Hitz Radio
Encyclopedia
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
station. It was founded in 2006 by Ryan Dunlop in Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Hitz Radio is owned and operated by Hitz Media Group Ltd.
Dunlop claimed his drivetime slot averaged 80,000 listeners, and that he employs 40 staff. These claims were disputed by various experts in the radio industry during 2007. As of November 2007, Hitz Radio was investigated by Trading Standards
Trading Standards
Trading Standards is the name given to local authority departments in the UK formerly known as Weights and Measures. These departments investigate commercial organisations that carry out trade in unethical ways or outside the scope of the law.-History:...
over these claims, and questioned about operating without the licenses which radio stations require.
A video broadcast service, Hitz Television, made its debut in July 2007 by using video service, YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, to broadcast
According to Radio Today, Hitz Radio came under fire from some in the UK radio industry.
Origins
Hitz Radio launched on 16 January 2006. when Dunlop was age 14, but the station was operating as a hobby since December 2004 or earlier.Hitz Radio filed as a private limited company at Companies House
Companies House
Companies House is the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies and is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the...
on 2006-10-02, which is wholly owned by Ryan Dunlop.
Hitz Radio launched its services from Dunlop's bedroom PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, before moving into the 'infamous' shed where it was reported in press and media during February and March 2007.
Audience
In common with most online radio stations, there were no independently verified figures on the audience of Hitz Radio.In March 2007, Hitz Radio claimed 250,000 listeners, with the peak slot averaging 80,000 listeners. In May 2007, Dunlop claimed Hitz Radio had "around five million people from all over the world visiting at any one time."
Awards
Hitz Radio received an industry award in 2007, and was a regional winner for a second. The Daily RecordDaily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
awarded its 2007 Our Heroes Business Award to Ryan Dunlop and Hitz Radio, described in the award-winners list as having "5 million fans." Ryan Dunlop and Hitz Radio were also the regional winner for south west Scotland in the Shell Livewire
Shell LiveWIRE
Shell LiveWIRE is a UK-wide enterprise scheme to help support young entrepreneurs into business.Shell Livewire is a Shell Social Investment programme and , was launched in the Strathclyde area of Scotland in 1982, before being rolled out across the rest of the UK in 1985. offers two business...
2007 Scottish Young Entrepreneur Awards.
Investigation by Trading Standards
In November 2007, Hitz Radio was investigated by Trading StandardsTrading Standards
Trading Standards is the name given to local authority departments in the UK formerly known as Weights and Measures. These departments investigate commercial organisations that carry out trade in unethical ways or outside the scope of the law.-History:...
, after they received complaints about the claims made about the companies operations.
Trading Standards also found that despite Dunlop's claims, Hitz Radio was in fact operating without licenses from the Phonographic Performance Limited
Phonographic Performance Limited
PPL is the London-based United Kingdom music licensing company which undertakes collective rights management of recorded music and music videos for public performance, broadcast and new media use...
or Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, which are required to operate a radio station.
"The Final Countdown"
Hitz Radio ended online broadcasting on June 2, 2008 with a 2-hour show presented live by Dunlop entitled "The Final Countdown." It took the form of a music request show interspersed with highlights from HitzRadio's time on air. During it he courted controversy by calling people in the radio industry "tits"; and making claims that the station could possibly be moving to New York. He continually called Hitz Radio "the world's biggest / greatest radio station" during the broadcast.Hitz Radio re-launched an online broadcast on September 14, 2008 in the form of its new music radio station Hitz Radio Xtra, again with no evidence of royalty fee being paid.