Kiss (UK radio station)
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Kiss 100 is a radio station broadcasting to London specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and dance music. s 101]] (Severn Estuary) and Kiss 105-108 (East Anglia)
History
Kiss FM began in October 1985 as a pirate station, which broadcast across London on 94FM. It attracted a huge following before finally acquiring a legitimate licence in 1990 - it was thought to have commanded in the region of 500,000 listeners even as a pirate station. It was first set up by Gordon Mac (later its Managing Director) and his friends; Tosca, Pyers Easton and George Power. Gordon Mac approached a successful London club promoter, Guy Wingate, to discuss ways of improving Kiss' profile and Wingate then launched the hugely successful Kiss nights at the Wag Club (which included the first ever Acid House party, an idea put forward by Kiss DJs Colin Faver and Danny Rampling). These nights gave the station a credibility boost and Wingate joined the Kiss team, followed shortly thereafter by Lindsay Wesker.
Kiss was 'owned' by shareholders that included many of the DJs themselves, including Tim Westwood, Jonathan More, Norman Jay and others. Together with Mac, Wesker and Wingate they took the station forward through a combination of grim determination and clever marketing and in 1988, the Department of Trade And Industry advertised the first new radio licence in London for many years. Kiss pitched hard but despite colossal public support, the licence was awarded to Jazz FM (now Smooth Radio). In the weekend that followed, the Kiss team roamed London building up an enormous petition that was delivered on the Monday morning to then Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd.
A short time thereafter, new licences were advertised and this time Kiss, and its loyal army of listeners, were rewarded.
On September 1st, 1990 Kiss relaunched as a legal station, its studio and offices located on the Holloway Road, and was supported financially by EMAP, who now control the station - and recently moved its studio to Central London. Its many past influential DJs include Trevor Nelson, Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Sarah HB, Steve Jackson, Norman Jay, Craig Charles, DJ Richie Rich UK, Coldcut, Jazzie B, Gilles Peterson and Pete Wardman.
