Robert and Jono conducted prank calls with the aim of annoying or enraging a nominated 'target'.

History

The Rock began on 1 December 1991 in Hamilton as The Rock 93FM by Grant Hislop, Joe Dennehy and Martin Dempster trading as Nevada Resources Ltd. The original line-up included Chris Clarke on breakfast (replaced by Mark Bunting after 2 months) and Roger Farrelly on Drive. Originally, The Rock 93FM was based in the basement of Radio New Zealand Broadcasting House in Hamilton, this headquarters was the studios for ZHFM. The transmitter was originally located on the top of Waikato Hospital. In 1993 The Rock moved to their new premises at 564 Victoria Street in Hamilton

Grant purchased a collection of FM frequencies from the Christian Broadcasting Association and transferred them to Nevada. Using the first of these frequencies a local version of The Rock was started in Taranaki in 1993, this station was originally broadcast on 100FM but after Nevada Resources Ltd and Energy Enterprises merged, The Rock in Taranaki moved to 95.6FM. A third The Rock station was started in the Bay of Plenty in 1996 with local programming. In 1997 The Rock created a regional network by replacing the Taranaki and Bay of Plenty stations with the Hamilton-based The Rock station and also networked into Rotorua.[1]

Nationwide expansion

In 1998 The Rock began networking to other regions in the North Island. In 1999, The Rock relocated to Auckland, and began broadcasting there. Later that year, Energy Enterprises and Radio Otago merged to form RadioWorks; as a result, the station was networked into the South Island. In Christchurch, Radio Otago had already been operating their own rock station called C93FM and this station was networked to Dunedin and Invercargill, C93FM actually played a Classic rock format similar to Radio Hauraki. RadioWorks replaced C93FM in Dunedin and Invercargill with The Rock and kept C93FM operating in Christchurch but changed its format to Adult Contemporary and launched The Rock on a separate frequency. C93 no longer operates as the station failed to attract new listeners after the format change. Today The Rock broadcasts in almost every market in New Zealand.[2]

The only remaining original member of The Rock crew is Rog. Other DJs to have left include Greenman, who went on his OE to the UK, Beachy (Christopher Beach) who moved into sales, and Julie Mofett, who now works at Radio New Zealand.[3]

Programmes

The Morning Rumble

The current morning radio show is known as The Morning Rumble, the members of which are currently Roger Farrelly (Rog), Bryce Casey, Tom Furniss and Jen Bainbridge. The show is aired weekday mornings between 5:30am and 10am. Rog is the longest-serving member of The Rumble, having been a co-host on the show since its inception alongside Nick Trott. Trott left the show in 2006, when he moved back to his home town of Hamilton in Waikato to work on the morning show on More FM. Leah Panapa who began working on the show in its early years left at the end of 2014. Simon Doull who also spent several years as a co-host, returned in 2015. That was also when Jen Bainbridge joined the show.

Until 2011, Paul Ego was part of the show, and initially worked as the show's producer, and in addition to his duties on The Morning Rumble is an accomplished comedian, who fronts comedy TV show 7 Days. Paul left in March 2011, replaced by host of Prime TV's The Crowd Goes Wild, Andrew Mulligan. Bryce has attempted to break two world records during his tenure on the show, his most notable attempt being to break the record for the longest time ten-pin bowling continuously. He fell short by only a few hours.[4]

Hosts

Former host Simon Doull.

Roger, or Rog as he's known, joined the Morning Rumble in 1994 when The Rock was still broadcast from Hamilton and has been there since. Prior to that he had worked during the afternoon shift also at The Rock. Rog serves as a 'leader' of sorts for the Morning Rumble crew, and his ongoing banter and power struggles with Bryce provide a lot of the show's entertainment. Jen Bainbridge reads the news. The current producer of the show is Jeremy Pickford.

Paul Ego previously hosted as the older, more mature member of the show, and is also a well-known comedian within comedy circles in New Zealand. He also fronts TV comedy show 7 Days. Nick Trott co-hosted the show with Rog for 14 years, in Hamilton and Auckland, but returned to Hamilton in 2006 and worked on More FM before being restructured out by 'manager of the year'. Simon Doull, an ex-New Zealander cricketer, was with The Morning Rumble from 2003 as a sports reader and became a co-host in 2004, but left due to cricket commentary commitments. Special Jimmy (real name Jimmy Pattillo) has also been part of the show.[5]

Features

On Fridays during The Morning Rumble, a section of the show was called 'Do Stuff To Jono Fridays'. This formed a large part of the entertainment value of the station and one of the early distinguishing features of The Rock. Nick & Rog would think up stunts to do to fellow Rock Jock, Jono. Some of the stunts were 'The Human Slushy', 'The Pyramid of Fire', 'Human Coleslaw', 'Sleigh of Fire', 'The Skater Ramp of Doom', a full body wax, and giving Jono a tattoo on his bottom but not telling him that it was a love heart with Nick and Rog's names.[6]

