Hitz FM Melbourne memories, photos, and recordings.
Back in 1998, it was a pretty awesome Queens Birthday Sunday night. In fact, the whole weekend on Hitz was big. They were giving away prize packs every hour to new members.
And you’ll find a TWO HOUR recording to stream below, including an hour of The Warmup with Shannon Yates “playing some of the harder sounds”.
But first, let’s jump into our time machine…
Continue reading “STREAM THE PARTY: Queens Birthday Sunday night (in 98)”Although most listeners interacted with the station via phone (or fax!) requests – many visited the Hitz Melbourne studio to pick up prizes, have a look around or even volunteer.
More than just a building – each location had an impact on the young staff working there. So I thought you’d like a bit of a peek into the places – and faces – of the four Hitz Melbourne broadcast locations.
Continue reading “See the Pics: The four Hitz Melbourne studio locations”Let’s jump back to April 1998. It wasn’t just the time of Hitz FM’s 14th Broadcast. It was the era of It’s Like That (Run DMC/Jason Nevins), You make me Wanna (Usher) and Frozen (Madonna). At the movies Titanic was finally ending its mammoth run, to be replaced by Good Will Hunting and The Wedding Singer.
And now you can stream 5 hours from that era – as Hitz FM’s 14th Broadcast began…
Each year, ten pieces of ‘important sound’ are inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive’s (NFSA) Sounds of Australia. But which recordings of Hitz Melbourne audio would I save? How would I decide?
Last year’s Sounds of Australia included Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye ft. Kimbra) and the Stolen Generation Apology by Kevin Rudd.
But how do I narrow down 17,543 hours of youth radio (yes, that’s the true number) into ten essential bits of Hitz Melbourne audio? At the risk of starting a big debate, I’m going to try.
And many of them are here, ready to stream!
Continue reading “TEN amazing bits of Hitz Melbourne audio worth preserving”Back in Summer 93/94 the Hitz crew were having the time of our lives. We had our music on the radio, tonnes of listeners calling in, and more free pizza than we could eat. But we never suspected what would happen next. The day Hitz Melbourne smashed the radio ratings.
And it was this very day, the 22nd of February.
Continue reading “When Hitz Melbourne smashed the radio ratings”As February 1994 began, Hitz FM’s Summer 93/94 broadcast started to really take off. There were articles in the Herald Sun, along with street press faves Beat and In Press. Then within 24 hours – two major bits of national publicity. We saw Hitz FM on A Current Affair. Then the next night – Hitz on Hey Hey it’s Saturday.
And I’ve got the full segment below to watch.
Continue reading “Behind the scenes: Hitz on Hey Hey it’s Saturday”Early in the year 2000, we were all relieved. The world had survived Y2K. And in February, Hitz FM broadcast 17 kicked off to smash out some more great music on the airwaves of Melbourne.
Continue reading “Count ’em down – the Hitz FM Broadcast 17 Top 60”Forget the DeLorean. Don’t try to build your own time machine. I’m transporting you back 27 years RIGHT NOW – to January 28th 1995.
….and I have an 8 HOUR (!) recording to share.
Continue reading “Today’s Time Travel Simulcast: January 28th 1995”With the sad passing of Meatloaf over the weekend, the song Anything for Love (but I won’t do that) popped into my head. It was one of the more unexpected songs we thrashed during our famous Summer 93/94 broadcast.
And I thought it would be good to catch up with a few of the OG Hitz FM crew to discuss this unique song, artist and time in music history.
I don’t want to dwell on all the ‘real world’ stuff we had to go through in 2021. I want to think about the 90s when the music was better and something amazing happened on the radio. And now, I’m excited to present your Top 9 Hitz stories of 2021. The ones people clicked on, read, shared and enjoyed more than ANY others.
Let’s go…
Continue reading “YOU MADE IT: Your Top 9 Hitz stories of 2021”Throughout its lifespan, Hitz FM created and inspired a lot of other creative ventures and products. From their Hitz’s own CDs and Hitlist newsletters to their Hitz TV shows on Channel 31 and Optusvision. Then there were things like Raw FM on ABC TV.
This 13 part drama series was loosely based on the Hitz FM story. Raw FM debuted this week (late November) in 1997, and continued through till February 1998.
But the full tale starts a couple of years earlier.
Continue reading “WATCH: Raw FM on ABC TV – inspired by Hitz”It was Melbourne Cup Day – this week in 2001. The day we heard the final hour of Hitz FM.
Not that the Hitz crew – or their listeners – were particularly interested in horseracing. But for such an important part of Melbourne culture in the 90s, its probably fitting for one of the station’s anniversaries to coincide with a public holiday.
Continue reading “The final hour of Hitz FM”It was this week, back in 1996 when Hitz’s 9th broadcast wraps up. Songs like On the Bible (Deuce), Passion (A-Man), Born Slippy (Underworld) and Keep Pushin’ (Boris Dlugosh) battled it out for the end of broadcast countdown.
And a LOT had happened since the broadcast began on September 14.
Continue reading “Out with a bang: Hitz’s 9th Broadcast wraps up”Just like today, it was the second Sunday in October, back in 1997. Time for Paul Dowsley’s Weekend Siesta – the Dance Classics edition. For a couple of years it had been one of Hitz FM’s most well-loved programs. But this week in 1997, was its final one. Paul was about to hit 25 – and Hitz FM’s famous age ceiling for presenters was non-negotiable.
