Timeline of Kiss

A timeline of notable events relating to Kiss, a British commercial radio station operated by Bauer Radio.

1980s

1985
- October – The first broadcasts of Kiss as a pirate station take place, initially broadcasting at the weekend across south London.

1988
- November – The Department for Trade and Industry announces that a series of new stations in areas which already have an Independent Local Radio station will be licensed.
- Kiss commences a campaign to win one of the available licenses for London.
- New Year's Eve – Kiss holds its 'coming off air' night at Dingwalls, Camden.

1989
- July – Kiss is unsuccessful in its initial bid for a London-wide licence, losing out to Jazz FM.

1990
- April – More London-wide incremental licenses are advertised and Kiss wins one of these licenses.^[1]
- 1 September – Kiss 100 starts broadcasting as a legal, licensed station.
- Gordon Mac leads a countdown in the studio, and the first official record played is 'Pirates Anthem' by Shabba Ranks and Cocoa Tea. Norman Jay hosts the first full show.
- 9 September – Kiss holds its launch party at Highbury Fields.

1994
- 16 October – Kiss 102 launches in Manchester. The station licenses the brand name from Kiss 100 but the station is fully independent of the London station.
- November – Danny Rampling takes his Lovegroove Dance Party to BBC Radio 1.

1996
- Trevor Nelson, who had been involved with the station since its time as a pirate, is the latest presenter to join BBC Radio 1.

1997
- 14 February – Kiss 105 launches across Yorkshire. The station shares some of its programming with Kiss 102.
- April – Another original presenter, Norman Jay, leaves.
- 29 September – Faze FM, the owner of Kiss 102 and Kiss 105, is bought by Chrysalis Radio and the stations are rebranded Galaxy 102 and Galaxy 105 respectively.
- December – Gordon Mac stands down as Managing Director.

1998
- 28 March – Kiss' founder Gordon Mac presents his final show for the station.
- 30 June – Kiss TV launches.
- Gilles Peterson leaves to join BBC Radio 1.
- 18 December – Original presenter Steve Jackson is sacked, resulting in a legal case the following August on grounds of racial discrimination.

1999
- January – Controversial changes are made to the station following Emap's decision to align the station with the rest of its operations. The on-air changes lead to criticisms of the station from presenters and listeners who feel that the station is losing its musical direction.^[2] The changes see Bam Bam take over as presenter of the breakfast show.

2003
- Graham Gold leaves, having presented a Friday night show for the past decade.

2005
- Logan Sama joins to present a weekly grime show.
- 21 June – Following Emap's purchase of Scottish Radio Holdings, it acquires dance stations Vibe 101 and Vibe 105-108.^[3]

2006
- April – Bam Bam is fired shortly before the station is handed a then record fine of £175,000 for a series of breaches which include prank calls being broadcast on his show without the consent of the 'victims.'
- Robin Banks replaces Bam Bam as host of the breakfast show.
- 6 September –
  - Due to falling listener figures, Kiss is relaunched with a renewed focus on dance music.^[4]
  - Sister stations Vibe 101 and Vibe 105–108 are rebranded Kiss 101 and Kiss 105-108.
- 22 October – The Kiss network becomes one of the broadcasters who air a new chart show called the Fresh 40 chart show. It counts down the top 40 r'n'b and dance songs and is broadcast against commercial radio's Hit40uk chart and the BBC Radio 1 Sunday afternoon chart show.

2007
- May – Rickie Haywood Williams and Melvin Odoom replace Robin Banks as host of the breakfast show.

2008
- 29 January – Bauer completes the purchase of EMAP's radio, television and consumer media businesses, purchasing the assets for £1.14bn.^[5]

2010
- December – Ofcom approves a request from owners Bauer Radio to drop local programming content from the three Kiss stations, creating a national service on the condition that Kiss would be available on 35 DAB multiplexes around the UK on the day local information is dropped, rising to 38 within 3 months of the changes.^[6]

2011
- January – John Digweed's show, called Transitions since the mid 2000s, is broadcast on Kiss for the final time.

2012
- November – David Rodigan leaves, having been with the station since it launched in 1990. He resigns following a decision to move his reggae show to a later slot.^[7]
- 27 December – Kiss 100 launches on the Digital One national DAB multiplex.^[8]

2013
- 7 May – KissFresh launches. It is available on Freeview and online but not on any DAB multiplexes.
- 12 May – Kisstory launches as a full-time station, again just on Freeview and online.

2014
- Logan Sama leaves for BBC 1Xtra.
- September – DJ EZ leaves after presenting a UK garage show for the station for the past 14 years.
- 12 December – Kisstory and KissFresh start broadcasting on DAB for the first time when the appear on the Greater London I DAB multiplex.

2015
- January – Kisstory launches on many local multiplexes across the UK.^[9]

2016
- 26 February – Kiss is launched in Norway and Finland.^[10] Content is managed by local teams. In Finland, Kiss is broadcast on FM and in Norway Kiss and Kisstory are broadcast on DAB.^[11]
- 29 February – Kisstory is one of the launch stations on the semi-national Sound Digital multiplex.
- 1 May – KissFresh takes over some of the local slots vacated by Kisstory when it launched on Sound Digital.^[12]

2017
- 10 July – KissFresh launches nationally on the Digital One multiplex. Its schedule and playlist is refreshed to differentiate it from the main Kiss station.^[13]

2018
- January –
  - Kiss launches two new online on-demand stations – KISS Jams and KISS Grime.
  - Some changes to the late night schedules take place on the main station and new specialist shows launch on KissFresh.^[14]

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.