Radio airplay in New Zealand

Recording industry in New Zealand began to form from 1940 onwards. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) releases the New Zealand’s official weekly record charts. The association also holds the yearly New Zealand music awards that was first held in 1965 as the Loxene Golden Disc awards.

In spite the strength of the New Zealand ensembles in the pub scene for many eras commercial radio was unwilling to play the locally released materials. During 1995 only 1.6% of all songs played on commercial radio stations were of New Zealand foundation. And with that many of the New Zealanders felt that a quota system was need to compel radio stations to play more of the New Zealand music and during 1997 a government Kiwi Music Action Group was created to help this goal. The group invented New Zealand Music Week to inspire the radio to play more of the New Zealand music. In the year 2000, this transformed into New Zealand Music Month. And since that time, local music content on commercial radio has gradually improved.

The success was slow, though, the government threatened to enforce compulsory music quota on radio stations. In order for the radio station to be force to play a certain percentage, the radio organization willingly accepted a 10 percentage target which was gained in 2000. In 2005 New Zealand content averaged between 19 to 20 percent.