New Zealand’s Hot AC network Classic Hits is an intriguing station for a number of reasons. For starters, it’s a Hot AC that evolved from a ’60s/’70s-based approach, kept a name that implies a different format (at least to those in the industry) and lived to tell about it. Then there’s the era breadth of the music. More Hot ACs in the U.S. are finally trading “’80s, ’90s, and now” for “’90s, 2K and today”; Classic Hits just followed Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” with Jason Derulo’s “In My Head.”

What makes it all cohere is tempo. Unlike some of this year’s interesting debuts, from WFNE (Fun 106.7) Cape May, N.J., to the new CIUP (Up! 99.3) Edmonton, tempo isn’t the overt concept here, but it is a big part of what makes this station enjoyable and not exactly like anything in North America. And some of that seems to be a function of how the station evolved. (“Good Times, Great Currents”?)

Here’s Classic Hits as heard on its Auckland frequency just after 3 p.m. local time:

Reef, “Place Your Hands” (’90s blues-based rock somewhere between Black Crowes and Kings Of Leon)
Adam Lambert, “If I Had You”
Split Enz, “I Got You”
Midnight Youth, “All On Our Own” (recent, but another anthemic ’80s throwback)
Inner Circle, “Sweat (A La La La Long)
Pink, “Raise Your Glass”
Pink Floyd, “Another Brick In The Wall” (this was on the other side of a stopset, so, sadly, there was no Pink-to-Pink Floyd segue)
Kylie Minogue, “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”
Collective Soul, “The World I Know”
Timbaland & Katy Perry, “If We Never Meet Again”
Sugababes, “About You Now” (International Kelly Clarkson-type pop smash that is probably best known in this country to anybody whose kids were into “iCarly” early enough to know the Miranda Cosgrove cover)
Chumbawamba, “Tubthumping”
Taylor Swift, “Mine”
Joan Armatrading, “Drop The Pilot”