25 years ago tonight, a certain youth radio station was broadcasting live from Inflation Nightclub. It was the final night of Hitz FM’s 6th Broadcast. Time to celebrate. The station had come back onair, it had a new CD in the shops, and it had one of those brand new “webpage” things on the “internet”.
Yes – it was clearly 1995.
Firstly, during Hitz FM’s 6th Broadcast our nighttime show was James’ House with James Ash, ‘Crusty Shae’ and ‘Steve Winkleburger’. The show was dominated by The Focaccia 15 – a nightly listeners countdown. And in between the music and shoutouts the hosts would ask listeners to submit jokes on a nightly theme.
Time to play it loud…
And, as a very special treat – I’ve been able to track down an entire 2 hour episode of the Focaccia 15. This particular episode was broadcast on Tuesday October 10, 1995. James and Steve were hosting. Highlights include an inteview with Melbourne dance music duo Pendulum and the boys inviting listeners to call in with their best ‘bum gags’. (No, not a joke) Artists in the countdown include Josh Winx, Mariah Carey, Clock, The Coming Out Crew, CDB and Mrs Wood.
Enjoy!
Another highlight in the show above (Jump to 1hr 40mins) is some Hitz volunteers coming on to announce that Hitz FM now had a website. And more importantly, they explain to Jamie what a website actually is. (In other words, it was 1995 after all) Furthermore, if you’d like to remind yourself of mid-90s internet… here’s a copy of one of the earliest versions of the site. (Gotta love the terrible tiled background.)
So you’ll have to settle for this 1997 version. Best viewed with Netscape!
The big hits…
Some of the big tracks of Hitz Broadcast 6 included 3 is Family (Dana Dawson), Lost in Love (Legend B), Mysterious Girl (Peter Andre), Loops n Tings (Jens), Stayin Alive (N Trance), Push the Feeling On (The Nightcrawlers), Let’s Groove (CDB), Wrap me Up (Alex Party), and Total Eclipse of the Heart (Nikki French)
Hitz FM’s 6th broadcast also coincided with the release of the station’s 2nd CD. The Original Hitz volume 2: Australian Moves n Grooves. The disc was 100% Aussie tracks, ranging from pop (Kylie, Peter Andre, Christine Anu) to R&B (Past to Present) to House (Our House, Pendulum) and even James Ash’s first ever commercial release Thunderchild.
Inside the station, some of the visiting guests included CDB, Tim Ferguson and Larry Emdur. In addition, Hitz FM also got it’s first pinball machine called Party Zone. And the station farewelled a well-loved announcer, Kel McWilliam (mornings – broadcast 4 and 5). Just like a Neighbours character – Kel had moved to Brisbane.
Personally, I was hosting the Sunday Night Schemozzle (a countdown show) and behind the scenes, I was the production manager. This meant recording sponsor announcements and comedy sketches. One of the challenging jobs was helping create ‘Paradise Point’ – a comedy series that was played each morning in the breakfast show.
Hitz broadcast 6 also saw the debut of one of the stations more interesting late-night shows: ‘Gogo’s moshpit’. And as you can guess, it featured lots of grunge and alternative tracks.
This later lead to a Hitz FM ‘moshpit’ CD release.
So, any particular memories of this time?
Are you sure you weren’t in Split Enz Gabe?
(Cast photo – Paradise Point – Hitz FM Melbourne, September 1995)
Haha, I once got accused of having ‘Art Garkunkel’ hair back in the day, so I’ll take Split Enz as a compliment!