Peter Donald Beauchamp Hitchener OAM (born 21 February 1946) is an Australian television presenter. He has been the chief news presenter for

GTV-9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. History GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regular ...

of their flagship bulletin ''

Nine News Melbourne ''Nine News Melbourne'' is the weeknight, flagship news bulletin of the Nine Network in Australia. It is screened in Melbourne and Tasmania, and across Victoria. Like all ''Nine News'' bulletins, the Melbourne bulletin runs for one hour, from 6 ...

'' since 1998, and prior to that was the weekend news presenter.

Career

Originally from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in rural

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Hitchener began his media career in 1965 at the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

radio station

4BH 4BH 1116 is the on-air identifier ( ACMA callsign: 4BH) of a radio station in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It broadcasts on a frequency is 1116 kHz in the AM radio band and is simulcasted in DAB+ on channel 9B. It is o ...

where he wrote, edited and presented news bulletins. Hitchener then moved on to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

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 James Edward Dibble (4 February 1923 – 13 December 2010) was an Australian television presenter, best known as the presenter of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Sydney news for 27 years, from Monday, 5 November 1956 until his ...

. Hitchener moved to the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

after one year at ABC Sydney, presenting ''

National Nine News ''Nine News'' (stylised ''9News'') is the national news service of the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is the hour-long 6:00 pm state bulletin, produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in TCN, Sydney, GTV (Australia) ...

'' first in Sydney and then in Melbourne as the co-anchor of ''News Centre Nine'', with Brian Henderson co-anchoring in Sydney. In 1977, Hitchener began hosting the breakfast show on

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

before moving to

3AK 3AK is the call sign of SEN 1116, an earlier the on-air name of a former Melbourne talk-back radio and music station, which, in 2003, leased its licence to sports network SEN 1116. A number of unusual events and precedents throughout the stati ...

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 ''

'' on weeknights. In 2008 Hitchener celebrated 10 years as the weeknight news presenter. In 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. On 29 March 2021, Hitchener was reading the news bulletin when he suddenly fell ill and was unable to read the

teleprompter A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually be ...

, causing him to go home mid-broadcast. Hitchener was subsequently revealed to have been suffering a

migraine Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hou ...

, and was replaced by

Alicia Loxley Alicia Loxley (née Gorey) is an Australian journalist and news presenter. Loxley is currently weekend news presenter on ''Nine News Melbourne'' and '' Nine Afternoon News Melbourne''. Career Loxley was born in Melbourne and made her first me ...

for the following night's bulletin. In December 2021, it was announced that Hitchener would scale back to 4 days a week from January 2022 presenting from Monday to Thursday with

presenting on Friday. In February 2022, Hitchener was announced as a

Moomba Moomba (also known as the Moomba Festival) is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labo ...

Monarch alongside

Fifi Box Fiona Box is an Australian radio broadcaster, television presenter and actress. Career Box's early career was spent in regional Australia working at stations 2MC/ROXFM Port Macquarie, 3TR Traralgon and 3GG Warragul. In 2000, Box co-hosted a la ...

Charity and community work

In 1998, Hitchener became the patron and active supporter of ''Able Australia'' (formerly the Deaf Blind Society of Victoria), an organisation supporting people with multiple disabilities. Since 2011, he has been the patron of ''Dogs Victoria'', an organisation representing breeders and owners of pure bred 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.

Honours

Hitchener was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(OAM) in the 2017 Australia Day Honours list "for services to the broadcast media and to the community".

Personal life

For a short time, Hitchener lived in

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...

during the 1970s. In April 2008, in a ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' article regarding his 10 years as chief news presenter of ''

'', Hitchener acknowledged he is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. Online commentators criticised the circumstances of Hitchener's personal revelations, saying that he was "pushed" into discussing his

private life Private Life may refer to: *life in the private sphere The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by ...

. Hitchener's spokesperson denied this. Hitchener supports the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

References

External links