4ZA

The Hits Southland
(previously 4ZA)

City of license	Invercargill
Broadcast area	Southland
Slogan	All Your Favourite Hits
Frequency	98.8 MHz 864 FHz (until 1994)
First air date	1956 (1956)
Format	Adult contemporary
Language(s)	English language
Transmitter coordinates
Owner	NZME
Webcast	Livestream
Website	Official website

4ZA (now known as The Hits Southland 98.8) was an adult contemporary radio station in Southland, New Zealand.

4ZA began broadcasting in Southland on 820 AM in 1956 as a commercial station operated by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. With the change in band frequency spacing in late 1978, 4ZA moved to 864 AM. Before 1989 radio stations in New Zealand were assigned call signs; 4ZA was branded as its call sign name 4ZA until 1993, when it became Classic Hits ZAFM.

In 1979 John "Boggy" Mcdowall joined the station and took on the role as the breakfast show host. Despite all the changes made to the station, Boggy remained the station's breakfast host until the end of 2012. For a time Boggy was also the station's Programme Director.

In 1991 when it began broadcasting on 98.8 FM, 4ZA was the first commercial station in Southland to broadcast on FM. Years later 4ZA also switched to FM in Te Anau, broadcasting on 90.4FM. Between 1991 and 1993 4ZA ran a country music show on the AM frequency on Sunday mornings and a Classic Hits show at the same time on the FM frequency; the same was done weekday mornings where Talkback would run on the AM frequency. It was at this time that announcers started calling the station Classic Hits 4ZA-FM. From 7 pm to 6 am the station carried RNZ Community Network programming in simulated stereo.

In 1993 Radio New Zealand rebranded many of their heritage stations as Classic Hits, but some of the stations maintained part of the heritage name into the branding. For 4ZA the station became known as Classic Hits ZAFM. For most locals the change was seamless, as if the announcers had simply started calling the station ZA-FM instead of 4ZA-FM. The 7pm to 6am show was replaced with a stereo feed from Auckland branded Classic Hits, originally with Auckland advertising.

In 1994 Classic Hits ZAFM stopped broadcasting on AM and the 864AM frequency was used by Newstalk ZB, as it still is today. In 1996 Radio New Zealand sold their commercial operation; as a result all Classic Hits branded stations were sold to The Radio Network.

In 1998 Classic Hits ZAFM was reduced to just 4 hours of local programming between 6 and 10 am 7 days a week. Outside this time nationwide shows based from Auckland took over, and the announcers simply called the station Classic Hits. The change has seen the station turn into a network station with a local breakfast show. In the past local listeners enjoyed local competitions such as Rices Sound of Southland, but now this is a nationwide competition known as The Secret Sound. Also, calling the studio is done by using a nationwide 0800 phone number instead of a local Invercargill number, even during the breakfast show.

In 2001 all Classic Hits stations were renamed to include the full frequency in the branding. For Classic Hits ZAFM this meant the station became Classic Hits 98.8 ZAFM. From 2005 onwards the "ZA" was dropped from much of the station branding, particularly with branding created from Auckland; however, locally announcers still included the "ZA" in the branding. Today the station is branded as Classic Hits 98-8, while local announcers normally call the station Classic Hits (as with the network announcers) or Southland's Classic Hits.

2006 marked the 50th anniversary of 4ZA and Classic Hits ZAFM. In October a reunion was held for all employees that ever worked on this station.

In 2012 local programming was reduced even further, when all Classic Hits stations in New Zealand were reduced to 3 hours local programming with the local breakfast show ending at 9AM.

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. Southland however retained its local breakfast show and continues to run network programming after 9 am.

Programmes

Breakfast

As of 2014 the breakfast show is hosted by James McRobie and Rachel Quinn. James previously worked as the breakfast host on rival station Southland's 89.2 MORE FM and the station's predecessor Foveaux FM. On 2 April 2012 it was announced that breakfast show presenter John "Boggy" McDowell would move to Coast, presenting the afternoon show to a nationwide audience. At the same time an announcement was made that Boggy's then co-host Tracy Kilkelly would move to an administrative role within The Radio Network, effective 5 April 2012, and James McRobie would be take over as Boggy's co-host for the remainder of 2012 before moving to the role of the show's main presenter in 2013. Boggy first presented the breakfast show on 1 June 1979, and for 33 years this show was the top rating breakfast show in Southland.

Another long serving member of the breakfast crew was newsreader Malcolm Gayfer, who read out a local news bulletin for Southland during the breakfast show followed by the national and international sports news, adding in any local Southland sports news. The same news bulletin was also read out on Southland's Newstalk ZB. Malcolm Gayfer read out his final bulletin on the same day Boggy left the station. For a time Malcolm Gayfer was Boggy's breakfast co-host.

"Bertie Budgies" birthday calls, believed to have been part of the breakfast show since the 1960s, remained a major part of the breakfast show until 2011. The intro jingle to Bertie Budgies birthday calls remained in place until 2009, when it was replaced with the same birthday calls intro used on other Classic Hits stations. In 2011 this was reduced to Boggy just reading out the birthdays. Bertie Budgie had his origins in the 1960s as a budgie in a cage at the station's reception. Later Bertie Budgie became the station's mascot appearing at local events in costume form.

"Wooly Woofter Awards" on Wednesdays were part of the breakfast show from the 1980s until 2008. Today, while the breakfast show remains local and still has that Southland touch, music played on the station is actually selected by the Programme Directors in Auckland, with the same songs playing in the same sequence across all Classic Hits stations in the country.

Weekend breakfast

At weekends, breakfast programming remained local on Saturdays until the end of 2011 and Sundays until the end of 2009. The Saturday show was presented by Darren Ludlow between 2006 and 2010, and the Sunday show was typically presented by the 95-6ZM Black Thunder Driver. Ludlow had worked on 4ZA in the late 1980s and early 1990s before moving to presenting breakfast on Foveaux FM. He returned in 2006 to present the local Saturday breakfast. In 2010 The Radio Network cut funding for local weekend programming, but the local Saturday breakfast show remained on the air, thanks to Ludlow being prepared to present this show without pay. Ludlow left in 2011 to take on the role of station manager at Radio Southland; at that time Andy Mack (who at the time read local sport during breakfast and contributed on-air) became Saturday morning presenter. He left in July 2011, and Boggy or Tracy covered the show until the end of 2011, at which time all Classic Hits stations that still had local weekend breakfast shows were required to drop them.

Studio location

The 4ZA studios are located on the corner of Don and Deveron Streets in the Invercargill CDB, in a two-story building with a courtyard in the middle. During the station's heyday the entire building was occupied by 4ZA, with the studios on the first floor. With the reduction of local programming, many of the offices in the building became empty. Today the first floor of the building is occupied by the Southern Institute of Technology, known as the SIT Sound campus or ZA Campus. SIT uses this campus for music and radio-related courses. The top floor of the building is occupied by The Radio Network and the building is now known as Radio Network House.