In 2006 when Jono got his own slot with Robert on weekday afternoons, the show then became "Do Stuff To Jimmy". Stunts included putting electrodes on his nipples, and other assorted painful and humiliating acts. Jimmy is no longer working at The Rock, and there is currently no 'Do Stuff' segment. A one-off 'Final Ever Do Stuff To Jono' stunt was planned and executed in September 2009, during which Jono performed a 'Mega Stunt' - riding a BMX bike down a steep slope, through pyrotechnics and a pane of glass, and finally scaling a ramp to jump over a parked ute.[7]

"The Rock" organized a "win a wife" competition in early 2011. The winner would travel to Ukraine to meet a girl via the "Endless Love" dating agency. In response the Ukrainian group Femen organized a topless protest against this competition (in March 2011). A Femen activist advised: "Femen warns the 'lucky' winner of the New Zealand competition that he can expect an unhappy ending in Ukraine".[8][9]

Workday

Jen Bainbridge takes over on-air from 10:00am – midday fronting the 'Workday' show and Jim Crawthorn does midday - 3pm which is mainly request-based. Jen and Jim replaced longstanding workday presenters Tracey Donaldson and Jason Mac after Tracey departed to sister station The Sound.

Jono and Ben Drive

Since April 2014, Jono and Ben has been The Rock's drive show in the 3:00pm – 7:00pm slot. The show is hosted by Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce and is an extension of the satirical news and entertainment show they currently host on TV3 on Friday nights at 7.30pm. Jono Pryor has been hosting the show with long-running drive host Robert Taylor since 2006 and was previously the host of The Jono Project from 2008-2011. Ben Boyce was one half of the popular long running series Pulp Sport, previously appeared in a Pulp Sport show on The Rock and briefly hosted his own TV series, WANNA-BEn.[10][11][12] Duncan Heyde is the EP / Anchor of this show. Daniel Webby is the technical producer.

Rock Nights

Mike Garvey hosts Rock Nights from 7:00pm – 12:00am. From 10pm - 12am Mike hands the playlist over to the listeners and nothing but requests air for The Takeover. There is then a 12am - 5:30am dawn show which is sometimes hosted by a slew of Rock staff, including Dan Webby. Saturday nights are an ad and announcer free all request party show from 8pm til 1am. Previous hosts, self-styled as "Rock Jocks", including Mike Shanahan (aka The Shagman/Shaggis Show) Christopher Beach (Beachy), Greenman, Julie Moffet, Jamie Linehan and Ben Boyce (Bill and Ben), and Jason Mac.

The Rock 1000

The Rock 1000 is an annual chart show, counting down the 1000 biggest rock songs ever. The show is created a variety of DJs. The chart order, including which bands and songs feature on the countdown, are determined by listeners via a voting system on the station's official web site. The countdown typically runs on weekdays over a two-week period and is broadcast nationwide throughout New Zealand. The number one song for The Rock 1000 in 2011 and 2012 was "One" by Metallica.[13] In 2016, it was reinvented 50% bigger as The Rock 1000+500.

Winners

Frequencies

North Island frequencies

MarketLocationFrequency
Northland Whangarei FM 90
Auckland Rodney FM 100.1
Auckland FM 90.2
Coromandel Mercury Bay FM 105.5
Bay of Plenty Tauranga FM 94.2
Waikato Hamilton FM 93
Rotorua Rotorua FM 92.7
Taupo Taupo FM 94.4
Gisborne Gisborne FM 94.1
Hawke's Bay Wairoa 94.1 FM
Napier FM 95.1
Taranaki New Plymouth FM 95.6
Whanganui Whanganui FM 95.2
Manawatu Palmerston North FM 95.4
Wairarapa Masterton FM 95.1
Kapiti Paraparaumu FM 91.9
Wellington Wellington FM 96.5

South Island frequencies

MarketLocationFrequency
Nelson Nelson FM 94.4
Marlborough Blenheim FM 91.3
Canterbury Christchurch FM 93.7
Ashburton Ashburton FM 97.3
South Canterbury Timaru FM 91.5
North Otago Oamaru FM 104.8
Central Otago Alexandra FM 98.3
Queenstown Wanaka FM 89.8
FM 93.0
Queenstown FM 100
Dunedin Dunedin FM 93.4
Southland Invercargill FM 90.8

References

  1. ↑ The Rock Internet Archive
  2. ↑ The Rock Internet Archive
  3. ↑ Jono and Ben at Ten
  4. ↑ The Rock DJ bowling his way to world record
  5. ↑ The Morning Rumble minisite
  6. ↑ Do Stuff to Jono
  7. ↑ Final Ever Do Stuff to Jono
  8. ↑ "Ukraine protest over NZ 'win a wife' competition prize". BBC News. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "Ukraine feminists protest 'Win a Wife' competition". Khaleej Times. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Paul Casserly: Rock radio's battle drive for ratings
  11. ↑ New and returning shows
  12. ↑ Jono and Ben at Ten
  13. ↑ The Rock 1000 Official Web page

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