The station started operating in the early 1960s (year unknown) under the callsign ZK2ZN. The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation supplied equipment and made a programme schedule to cater to local tastes. The sole studio had a half Gates mixer, two AKG microphones, a receiver from a Japanese boat and one reel-to-reel tape recorder. Very few households received radio signals at the time, prompting Radio Sunshine to sign a contract with Japanese company National to supply several hundred receivers at wholesale prices in 1967.[3] After 1972, the government built its own transmitter.[4]
On 6 February 1984, the station moved from 837 to 594 kHz, improving reception in the outer villages.[4] The station relayed WVUV, inherited from a "lazy habit" of some of its employees, as the station was heard clearly after 9:10pm, its closing time.[4]
The station moved to 88.0 MHz FM in November 2015 in order to be received on cars imported from Japan.[5]