Local IDs on New Zealand’s Gold Sport.
Gold Sport radio stations in New Zealand are described in the Pacific Asian Log as a “network of oldies stations. Website:
https://www.gold.co.nz/
Stations may have 2 minutes of local ads before the hourly news, and local weather at 2-3 minutes after the hour. Otherwise, the stations simulcast.” Until recently, the
local ads and weather might be the only chance to identify an individual station in the network.
Not a big problem for DXers who are happy to log parallels, as most
Gold Sport stations are on discrete channels; if you can parallel Gold Sport on 1521 with the one on 1557, then you know you’re hearing Tauranga and Hawera
respectively. 1503 is the only channel with two Gold Sport stations on it, in Wellington and in Christchurch, so still a bit of problem there, unless you’re logging
exact frequencies to the Hertz and beyond.
However, in late July of 2022, Steve Babcock heard a unique ID on 1503: “Wellington’s Gold Sport fifteen-oh-three” intoned by a man between songs. So, do
the other Gold Sport stations also have unique ID’s now? Jeroen Bet investigated, using New Zealand-based Kiwi SDRs, and found that Christchurch’s Gold Sport
station identified as “Canterbury’s Sport fifteen-oh-three.” According to Theo Donnelly, these IDs tend to not be city IDs, but regional IDs, as New Zealand is
divided up into “regions” not states or counties, and Christchurch is in Canterbury region; Theo had also heard 792 with “Waikato’s Gold Sport 7-92″ (see
https://www.nz-tourism.com/list-of-new-zealand-regions/
for a list of the regions with their towns). So, even though Wellington-1503 identifies as “Wellington”, it’s probably serving the Wellington region, not just the city.
Using the Kiwi SDRs in New Zealand, it was found that indeed the Gold Sport stations were identifying by region… mostly. Samples include:
“Nelson’s Gold Sport 5-49”, “Otago’s Gold Sport 6-93”, “Wanganui’s Gold Sport 10-62”, “Rotorua’s Gold Sport 13-50”, “Taranaki’s Gold Sport 15-57”.
But… not always: “Tauranga’s Gold Sport 15-21” from the city in the Bay of Plenty region, and “Gold Sport 11-25” with no city or region at all, despite the fact
that at the same time, 1503 was identifying as “Canterbury’s Gold Sport 15-oh-3”.
This leads us to when these IDs are like[ly] to be heard. The network tends to identify between songs played, but usually with phrases like “Music that stands
the test of time, Gold”, but every two or three songs, they seem to be using the local ID instead.
So, if you hear a local ID on one station, that will likely be your
opportunity to hear the local ID on other stations in the network when playing back your SDR recording. These are low powered, so if your SDR recording was
made in North America, it will likely have been at a DXpedition on the west coast.
Nick Hall-Patch, IRCA DX Monitor Nov 12, published November 7 via WOR iog (2022-11-08)