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TURNING TWENTY!

NZ On Air was set up … as the “Broadcasting Commission” … on 01 July 1989 as part of the Government’s broadcasting reforms. NZ On Air’s job in the brave new world of broadcasting deregulation was to get more New Zealand content on the television and radio airwaves.
Twenty years ago, there wasn’t much New Zealand music on the radio. Public radio, like National Radio and student radio, did a good job in supporting local music but commercial radio was a New Zealand music desert. A survey carried out for PPNZ (Phonographic Performances New Zealand) in the early 1990s put New Zealand music content on commercial radio at less than 2%.

Those were dark days.
Today, New Zealand music is consistently up around the 20% mark. In the year ended 30 June 2009, it was 20.08% and in the first two quarters of the 2009 calendar year, it was 21%.
The New Zealand music revolution on the airwaves is the result of many factors but one is the NZ On Air interventions – the mix of innovative funding schemes and promotional strategies developed by NZ On Air to make sure that New Zealand music is well represented on the commercial radio airwaves.