MediaWorks has replaced the doomed Today FM with a music-only radio station across most of its markets, Channel X.
The new station aims to be a new type of station “designed to appeal to people who may not be regular radio listeners.”
The station will be tapping into a slightly more alternative playlist with rock and dance music from the 90s and 2000s.
MediaWorks hopes to grab the section of Generation Z who listen to these artists.
Playing its first song at midday today, the station has replaced Today FM on many of its networks after it suddenly went off the air.
Today FM's high-profile hosts Duncan Garner and Tova O'Brien revealed the news to their listeners, saying they had been "betrayed" and "f****d" by MediaWorks management.
The radio and outdoor advertising company ploughed millions into the venture to take on NZME's Newstalk ZB.
Last year, MediaWorks chief executive Cam Wallace said there had been a multi-year plan for the brand while it still fell far short of ZB's dominant rating position.
Wallace, alongside talk head Dallas Gurney, have both since left MediaWorks, with the company coming under increasing financial pressure as advertising revenue dries up amid a turbulent economy.
"MediaWorks, like the whole advertising sector in New Zealand and internationally, continues to be impacted by an environment with lower revenues and higher costs.
"At the request of the MediaWorks board we have undertaken a review of the entire business to identify further areas of potential cost saving and to reshape the business for the market conditions," she said.
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