Kiss (UK radio station)
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| City | London, Severn Estuary and East Anglia |
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| Broadcast area |
United Kingdom: London, Severn Estuary, East Anglia (FM); National (DAB) |
| Slogan | The Beat of the UK |
| Frequency |
FM - 100.0 MHz (London) - 101.0, 97.2 MHz (South Wales & the West) - 105.6, 106.1, 106.4, 107.7 MHz (East of England) DAB - 11D (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) - 12A (Scotland) Sky: 0178 Virgin Media: 963 Freeview: 713 Freesat: 769 |
| First air date | 22 October 1990 |
| Format | Rhythmic CHR |
| Audience share | 2.2% (December 2012, [2]) |
| Owner | Bauer Radio |
| Sister stations |
Absolute Radio Heat Radio The Hits Kerrang Radio Magic Planet Rock |
| Website | planetradio |
Kiss is a UK radio station which is broadcasting on FM and National DAB, specialising in pop, hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media. Owned by Hamburg based Bauer Media Group, Kiss forms part of Bauer's National portfolio of radio brands. Kiss spin-off brands include Kisstory and Kiss Fresh.
Kiss FM began in October 1985 as a pirate radio station, broadcasting first to South London then across the whole city, on 94FM. The station had gained a large audience by the time it was awarded a legitimate licence in 1990. ″The team which transformed KISS 94 FM to KISS 100FM included Lyn Champion, a BBC Radio 1 producer and UK Dance promo producer, who in the early 1980s had started a weekly column in London's City Limits magazine listing pirate radio shows from the mighty JFM, Invicta and K-Jazz. Lyn was brought in to help write the original proposal in 1989 and was Head of Talks responsible for all spoken word output on the new KISS 100 FM. The British Broadcasting Act of 1990 (the start of Thatcher's de-regulation programme) abolished the ″IBA″ which had enshrined community and spoken word programming within the licence, so KISS 100 FM missed the opportunity to initiate the 20 year wave of documentary series and cultural broadcasting about R&B based music, jazz, reggae, blues, electro and rap which was intended within original legally approved brief ″″. This material had never been broadcast in the UK on radio or TV and this was a key reason the station received an IBA licence. A missed opportunity indeed as it became the standard fare of every major broadcaster through the 1990s and noughties. Lyn Champion was the first to leave as a result, followed by such icons as Norman Jay. Lyn lectures extensively about media de-regulation and content.
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