Long post, but I'm hoping that even those of you from overseas who've no idea the impact Hitz FM had on Melbourne & Australian radio will still read on and watch the attached YouTube clips. If it were not for this now defunct, monumental radio station, there is every chance in the world this website would not exist.
In November this year, it will be 6 years since former aspirant radio broadcaster Hitz FM last graced Melbourne's airwaves. If the Hitz were still around, 2007 would have marked their 15th birthday. Hitz FM single handedly changed the face of Melbourne--and in a lot of cases, Australian--radio during their time in our lives, which was cut short by only a few months shy of 10 years. For those of you who don't know, Hitz FM was the only station you could hear the latest dance & pop music from all over the world non stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unlike the commercial networks, who placed their attention to new music on weekends for a 4 hour long Top 40 Countdown which--in most cases--was just exported from another country, Hitz FM was a non-profit community broadcaster being run FOR the youth of Melbourne BY the youth of Melbourne, providing them with the music they wanted to hear, but were simply unable to previously. It was also an excellent breeding ground for the nations best up and coming producers and artists who were not even looked at by stations like Fox FM or TT.
Hitz began broadcasting for a couple of weeks here and there, beaming their sounds from the halls of a couple of Melbourne high schools through the years of 1992 & 1993. But it wasn't until the now iconic Summer of '93/'94 three month broadcast between December and March that really placed Hitz FM on the map. Hitz wasn't just some radio station going out to a few suburbs in Melbourne. It was now widespread; from Melbourne's inner suburbs, to the Mount Dandenong's, all the way through Geelong and the Surf Coast. Hitz FM became the soundtrack to the summer of thousands of young people in Victoria during those three months. Songs like Tevin Campbell's "Can We Talk" rocketed up the Australian charts after being played on Hitz FM. The now momentus Quench track "Dreams" was played for the first time in the world on Hitz FM. Hitz played Delirium's remixed "Silence" a good 12 months before it would become a Top 10 hit across the globe. If it weren't for Hitz FM, that outstanding pop group the Rogue Traders would probably not exist; James Ash got his immediate introduction to the world of radio and dance music through Hitz FM, the station which would later help him in securing his first recording contract. Dance, pop & RNB artists who had otherwise been ignored by Australia's rock-focused commercial networks were finally getting the recognition and airplay they deserved. I, along with so many others, was obsessed with Hitz. I would spend hours sitting in my bedroom, putting up with the ridiculous heat, taping songs from 89.9 Hitz FM whilst all the other kids from my school were probably riding their bikes, swimming at the pool, playing cards or all that other shit kids apparently do during school holidays. Me, I was never one for outdoor adventure because MY choice for adventure was always through music, and Hitz was quenching that thirst of mine at full throttle.
Then the unthinkable happened. I was completely unaware that my new flame had an expiry date. The Australian Broadcasting Authority were taking Hitz FM off the airwaves after their 3 month test transmission. The ABA promised Hitz & its listeners that by 1994 a decision on full time, Melbourne wide community broadcasting licenses would be made official. Then in 1994, it was decided the outcome would unravel in 1996. Then in 1998. Then 1999. Then 2000. Then 2001. Nine years later, broadcasting for three months out of every twelve months of the year, Hitz FM, being the very first of the community broadcasters who had applied for licenses, easily being the most popular and generator of the most media buzz, was denied their request. Even though the facts and figures proved that a station like Hitz was necessary in Melbourne. That day in December 2001 was an emotional day for anyone who'd been affected by this radio station. I'd walked into that ugly lime green building countless amounts of times, had been greeted by the friendly staff there and shown the ropes; I was never intimidated because the people within those walls were just like me; young teenagers and very young adults who shared the same passion for music as I did. To hear the news that the station which helped refine my music tastes into adulthood was no more... it was incredibly sad. "Something touched me deep inside, the day the music died." A lot of conspiracy's surround Hitz's demise. They usually involve commercial networks like Austereo or DMG, and throw together words like 'blackmail' and 'Australian Broadcasting Authority' around in the same sentence. I'm not saying they're true, but even if they were there's really no point in dwelling on it 6 years later. But do take this into consideration: the nightly Hot 30 countdown you hear on the Austereo network would not exist if it weren't for Hitz FM. DMG - who run the Nova networks across Australia - would not have had such success if it weren't for them completely ripping off Hitz FM's radio format for the first 12 months of their run in Melbourne. Notice how the minute Hitz FM was out of the picture, the station which claimed to "sound different" began to sound like all the other stations? For the sake of their legal team, and for the sake of my own arse, I'm sure it was just a coincidence.
I could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about the Hitz and the injustice of their outcome but I wont. I plan on commemorating the final ever test broadcast in November by doing a feature on all of the compilation CDs they released over their 9 year history, which were as iconic to Melbourners as the station itself, so it's not the last you'll hear on this topic. I do really want you to watch these two 5 minute videos on YouTube though; they're a 2 part documentary on Hitz FM made in 2000 (just a year before they would find out their hard work had been for virtually nothing.) You'll get to hear the people who were such an integral part in Hitz's success discuss their thoughts on the ABA's handling of the license application fiasco, and you'll also see Paul Dowsley, a man who - along with the likes of Cameron Adams, Peter Robinson - inspired me to become a journalist. Paul, along with pretty much everyone at Hitz, (notables such as James Ash, Lisa Foley, Adele Cookson, Rod "The Talking Man,"Julie Doyle, The Pete Repete's et al) are also responsible for my violent interest in radio. Not sure if that's something any of them are aware of, but there you go.
