Wave FM

The story behind Wave F.M. spans over 10 years. It has been home to lots of dedicated people who have given their best in their moment of time.This is my version of events and what I can remember.Sorry in advance to all those who've been a part of Wave F.M. but didn't get a mention in this piece.And a huge thanks to all the people who've given their time & talents to help make Wave F.M. what it is today....Jason Bloor

- The story begins somewhere in the late 90's with some of the adults from the Wave thinking that it would be great if Opunake youth had access to the Christian Youth Radio Station - "Life F.M." The first I knew about it was seeing John Bakewell's plans for a "J" Aerial - a small home made device that could broadcast to a small town like Opunake.
- Next thing that was happening were Radio meetings to organize what could be done and by who. I put up my hand to add local content to the proposed radio. Initial idea's were for perhaps a show a week utilizing the youth group.
- During that summer of 98 I ran youth programmes down the beach - it was called Radio O.J. and featured music and adverts like a real radio. We also made a small 1/2 pipe and had it setup down the beach for the locals to ride (you may remember). It was a great experiment that for me proved we could do local content in a radio format.

- The team working on the station secured the aerial and a satellite dish
- Possible locations were looked at for where the station could live - the wave church was looked at (children's creche & storeroom as possible locations)
- Mike and Dianne Quintus offered one of the old offices at the front of the old power board building
2001 - The Y-Time youth group looked at the project and began designing programmes and ad's for the station.They created a C.D. with songs and Adds (that we are using again in 2009) called the "Secret of Mr Monk".

2002 - John Chandler setup a Computer for the station. I moved to New Plymouth and the idea of local content was left in the air. Life F.M. began broadcasting - I remember an early teething problem with our signal getting mixed into the local police broadcast...we had a visit from the boys in blue (say no more).We added soundproofing to the studio.

2002 - We had the "Zam and Cam" show - it's funny to think that Campbell's then little sister is now one of our favourite D.J.'s with the "Mere Hooker After School Show". Also worth noting is Zam (Aron Jai) - there in 2002 - and back in 2008 when we ran our 3 week trial.

Each week I'd travel down for a Thursday afternoon show. I had some great people come down each week to help D.J.- Namely Edwin (Baby P) Teigh (Teigh Bone) and Tristan (Tristan)...we also had heaps of visits and cameo's from some of the local lads (Like Johnny and Dillon).

2003 - our ability to run local content became too hard and we stopped the local shows - a loop of top 50 songs and Local music was left to play - which it did unattended or changed for months... until the radio was switched over to Life F.M.

2004 - 2005 Adam Rubie and Murray began work on wiring a Radio New Zealand Studio Desk ...

2006 Kym Smith began running a local show every week
- Adam Rubie had setup a great manual for training people up for D.J. work

2008 Jase was asked to try and get something up and going - Murray thought a show a week but I thought "if we want people to tune in then we really need to be consistent". Jase toyed with the idea of interest shows at night (which originally was quite broad with adult themed shows along side youth programming). The idea of a nightly top 9 @ 9 was also high on the priority list to give the town the chance to define what their favourite music was.
August - meanwhile Dianne Quintus was to start using the office space for her new business "Wear it Well" - location hunting began for the all new Wave Fm...after a bit of thought the Wave's old creche was setup as the new office. With a makeshift table and enough loose wires to trip up even the most agile - the new studio began to take shape.
September - Jase got together some of the great young people (young adults) in Opunake and began exploring what kind of shows we could run. Cain obviously slotted into the Surf Show with Dancers Bianca & Zam running the "Urban Flavour Show". Adam Rubie -(whose the only guy that really knew what he was doing- with his radio experience) ran the Super Theme Show and Aidan & I developed the "D.J. Max show" which basically allows us to take about crap that semi interests us for an hour.

November - 88.4 Wave F.M. was born - or perhaps re-born is a better title...running 24 hours a day with local shows every week day after school and at night...it was a huge undertaking and commitment but it proved a success. Our website was a hive of visitors as we produced programming aimed at mainly 12 - 35 year olds...but of course that didn't mean that there was nothing for older people - with the
Old time stories" & Adam Rubie's "Super Theme Show" being good examples. We recorded a music video at the end of week two which we aired (drive in movie style) outside the Wave on our final night of broadcasting.

2009 - Murray Mcewan & Jase began talks and evaluating the Radio and we decided to relaunch during the year.To make the schedule sustainable some shows were cut back and automation is now able to be used to add more shows to our roster. Our music mix is still aimed at the 12 -35 age bracket with a fresh mix of top 40 songs. Our new plans included:

- Redesign the studio for better D.J. and guest use.
- Get new gear that is more reliable and better quality
- Use software that will allow for complex play lists and automation of certain shows

The website was also redesigned to better suit the new launch of Wave F.M. and allow greater interaction with listeners eg: (Feedback Tab - leads to forum with Talk back, Garden & general Wave F.M. discussions).

After a plan for the studio was designed and talked through - work began on stripping the existing room to make way for an all new desk (created by Mikes Agro Electric Arc) and seating built by (Mark Tathem's Carpentry).
In August we began testing our signal and software - while training up people for some great new shows. Jim & Rod did several dummy shows of Talk back - as did the Ask Auntie hosts. Jase and Aidan began work on the D.J. Max Show to bring well prepared theme shows that interact perfectly with the website.
October saw the launch of the new sounding Wave F.M. with the first live show being "Murray the Garden Guy" (Murray had never had a practice at all but the show went great). The next week saw all of the new shows come together to create our own local station. We hope to inspire our community with positive shows that will help enrich our lives and bring us closer to who God created us to be.

The Future - I hope Wave F.M. continues to broadcast for a long time into the future - it's definitely setup now to be able to do just that.
One thing that is certain is that shows will come & go - just as our hosts have come & gone over the years. But as one show ends it leaves room for someone else to step in and bring a new flavour to the mix. In the future I'd love to see a farming show, a run souly by youth show, a young mothers support group show & a Live Local Talent show....the possibilities are endless...but time & resources & available people always dictate what we are able to achieve.

(Jason Bloor)