For a long time New Zealand's country music audience was presumed to be the town of Gore and its immediate surrounds. Few albums got released, and major artists almost never toured. That all changed in the past few years, with streaming both proving and generating a huge global audience for country – and artists like Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen playing shows to massive local crowds. That has prompted two separate radio stations to launch, the first an independent led by veteran broadcaster Mike Puru, with a second launched by NZME just last week. Puru and NZME chief audio officer Jason Winstanley join Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the rise of country, why it requires its own stations and give a view on the current state of digital audio in Aotearoa.

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