Mai FM streams hip hop and R&B live from Auckland, New Zealand's largest urban contemporary radio network, mixing classic hits with new releases from local and international artists. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required.
Launched by an Auckland iwi, not a media conglomerate
Mai FM began broadcasting to Auckland in July 1992, founded by the Auckland iwi Ngāti Whātua through its subsidiary Mai Media Limited, built around a "cool to kōrero" identity that paired hip hop and R&B with te reo Māori content. That iwi ownership structure lasted until 2008, when MediaWorks took control, but the station's roots as a tribally founded broadcaster rather than a standard commercial startup set it apart from most urban radio brands from the start. The format worked quickly: by its tenth anniversary, Mai FM had become Auckland's leading station across several key demographics.
Broadcasting into New Zealand's own hip hop lineage
Mai FM's format sits inside a specifically New Zealand hip hop and R&B tradition rather than simply importing American sounds. Upper Hutt Posse's 1988 track "E Tu" is widely regarded as the country's first pure hip hop single, and the genre found a particularly strong following among Māori and Pacific Island listeners through the 1990s. Urban Pasifika, a homegrown subgenre blending American-style rap and R&B with Pacific and Māori instrumentation and language, peaked commercially with OMC's 1995 single "How Bizarre," still the best-selling song ever recorded in New Zealand. Artists like Che Fu, King Kapisi, and Nesian Mystik carried that lineage into the 2000s, giving Mai FM a deep well of local material to draw on alongside international hip hop and R&B.
Now a national network, still rooted in Auckland
What started as a single Auckland frequency has grown into regional stations in cities including Rotorua and Whangārei, now operating as New Zealand's largest urban contemporary radio network. That growth never erased the station's Auckland identity, the city where its iwi founders, and the Urban Pasifika sound it still plays, both got their start.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
Mai FM streams Auckland's hip hop and R&B, built on three decades of New Zealand's own urban music tradition. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle, anywhere, any time, with no sign-up required.