Hauraki takes over Radio i

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 4

Hauraki takes over Radio i

PA Auckland Radio Hauraki has taken over Radio i in a secret deal. In a settlement negotiated this week, Hauraki boosted its shareholding in the private station from 24.9 per cent to a controlling 61 per cent. Radio i Holdings, Ltd, is now a subsidiary of Hauraki Enterprises, Ltd, although the two stations will continue to run separately. The deal was struck when three Radio i directors resigned last week, selling their combined 36 per cent

shareholding to the new Hauraki board appointees, Messrs Don McDonald (the chairman of Hauraki), and Ross Weavers, an Auckland sharebroker. The annual meeting of Radio i was told on Tuesday evening that the Radio i board members, Messrs Avon Cook, Alf Margan, and Phil Warren, had resigned a week earlier, and that Messrs McDonald and Weavers had been appointed to replace them. The Radio i board now consists of Messrs McDonald, Weavers, Tony Gibbs (a director of Hauraki Enterprises and now the biggest individual shareholder in Radio i), Peter Nelson, a public accountant, and Graeme Edwin, the present managing director of Radio i. Mr Edwin was not at the meeting, but it was reported that he, too, had resigned from the board and sold his shares.

No decision had been made about who would be appointed to replace Mr Edwin when he quits as

managing director in' the " next few days. Last week, Hauraki Enterprises sought permission from the Broadcasting Tribunal to increase its shareholding to 61 per cent. Permission was granted on Monday. Details of the take-over and the resignations were to,, be announced on January 1. The chief executive of Radio Hauraki, Mr John McCready, would hot com- > ment yesterday of the takeover or the resignations. Mr McCready said only that there would be, an. an- , nouncement on January 1. It is now likely that Hauraki’s long-mooted plans to switch to FM will move ahead, with an application for an FM warrant to the tribunal in the next few\ days. ! If Hauraki goes FM, Radio i will establish a new hold on the AM market,, where it now lies at No. 2 (behind 1ZB) in its target audience of ages 25 to 54. 7 Hauraki lies at No. 1 with its target audience of those aged 20 to 39.