It was one crazy Summer. The Summer of ’93/’94.
When Hitz FM appeared on A Current Affair.
Sure, every day during the 3rd broadcast, things seemed to be getting bigger.
First we noticed when we stopped at traffic lights – other people listening to our youth station. Other people we didn’t even know. Then the phone calls kept coming in… soon we had 4 telephone lines ringing all day.
Then, ACA arrived…
The first thing to remember, is that back in the early 90s, the nightly news and current affairs shows were A BIG THING. Nobody had Netflix, smartphones or even the internet as another option. So when A Current Affair called to say they wanted to do a story on Hitz FM- our jaws dropped.
It was a BIG story
We assumed it would just be a ‘little thing’ – but they spent ages at the station. They talked to pretty much everyone. Filmed every area. At one point I asked the reporter.. ‘Have you seen our little Hitz cruiser?‘ He said no.
I suggested that Denis (our promotions guy) and I SPRINT TO THE CAR as if it’s that moment in the 1960s Batman TV series. Of course, we never did that in real life – but it was a great bit of action. We visited a local shopping strip – schoolkids swarmed and it was brilliant television. As one of the girls said of our little station ‘It’s great coz they don’t play that old fogey stuff’. And I couldn’t have put it better myself.
The also interviewed Matt (one of our announcers) and yours truly in the recording booth. There they captured me putting on a ridiculous ‘cool voice’ for a nightclub ad. And then the final insult – they mispronounced my name in the final report.
And the impact was huge
The screening of the A Current Affair story – on this day in 1994 – was another leap forward in Hitz FM’s popularity that one crazy Summer. In the weeks that followed we had a near-riot of pop fans at the station, a shock ratings triump, news coverage galore, and…
Well, I’d better leave something for the blog.
And as for the really cool behind-the-scenes stuff, that’s all going in the book.
Finally, if you haven’t seen the video… enjoy!
