Peter Hitchener Biography
Peter Hitchener OAM (born Peter Donald Beauchamp Hitchener) is an Australian television presenter. He has been the chief news presenter for GTV-9 of their flagship bulletin Nine News Melbourne since 1998, and prior to that was the weekend news presenter.
Peter Hitchener Age
Hitchener was born on February 21, 1946, in Texas, Australia. He is 73 years old as of 2019.
Peter Hitchener Career
Originally from rural Queensland, Hitchener began his media career in 1965 at the Brisbane radio station 4BH where he wrote, edited and presented news bulletins. Hitchener then moved on to ABC Brisbane where he undertook roles as a television news and radio presenter. Still, at the ABC, he moved to Sydney in 1973 where he was a relief presenter on the evening news for James Dibble.
Hitchener moved to the Nine Network after one year at ABC Sydney, presenting National Nine News first in Sydney and then in Melbourne as the co-anchor of News Centre Nine, Australia’s first nightly networked newscast. In 1977, Hitchener began hosting the breakfast show on 3AW before moving to 3AK in 1979. At about this time, Hitchener also became chief weekend news presenter and understudy to chief weeknight news presenter Brian Naylor. In 1985, Hitchener resigned from 3AK.
When Brian Naylor retired in 1998, Hitchener took over as presenter of Nine News Melbourne on weeknights. In 2008 Hitchener celebrated 10 years as the weeknight news presenter, and in that time has become one of Melbourne’s most respected news presenters. In October 2010, Hitchener signed another three years as presenter of Nine News Melbourne.
January 2013, the Nine Network celebrated Hitchener’s 40-year career with the network at a gala dinner where many speakers paid tribute to his work in news and the community. In July 2014, it was announced Hitchener had signed a new contract to remain, presenter of Nine News, believed to be for five years.
Peter Hitchener photo
Peter Hitchener Charity And Community Work
In 1998, Hitchener became the patron and active supporter of Able Australia (formerly the Deaf-Blind Society of Victoria), an organization supporting people with multiple disabilities. Since 2011, he has been the patron of Dogs Victoria, an organization representing breeders and owners of purebred dogs in Victoria.
He is also an Ambassador for the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. In addition, he is a regular supporter and guest speaker for many other charity and community events in Melbourne. He is also Patron of the Barwon Health Foundation and Eastern Health Foundation.
Peter Hitchener Honours
Hitchener was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2017 Australia Day Honours list “for services to the broadcast media and to the community”.
Peter Hitchener Personal life
In April 2008, in a Herald Sun article regarding his 10 years as head presenter of Nine News Melbourne, Hitchener acknowledged he is gay. Online commentators criticized the circumstances of Hitchener’s personal revelations, saying that he was “pushed” into discussing his private life. Hitchener’s spokesperson denied this.
Peter Hitchener Salary And Net Worth
As of now, he earns a pretty good salary of around $600 Thousand+ annually. And eventually, he has accumulated huge net worth. But unfortunately, it is unknown.
Peter Hitchener Measurements
Moving towards Peter Hitchener’s body measurements, he has light brown hair color and his eye color is blue. There is no information about his height, weight, shoe size, and dress size.
Peter Hitchener Gay| Is Peter A Gay?
Sometimes stories about the media leave you feeling grubby and none much more than the nasty tale behind this piece in some gossip newspapers, in which Channel Nine Veteran news presenter Peter Hitchener outed himself as a gay. But he is kept his bio and details in a shallow profile. He never revealed to his wife and married life.
He is gay, so it is hard to say that he was married, but he also not opened about his girlfriend information and his dating affairs as well. There was also not any news about either he is living with his someone partner or single. He is a very private person, who keeps his personal lives in a shallow profile. The 72-year-old TV persona Peter is never falling in love with anyone. As of now, he lives a single and cherished life.
Peter Hitchener 3AW News Talk
Tuesday 12.30pm, weekly
Peter Hitchener is one of Melbourne’s most recognizable faces (and certainly has Melbourne’s most recognizable giggle too!).
He is a highly respected newsreader who has presented Nine News Melbourne since 1998, and last year celebrated 45 years at Nine.
In 2017, Peter was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his services to broadcast media and the community.
Back in 1977, Peter hosted the breakfast show on 3AW!
In his spare time, Peter enjoys acrobatics and attending debutante balls all over the city.
Peter joins Denis weekly to talk about everything from memories to social habits to pop culture.
