1ZH

1ZH was a New Zealand radio station based in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The station was originally known as 1XH which was the station's original callsign. 1XH was started by Radio New Zealand (which at the time was known as the National Broadcasting Service) in 1949, broadcasting on 1310 AM. In 1968 the station callsign was changed to 1ZH and the station known on air as this name.

In 1978 after AM band in New Zealand was changed from 10 kHz spacing to 9 kHz spacing, as a result 1ZH was moved to 1296AM. On air names included 1300 1ZH and Hits and Memories 1ZH during the 1980s.

On 25 May 1990 1ZH switched to FM broadcasting on 98.6FM at this time the station became known as ZHFM. A television advertisement for the switch to FM used the song Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show with the line "Let's switch ZHFM" instead of "Let's do the Time Warp again." A similar advertisement was used for 4ZB Dunedin when this station switched to FM in September 1990, with the line "Let's switch ZBFM." The 98.6 ZHFM frequency can also be heard in Tauranga, the outskirts of Auckland and in a number of places in Northland due to its high power and the high elevation of its transmission site.^[2]

In 1993 Radio New Zealand rebranded many of their heritage stations as

The original studios were located in Broadcasting House in Alma Street, the basement of this building also housed The Rock 93FM when this station launched in Hamilton in 1991. In 1996 Classic Hits ZHFM moved to its current location on Hardley street.^[4]

In 1998 Classic Hits ZHFM 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 network announcers simply called the station Classic Hits. The breakfast show was shortened to a 3-hour show in 2012 on all Classic Hits.

On 28 April 2014, all stations part of the Classic Hits network were rebranded as