Live Sport

Live Sport

LiveSPORT is a nationwide New Zealand sports talk and horse racing commentary radio network owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Nathan Rarere, Ian Smith and Jeff Wilson present the network's breakfast programme, with Richard Loe present morning talk programmes and New Zealand Racing Board commentators present afternoon horse racing commentary and talkback. Live Sport, previously known as Radio Pacific and BSport, is the sister network of talk network Radio Live.

LiveSPORT began as talk network Radio Pacific in Auckland in 1978, and during the 1990s it became one of the first stations to be networked across the country. Radio Pacific became a New Zealand Stock Exchange listed company, with the Totalisator Agency Board as major shareholder. The company also owned North Island music stations known as Energy Enterprises and merged with the South Island radio company Radio Otago in 1999. This company was purchased by a subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications and changed its name to RadioWorks, and CanWest later sold off the company as part of MediaWorks New Zealand.

Although ownership of the network changed, live races and live betting odds continued to be broadcast on the network in pre-determined, limited periods during the race day under a contract with the New Zealand Racing Board. Between 2001 and 2005, this was complemented by a trial Radio Trackside station in the Southland market which simulcast Trackside TV and Radio Pacific as a dedicated racing station.

In 2005 MediaWorks launched new talkback network Radio Live and moved many of Radio Pacific's talkback personalities across to the new network. John Banks, Alice Worsley and Martin Crump remained behind on Radio Pacific to present morning talkback, while a Trackside TV simulcast, branded as Radio Trackside, was broadcast in the afternoon.

On 29 October 2007 the station changed its brand name to BSport and its tagline to "BSport, the station you can bet on". The general talkback format was replaced with the current sports talkback format. In January 2010 BSport was renamed to Live Sport, or Radio Live Sport.