NZ On Air Awards For Local Music Airplay On Aotearoa Radio

Media Bay of Plenty plays the most New Zealand music across its airwaves, with three of the consortium’s radio stations having hit or exceeded the 20 percent Voluntary Music Code over the past year.

Every year, NZ On Air awards those stations who play more than 20 percent New Zealand music in the previous year[1], with Whakatane-based 1XX hitting 20 percent for the very first time in 2024. It joins two more Media Bay of Plenty stations, Bayrock and Q97, who regularly achieve or exceed the 20 percent goal.

These three stations were joined by Coromandel-based CFM and two nationwide networks, Radio Hauraki and NiuFM.

The stations were presented with awards by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Hon. Paul Goldsmith, at last night’s NZ On Air Music Showcase in Auckland.

At the Music Showcase, four of Aotearoa’s emerging artists– A.R.T, Coast Arcade, NO CIGAR, and Ruby Coley – also performed.

In terms of the highest percentage of local music played in 2024 of any radio station, this was once again won by NiuFM who well exceeded the target, at just over 50 percent.

The awards are given to stations that achieve, and exceed, the 20 percent target between 1 January and 31 Dec 2024[2]. The figures for the six radio stations are:

• NiuFM - 50.24% (up from 49.7% in 2023)
• BayrockFM (Whakatane)– 37.20% (up from 36.8% in 2023)
• CFM (Coromandel) – 21.77% (down from 22.4% in 2023)
• Q97 (Whakatane) – 25.64% (up from 22% in 2023)
• Radio Hauraki – 22.44% (up from 21.6% in 2023)
• 1XX (Whakatane) – 20.43%

But while these six stations reached 20 percent or more, for the second year running Radioscope – Recorded Music NZ’s data and distribution monitoring arm – reported that Aotearoa commercial radio stations did not meet the overall industry threshold, with fewer than one in every five songs on commercial radio overall being from Kiwi artists.

This comes after a three-year run between 2020 and 2022 where commercial New Zealand radio stations collectively surpassed the 20 percent threshold.

‘It’s never been easier to release music, however it’s getting harder for our local musicians to compete against international artists,” says Head of Music at NZ On Air, Teresa Patterson.

But despite the rise of streaming services, recent commentary from international airplay monitoring service Radio Monitor noted last month that radio is still the biggest platform in the world.

“Radio Monitor stats show that more hit music is still heard on radio than on every other music platform combined. And this was shown to be true across the world.”

“NZ On Air continues to fund incredible local content and radio has a huge role – and is still incredibly successful – at driving exposure of artists and their work.”

[1] New Zealand has a Voluntary Music Code that was introduced by the commercial radio industry in 2002 when commercial radio stations played less than 10% New Zealand music. It sets a target for New Zealand commercial radio stations to play 20% New Zealand Music.

[2] The data gathered for the awards relates to airplay on commercial radio only and doesn’t include music played on public, student and iwi radio – which all have legislated benchmarks that commercial stations do not. Their data is tracked separately.

© Scoop Media