2ZA

2ZA was a radio station in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

History

Early Years

2ZA was started by Radio New Zealand(which at the time was known as the National Broadcasting Service) in 1938 broadcasting on 940AM. The station was branded as its callsign 2ZA. In 1978 the station moved to 927AM after New Zealand changed from 10khz spacing on the AM band to 9khz spacing.

Switch to FM

In 1991 2ZA began broadcasting on 97.8FM in addition to the 927AM frequency. On air the station became known as AM-FM 2ZA. In September 1992 AM-FM 2ZA was divided into two separate stations. The FM frequency was relaunched as a music station as The New 98FM and later shortened to 98FM, the AM frequency was used to run talkback, news and sports shows as The Manawatu's 2ZA.

Rebranding as Greatest Hits 98FM

In 1993 Radio New Zealand began rebranding most of their local heritage stations as Classic Hits. At the time of rebranding there was already a local independent station in the Manawatu market branded as Classic Hits 828 and 98.6FM as a result Radio New Zealand chose to rename 98FM as Greatest Hits 98FM instead of Classic Hits, the station used the same logo as the other Classic Hits stations and on air imaging was similar to all other Classic Hits stations. At the same time the 927AM frequency used to broadcast The Manawatu's 2ZA was used to launch network station Newstalk ZB into the Manawatu with some local content initially retained.