Jaybelle Holdings

JAYBELLE HOLDINGS

Around the end of 1996 Central FM under the stewardship of Terry Casserly, who had done a brilliant job of setting the station up from scratch, got into financial difficulties and was basically on the market.  Local businessman and pharmacist, Ian Sharp, along with Accountant, Tony Knoblock saw and appreciated what a great asset the station was to the local district and put together a rescue package to keep the station going.  Shares were floated locally to form a new company called Jaybelle Holdings and two other directors, Lawyer John Campbell and retired businessman, Chris Reid formed a Board of Directors along with Ian Sharp as Chairman and Tony Knobloch.

The first job was to find a new home for Central FM and that was to be in the disused second story above Ian Sharp's Pharmacy.  This was achieved in fairly quick time.  All the staff from the former company were kept on and it was to be an uphill battle to keep the company afloat.  But with tremendous support from the local community we stumbled along.  The four Directors having no prior experience in radio.

In the first three or four years the company operated at a loss and more debt was taken on.  Slowly from about the year 2000 the company began to show some headway.  Staff numbers were reduced to about half the number in the early days and newer broadcasting equipment was installed to allow voice tracking so staff were freed up for sales and other duties.

During this time new programmes were intoduced including the Cockies Hour hosted by local farmer and raconteur Steve Wyn-Harris which went to air twice a week at lunchtimes and attracted solid advertising from local and national companies, and the Saturday morning Sports Show which was a two hour show from 7.00 till 9.00am and hosted by John Swinburne, Ian Sharp and Tom Castles.  This show was also a great success with great support from local advertisers as the show covered all local sports events from Central Hawkes Bay and Dannevirke and lots of comment on National and international sports events including input from national personalities.  These two shows attracted a very large local listenership and probably were instrumental in the savior of the business.

Local news was an important addition with two bulletins going out every weekday at breakfast and lunchtime.

In 1998 John Campbell took over as Chairman of the company from Ian Sharp who remained on the board.

In 2000, Chris Reid, as a Director, came onto the staff as a sales rep to help with sales and also fill in with local news on occasions.  Sales figures rose slowly, Ian Sharp ably assisting in that regard until all debt had been paid off and company began to make a profit.  In 2003 Chris Reid became Manager to allow the then Manager, John Swinburne more time to concentrate on sales, the Sports Show and Breakfast.  The company had got itself into a strong position for advertising locally to the point where the commercial networks stopped canvassing the CHB area.

Early 2006 Chris Reid decided that he wanted to retire again and suggested to the Directors that we either hire a new manager or sell the business as a going concern now that it was generating a reasonable profit.  The directors quickly went for the second option as they realised that as in any small business they need hands on day to day management.  We found a buyer in Simon and Denise Law who have continued to run the business in a successful manner.

Chris Reid

Former Managing Director