The Radio Vault's video: Merv Smith Introduces Radio Pacific s Country Show - Hamilton New Zealand 1997

★ABOUT★ On 4 May 1997, a new weekly country music programme was launched on the Radio Pacific network. The show ran from 2pm-6pm on Sunday afternoons and was hosted by well-known broadcaster and country music aficionado, Merv Smith. Radio Pacific's country music show appears to have been created in response to news of the impending closure of the Auckland-based FM Country radio network. It is not known exactly how long Radio Pacific's country music show lasted. Included in this presentation is Merv Smith's introductory voice break, along with Radio Pacific's news opener and commercials for Clear Communications and Christian Children's Fund. This recording was made on 954kHz in Hamilton. ★STATION HISTORY★ Radio Pacific was established in Auckland on 1 April 1979. It broadcast on 1593kHz with a call-sign of 1XP. The station was originally set to be called Radio Manukau, but an objection from the Manukau Radio Club saw the name changed to Radio Pacific several months before it launched. In 1988, Radio Pacific was networked into Hamilton using the former frequency of Radio Waikato. The Hamilton station was known as Radio Pacific-Waikato and featured a mix of local programming and networked content from Auckland. In the second half of 1991, Radio Pacific's programme (a combination of talk-back and racing coverage) was networked across much of New Zealand. In the early days of the nationwide Radio Pacific network, a second studio was established in Wellington. Between certain hours, programmes from the Wellington studio were fed to markets in the lower North and upper South Islands. At other times, all markets took the main network feed from Auckland. On 9 April 2005, Radio Pacific was re-branded as Radio Pacific-Trackside, a combination of magazine-style chat and talkback (under the name Radio Pacific), and racing coverage (under the name Radio Trackside). The station also began broadcasting on a second network of frequencies nationwide. On 11 April 2005, most of Radio Pacific's original network of frequencies were used to launch a new talkback station called Radio Live. Meanwhile, Radio Pacific-Trackside continued to broadcast on its new set of frequencies. At 11:55am on 28 October 2007, Radio Pacific closed after 28 years of operation. The following day, a new sports station named 'BSport' was launched on Radio Pacific's frequencies. BSport operated from 6am-12pm daily, while Radio Trackside continued to provide racing coverage at other times. In January 2010, BSport was rebranded as LiveSPORT. On 13 April 2015, a dedicated racing network named TAB Trackside Radio was launched, following the closure of LiveSPORT. TAB Trackside Radio closed on 12 April 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 19 July 2021, the former TAB Radio Trackside frequencies were used to launch a nationwide sports radio network, SENZ. ★SUPPORT THE RADIO VAULT★ Are you enjoying our content? Show your appreciation by becoming a supporter. Visit https://bit.ly/3nyFrj7 to learn more. ★FOLLOW THE RADIO VAULT ON FACEBOOK★ www.facebook.com/theradiovault