The Hits South Canterbury

The Hits South Canterbury

City of license	Timaru
Broadcast area	South Canterbury
Slogan	All Your Favourite Hits
Frequency	94.7 MHz
First air date	1949 (1949)
Format	Adult contemporary
Language(s)	English language
Transmitter coordinates
Owner	NZME
Website	Official website

The Hits South Canterbury is a radio station in Timaru, New Zealand.

The station began as a government-owned radio station in on 18 January 1949 with the original call sign of 3XC broadcasting on 1160AM. Radio Caroline also broadcast in Twizel originally on 1550AM; the Twizel station ran a hybrid of Radio Caroline and National Radio programming.

In 1978 Radio Caroline moved to 1152AM in Timaru and 1485AM in Twizel, the change in frequency was due to the New Zealand AM band changing from 10 kHz frequency spacing to 9 kHz spacing. Coinciding with the change in frequency the station call sign was changed to 3ZC.

Originally Radio Caroline was a community based local radio station. In 1995 Radio Caroline began broadcasting on 98.7FM in addition to the AM frequency and became part of the Classic Hits FM network as Classic Hits 99FM. The station initially retained local programming between 6am - 7pm.

In 1996 the New Zealand government sold the Radio New Zealand commercial operation, as a result the station was now owned by The Radio Network.

In 1998 The Radio Network consolidated the local stations operating in smaller regions into a network called the Community Radio Network. Community Radio Network stations retained their local identity and continued to run a local breakfast show between 6am and 10am and outside these times took a network show from studios in Taupo. As a result of the change the Timaru station was removed from the Classic Hits network and was rebranded as South Canterbury's 99FM. This is the only known station to be removed from the Classic Hits network.

In 2001 all stations part of the Community Radio Network were joined to the Classic Hits network as a result South Canterbury's 99FM became Classic Hits 98.7. The same year the original AM frequency was reassigned to Newstalk ZB. In 2005 the station began broadcasting on 94.7FM in addition to the 98.7FM frequency.

On April 28, 2014 all stations part of the Classic Hits network were rebranded as The Hits. A networked breakfast presented by Pauline Gillespie and Grant Kareama was introduced to almost all The Hits stations with the former breakfast announcer moved to present a 6-hour show between 9am and 3pm. The local 9am-3pm show was originally presented by Sam Wilson but later in 2014 The Hits Waitaki announcer Josh McIntyre took over this show broadcasting to both Timaru and Oamaru.

A station using the name Radio Caroline now broadcasts from Palmerston, Otago on 756AM; coverage includes Dunedin.

External links

• Radio Caroline International website
• Radio Caroline website