It was set up by Government broadcaster Radio New Zealand in 1993 by consolidating existing stations into a single brand and has been privately owned since 1996.

The Hits has had the broadest broadcast reach of any radio network in the country since 1996,[1] and is now available on 40 full-power FM frequencies and 18 iHeartRadio streams.

Many have given a platform to broadcasting names like Selwyn Toogood, Paul Holmes, Peter Sinclair, Jenny-May Clarkson (nee Coffin) and Jason Gunn.

The Classic Hits stations originally retained their heritage identity until 2009, and used a uniform green diamond logo until June 2011.

In 1998 it reduced local programming to four hours a day in all regions except Christchurch, and introduced new network shows for mornings and afternoons.

At this stage Classic Hits 98FM in Christchurch was exempt from these changes and continued to run local shows 24 hours a day.

Each station retained its local brands and breakfast shows, but took network programmes from Lakeland FM in Taupō at other times of the day.

[22] On 4 April 2014 the National Business Review reported Polly Gillespie and Grant Kereama were planning to move from ZM to a new network breakfast show on Classic Hits.

[9] Stations began taking a single network programme when hosts were away, and many local breakfast co-hosts took on other roles within the company or found other jobs.

In February 2017 Polly and Grant were taken off the air after a dispute with their employer and in March 2017 their departure from The Hits was confirmed at the conclusion of their contract that same month.

Many of its tracks are from top 40 stars, like Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Bruno Mars.

The network plays a range of New Zealand music, giving promotion and airtime to Brooke Fraser, Benny Tipene, Lorde, and Avalanche City.

[39][40] Jono Pryor, Ben Boyce and Megan Papas host a live network breakfast broadcast from Auckland, currently heard across most markets (excluding Hawke's Bay & Dunedin).

News, sport and weather sourced from the NZME newsroom is heard on the hour and half-hour headlines by Megan Papas (Network) and Brin Rudkin (Regional), and traffic reports is broadcast every 15 minutes.

Former newsreaders include Alison Leonard (2004–2007), Melanie Homer (2007–2010), Glen Stuart (2011–2014), Ash Thomas (2014–2019) Rachel Jackson-Lees (2020–2022), and Sam Worthington (2022-2023).

The show was previously hosted by Pat Courtenay (1998–1999), Andrew Dickens (1999–2000), Grant Bailey (2000–2003), Mark Bunting (2003–2007), Jason Reeves (2007–2010), Jason Gunn (2012–2013), Justin Brown (2014), Guy Parsons (2014), Stacey Morrison and Paul Flynn (2015–2019), Stacey Morrison, Mike Puru and Anika Moa (2019–2021), and Brad Watson and Laura McGoldrick (2022-2023).

[2] Former hosts include Peter Sinclair (1993–1997), Andy Dye (1998–1999), Gael Ludlow (2001–2002), Dene Young (2003–2004), Dave Smart (2004–2007), Will Johnston (2007–2008), Heemi Katene-Hill (2008–2009), Mike Plant (2009) and Estelle Clifford (2009–2021).

Since February 2017 The Hits has run a local breakfast show, initially presented by Sarah Gandy, Sam Wallace and Toni Street.

Gandy left the show and was replaced by Laura McGoldrick, with the addition of The Hits’ content director Todd Campbell.

Mark Bunting continued presenting breakfast following the rebrand to The Hits but was later fired when it was announced he would be moving to opposition The Breeze in Waikato.

Hawkes Bay maintained a local breakfast show as it transitioned into The Hits originally presented by Martin Good and Sarah Van Der Kley.

More recently, 90FM was known as 'Classic Hits 89.8 and 90.4' but this name was dropped in late 2006 after the 90.4 frequency was shifted to 89.8 (in synchronous transmission with the Nelson City outlet).

At the end of 2013 Jason left Classic Hits and in 2014 a new afternoon show was started presented by Dave Fitzgerald and Guy Parsons still from Christchurch.

Prior to the rebranding to The Hits the local breakfast show was hosted by AJ Funnell, Chloe Emirali and Andy Ellis.

However, due to listener dissatisfaction with the changes, The Hits' parent company, The Radio Network, opted to launch the Gore based Hokonui brand into Ashburton on the 92.5FM frequency.

Following the departure of BC and with Liv going on maternity leave a decision was made to network Dunedin's breakfast show presented by Callum and P into Southland.

In 2014 and 2015, it was the official network of the ANZ Championship Northern Mystics, Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, Central Pulse, Canterbury Tactix and Southern Steel teams.

[57][58][59] Some stations in The Hits network support local branches of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

[60] In 2015 the network hosted a live video feed of kittens from Auckland SPCA, as part of a nationwide campaign to promote cat adoption.

[22] It currently features sections on recipes, parenting issues, videos, events, galleries, competitions and breaking news.