Peter Hitchener Melbourne’s Trams
Meet the man who voices Melbourne’s trams
If you’re a frequent tram traveler, you’ll be familiar with the warm and perfectly enunciated voice that announces Melbourne’s numerous tram stops. The voice announces upcoming stops (“the next stop is Lonsdale Street”) and lets you know you’re leaving the free tram zone (“touch on your Myki to ensure you have a valid ticket”). This voice belongs to Colin Tyrus, a retired Yarra Trams employee and news journalist who recorded announcements for Melbourne’s prolific tram network.
We chatted to him to find out how he got the job, why Melburnians are passionate about pronunciation and if he has the most recognizable voice in Melbourne.
When and how did Yarra Trams choose you to do the recordings?
I was communications manager at Yarra Trams and started that role in 2004. [In that role, I did] all media and public relations and all the rest of the communications activities. The first recordings I did were for the City Circle trams, the free tourist trams. I recorded that in a mate’s recording studio and then, later on, some years later, when the technology had improved and advanced to the stage when we could do automated announcements on the rest of the fleet, I progressively recorded the routes. There are over 1,600 tram stops, so by the time you do all the different variations and record them, several times each, it’s quite a lot of work. One of the biggest challenges was to get the pronunciations correct.
Do you remember any particular stop names that were hard to pronounce?
Oh, there’s one called ‘Ievers Street’. It’s spelled ‘Ievers’ but I think pronounced ‘evers’. Then, of course, there’s always the debate in Melbourne over whether you pronounce the ‘t’ in Swanston Street. Well, you do. It’s correct that you do. But we got a lot of complaints from people saying “he’s saying Swanston when it should be Swanson”. Well, I’ve checked and we’ve doubled checked, and it is Swanston with a ‘t’! You do pronounce the ‘t’ in Swanston.
Are you still working with Yarra Trams?
I’m a retiree now. I retired from full-time work three and a half years ago and am now involved in community radio at a couple of community radio stations. My career in broadcasting started in 1976, and this has been quite a journey. My voice has been one of the ways I’ve earned my living. Through journalism, I’ve won two Walkley awards [, Ed. note: the Walkley Awards recognize the best in journalism] and shared in a third Walkley award.
What’s it like being the voice of Melbourne’s trams?
To be the voice of Melbourne’s trams is a great honor for me. I just think [the trams are] such an icon of the city. But not only an icon, but it’s also such a part of a modern mass-transit system that we have in Melbourne, that it’s a very great thing to be able to help people get around. For example, if you’re vision impaired, these voice announcements can help people. Also, people visiting from overseas or interstate, just to help them navigate Melbourne on the tram network is, to me, a great privilege.
Obviously, it’s been kind of an anonymous role, because people don’t know the face behind the voice and that’s probably a good thing. They always reckon that I had a good face for radio [laughs].
Do you ever get recognized?
Yes, a couple of times my voice has been recognized. In fact, someone rang the 3AW breakfast program and was wondering to Ross and John, who hosts the breakfast program, who was the voice of the tram and there were callers suggesting it was Peter Hitchener. Then someone at 3AW realized that it was actually me as I had worked at 3AW as news director in my journalism career.
Do you love or hate hearing yourself on the trams?
Put it this way, I always get a surprise when I get on and I hear myself. I suppose you never quite get used to the sound of your own voice [laughs]. I’ve read about a million news bulletins and I always think to myself, “gee, every day now I have more listeners than I ever had when I was on the radio reading the breakfast news.”
Was it all recorded in one sitting or have you since come back to record updates?
I did them progressively. I have a studio at home, and I’m able to do updates. Like recently, I had to do Marvel Stadium, and other stops have been added or changed. Sometimes when there are updates I can jump into my little home studio and, of course, with modern digital technology you can simply send it through via email.
Did you ever have a voice coach?
I didn’t have a voice coach, but when I started in radio at 3AW in 1976, there were some great broadcasters there and great newsreaders and you tend to learn on the job. Obviously, with the tone of my voice, you do enunciate more, probably, when you do radio announcements or tram announcements, more than you would in general conversation.
You put on your telephone voice.
Yeah. I try to make sure that it’s not too ocker… too Aussie if you like. I try to make sure it can be understood by visitors from just about any country, and I’ve heard feedback that people say that it’s a kind of mid-Atlantic accent. In other words, it’s a bit placeless. It’s not too plummy, and it’s not too Aussie.
Peter Hitchener Facebook
Peter Hitchener Twitter
Tweets by phitchener9