Before I jump into the streaming audio, a quick look at Paul’s wonderful career at Hitz might be in order…
Continue reading “STREAM: The FINAL Weekend Siesta Dance Classics”Over 9 years, the Hitz FM newsletter The Hitlist evolved from a single black & white page to a 24 page full colour magazine. From a single writer/editor (Anton Vanderlely) to 10 volunteers, headed by editor Tracey Wooding.
But how did The Hitlist begin? How did it develop? What sort of cool content did it feature over the years?
Continue reading “Read all about it: The Hitlist”September 22. Not today – I mean September 22 in 1995. When the defence team for the OJ Simpson case was just wrapping up. When the real life battles of the film “Black Hawk Down” were happening in Somalia. And Hitz FM returned for Hitz Broadcast 6.
All morning, a recording of “test tone” (a long ‘beep’) played onair, with the occasional announcement by Adele Cookson – asking for listener requests and sponsorship enquiries.
And most excitingly, I’ve found a recording.
Continue reading “Today: OJ’s defence finished and Hitz broadcast 6 began”One of the most exciting things to bring you on this blog has been recordings of Hitz FM. Often they’re 60-90 minute cassettes recorded by the announcers themselves. Sometimes they’re 8 hour “logger tapes” which were recorded in the station (to be kept in case of legal issues).
But even more exciting – are the recordings that were made back in the 90s by Hitz FM fans themselves. They’d listen to them over and over when the station was offair. Listen to them as they got ready to go out – or when driving.
And today’s mystery surrounds a fan’s cassette.
Continue reading “The mysterious story of the Essendon tape”September 1996. Some of us were watching the first ever series of Friends on TV. At the movies it was all about Independance Day and The Nutty Professor. And on the radio, it was the first day of Hitz FM’s 9th Broadcast.
We were smashing Inspiration (Strike), Wannabe (Spicegirls), Macarena (Los Del Rio), Ready or Not (The Fugees), Professional Widow (Tori Amos) and a tonne of other great tracks.
Continue reading “On this day: Hitz FM’s 9th Broadcast blasts into life”It’s time to to celebrate the first birthday of GabeMcGrath.com.
Back in June 2020 I had an idea. I’d been working on my Hitz FM book – but I had tonnes of other cool stuff that wouldn’t fit. How about I share it with the world?
After two months of boring technical stuff – GabeMcGrath.com was born on August 6th, 2020. And it’s been a very busy 12 months, full of lost tapes, photos, videos, mashups and more.
Time for a monster recap – with links galore!
Now let’s go back exactly one year…
July 18, 1993. 28 years ago – TONIGHT! After two fun-filled weeks, Hitz’s 2nd broadcast ends. The station had yet again managed to stay onair 24 hours a day using voluntters and borrowed equipment. And I’ve got 120 minutes of audio to share with you.
Looking back… compared to Hitz FM’s first broadcast – we’d made some great improvements.
When Hitz FM’s 2nd broadcast kicked off on July 3rd, 1993 – things were a bit different from the first time around. The music was a bit broader; less rock (sorry Guns n Roses), more pop (hello Sub Sub) and hip hop (hello Informer). The announcers sounded a bit more polished too. But the biggest change was the location.
Hitz FM’s 1st broadcast was held at a government school, John Gardner Secondary College. It was chosen for the location (near public transport) and the cost – free. But this time around, the station was a little further north – in the rather fancy Xavier College in Kew. Picture lots of big old buildings in a slightly Harry Potter style.
Continue reading “On this day: Hitz FM’s 2nd broadcast fired off”June/July 1996 – the time of Hitz FM broadcast 8.
On TV.. fans of hot men and women in uniform had a choice of new shows… Jag or Water Rats. Comedy fans were loving Good News Week on the ABC and 3rd Rock from the Sun on Seven.
In the cinemas we were spotting flying cows in Twister, watching Tom take on Mission Impossible, laughing at The Cable Guy and going Trainspotting.
Meanwhile, on 89.9 – the Hitz returned.
Continue reading “Stream this from Winter ’96: Hitz FM broadcast 8”This week marks a special anniversary for the Hitz team. It’s the week Anton Vanderlely and Nick Karlas won a Tattersall’s ‘Enterprise and Achievement’ award for their groundbreaking idea of creating a youth radio station in Melbourne.
And this time… “that’s enough from me”.
I’m handing this post over to other members of the Hitz crew. They’re all very grateful to Anton and Nick, for creating that ‘Sliding Doors’ moment when their lives changed…
March 11th is an important date on the Hitz FM calendar. It’s the anniversary of the final night of the history-making 3rd broadcast. And this year, I wanted to make it special.
So over a number of weeks, I organised a Zoom catchup with many of the original Hitz gang. But I had no idea how much work the entire project would take.
At the end of this post you can watch the full 30 minute documentary.
But how did it happen?
And what did I stuff up?
Over the years, I did a few McHappy Days in community radio. In 1992, the ECB FM team helped out at Nunawading McDonald’s with Greg Evans (Perfect Match) and Ian McFadyen (Comedy Company). Many of ECB’s Night Crew (under 25s) went on to participate in Hitz FM. So it wasn’t a big surprise, when Hitz did a bit of McHappying of our own.
Continue reading “When Hitz Supersized McHappy Day”
