If you’re a Hitz fan, you probably remember the original late 90s internet. You know; dialup modems, Hotmail, ICQ, and fansites. Obviously I was there, and I can prove it. After 20 years of being hidden away, I’m going to tell you all about my Hitz FM site on Geocities.
Yes indeed. So fire up your Netscape browser, load up some mp3s on Winamp, coz we’re going back…
If you weren’t aware, Geocities was a website in the early days of the internet. It allowed anyone to make and host their own website for free. There were other similar sites like Angelfire and Tripod- but Geocities was the biggest. Apparently, it was the 3rd most trafficked site on the net at one point in the late 90s.
I started my site, after watching the Raw FM TV series on the ABC in 1997. I thought it would be useful to the Hitz cause to make a more direct link between the ‘real’ and ‘fictional’ stations. Wild FM was also popular at the time so I included them too.
Please, no rainbow dividers
In the late 90s, many Geocities sites looked terrible. You know, repeating ‘starfield’ backgrounds, animated ‘under construction’ GIFs, rainbow dividers. The sort of things I put at the top of this page as a joke. But I was determined to avoid all that.
The content of the Raw Wild Hitz Connection was divided into 3 areas. The Wild FM section was mostly about their many CD releases. The Raw FM section has the usual TV fanpage information, plus a ‘very 90s’ page showing how all the actors fared in the “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” game.
And then there was the main game
The largest part of my Hitz FM site on Geocities was dedicated to my favourite radio station. There was a virtual tour (see photo above) plus CD track listings, broadcast updates, interviews, news and even Hitz FM wallpaper “available to download for your Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 PC”.
From 1997 to 2001 I kept this site/blog running. I updated it whenever there were new Hitz FM broadcasts held. I ran competitions. And kept fans up to date in those ‘pre social media days’ because sites like this were all we had.
The final countdown
In the months and weeks leading up to the ABA’s license decision for Melbourne, I kept readers up to date with the latest news. And on the morning of December 19, 2001 – I edited the site for the final time ever. I updated readers on the results – that Hitz FM had not gained a fulltime license. I changed the ‘intro’ page of the site – to be all black with a single “sad smiley face” and a link to the news.
And I never worked on the site again.
Death and Rebirth of Geocities
Eight years later, in 2009 – the new owners Yahoo decided to close Geocities and delete all the user webpages. Thankfully other websites have mirrored most of the old content.
And you can flick through the whole site now!
Just click on the banner below.
Click here to visit my 1990s Geocities website in all its garishness.
