Hits breakfast hosts top in Bay

Martin Good and Sarah Van Der Kley

Martin Good and Sarah Van Der Kley from The Hits can proudly claim to host the number one radio breakfast show in the Bay.

The results of the independent TNS NZ Commercial Radio Survey, released yesterday, also showed Newstalk ZB was the No1 station in the Bay, increasing its margin over Radio Live.

NZME Radio's regional manager James Cooper said it was "a fantastic result".

"It's great to see Hawke's Bay listeners waking up with The Hits. This result reinforces that our listeners love local content and it's great to be able to deliver that across our sport and entertainment platforms," Mr Cooper said.

Ross Holden's local sports show on Newstalk ZB was also crowned No1, with nearly twice as many listeners as its nearest rival.

Dean Buchanan, managing director of NZME Radio, said he was "rapt" with the results: "Newstalk ZB will just continue to strengthen further with Marcus Lush joining the Newstalk ZB team, hosting the Night Show from January.

"To have an increased share and number of listeners now tuning into ZM reflects on the terrific team ZM are becoming. We also beat The Edge digitally in August so ZM is on fire and is exactly tracking to where we want it to be. The great thing is there's a lot more opportunity in there.

"Digital is now a key metric for us as this is how the next generation of listeners tune in (10-17). It was fantastic to see The Hits capturing the No1 website of any radio station for August. Newstalk ZB, ZM and Flava also had great results, out-rating their rival stations."