Is kiss fm the biggest sell out ever?

[famefm]

Gordon Mac the founder has only himself to blame for the dross that now operates on 100 fm and the same with losing choice fm to crapital it was better 30 years ago without the new station's that no exist with the exception of rinse legal station's have been a complete failure

[teckniqs]

When it comes to what they originally stood for then totally!
But now they cover the most of the south west England and south of Wales (101.0) and East Anglia, north Essex etc (106.4) with their heart fm chart fm ear poison. It seems they are slowly becoming Heart FM and their Kisstory channel is just a repetitive ear ache with the same three RnB and Artful Dodger songs.

[DJ Mikey]

When it comes to what they originally stood for then totally!
But now they cover the most of the south west England and south of Wales (101.0) and East Anglia, north Essex etc (106.4) with their heart fm chart fm ear poison. It seems they are slowly becoming Heart FM and their Kisstory channel is just a repetitive ear ache with the same three RnB and Artful Dodger songs.

Don't forget Wideboys - Sambucca and Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack (I suppose that tune fits into the 3 Classic Rnb tracks ) Stations like that are an embarrassment, what's worse is when you get these dj's on pirate radio playing this shit aswell. Kiss without doubt has got worse over the years, i mean Bam Bam and Streetboy's morning shows way back in the day were worth a listen to with just for the live wind up and pranks they use to do, but they soon sacked them and then nowdays got them bunch of melts who are on now, whatever their names are. And all their producers are just cringey. So i'd put it up there with the biggest sellout in the Uk's music industries history, after all it was station's like this that was pioneers for talent back when they were pirate, had some big names in the early 90s, what talent have they got now ?

[famefm]

Thanks for the comment's people in 1985 you had solar radio and horizon close down and apply for licenses that were promised soon Gordon Mac kiss fm started that year and when they closed down themselves they talked Tony Monsons Solar radio not apply for the license promising him they would keep it real I can say now with no doubt that Monsons solar radio would have not sold to anyway of todays big radio groups and we would have had a totally different situation on the dial in London today

[fuze]

kiss is the biggest load of pony going, and the breakfast show with "ricky, melvin and charlie" her laugh is so fucking annoying and they play the same shit every half hour, what is the point in that? I have the misfortune to have to listen to it at work most mornings and it does my nut in!

[teckniqs]

Did you know, in Indonesia there is a station called Piss FM!!

[McDonalds]

think I prefer to listen to R1 over KISS even as its not as repetitive.

[famefm]

I rest my case looks like Gordon Mac was only on the make from the start yes today the original kiss DJs are back now on the dab misoul and we all know it's to little to late and dab is crap anyway

[dancemusicdj]

i don't believe it is fare to blame Gordon Mac for what happened.

you don't need a history lesson as you know the story but once a company like EMAP got involved it was only going to end one way. i'm surprised it didn't happen years earlier if i'm honest. that and the fact stations are allowed to move away from their format rather then simply being told make it work or we will readvertise the licence. all though kiss's licence and conditions are probably so braud that moving away from what it was set up to do would have been easy to do anyway (again no doubt down to the regulator) . kiss is certainly a sell out but so are all the other specialist stations which have been destroyed.

[famefm]

I can see your point but I don't want to upset people but I knew some of the 1980,s station bosses at the time and Gordon was always very ambitious there were bigger station's than the pirate kiss just before they started the 1984 period for horizon saw soul radio at its most popular and solar straight after it and yes the pirate kiss was good but they didn't have the same compition of that quality and it is the fact the others stood aside for Gordon

[dancemusicdj]

I can see your point but I don't want to upset people but I knew some of the 1980,s station bosses at the time and Gordon was always very ambitious
there were bigger station's than the pirate kiss just before they started the 1984 period for horizon saw soul radio at its most popular and solar straight after it and yes the pirate kiss was good but they didn't have the same compition of that quality and it is the fact the others stood aside for Gordon

the thing is, even if the other stations didn't stand asside, who is to say that had they got the licence instead of kiss that they wouldn't be in the same situation today? the problem is the regulatory environment meaning all the bills and costs meaning stations need huge financial support to stay on air meaning big companies unfortunately will be involved. i would agree there is a lot more to it but there were a number of other similar stations to kiss that could have proved us wrong but they all ended up going the same way. i honestly don't think Gordon can be blamed for the fact EMAP decided to destroy the station. i honestly don't think its as simple as that, by the end i would suspect he really didn't have a say (he probably didn't have a say once EMAP took full control of the station back in the early 90s anyway) i'm sure he could have done things differently in hindsight but we can't ignore the regulatory and financial burdin that stations like kiss had to go through just to stay on air, which unfortunately meant big music companies being involved in radio (something which in my opinion they shouldn't have been ever involved in)

its certainly an interesting history that could be debated from multiple sides and points of view, so hopefully more people will take part on this thread

[famefm]

Very good point but there is the biggest point I'm going to say 1 last time Tony Monson was already in his 40,s in the 80,s knew more about big business radio than anyone he had been a DJ on the 1960s stations and if it had not worked out he would have somehow would have worked out that if the big players had tried to water down the original plan he would rather have closed down

[Sparki]

I remember Gordon Mak talking to Uncle Dugs on Rinse FM when they had some pirate chat show as it was Rinse 18th birthday. Gordon said he'd had enough of the station due to a company takeover and too many people got involved who kept poo pooing his ideas and others so he decided to just slet it go and move on. I'd be the same if I was in his shoes! its not an easy job working with people who are working against you instead of with you. The station went down the tubes when he left, I never actually listened to it because never had the internet and where I live we could never get it on FM so missed out a lot but listening back to the old sets on youtube it really was a good station playing all matter of dance. Just a shame it couldn't continue and is now a shadow of its former self.

[famefm]

I heard that show as well 2012 in fact he didn't leave kiss till 1998 but from the start he was different and to strict with some of the big DJs that helped the pirate to legal station Nick Power to name 1 was on pulse 90.6 less than one year after kiss 100 started so it was far from happy there from the start first drive time dj was dangerous Dave Pearce I mean come on,no wonder you had Kool weekend rush fantasy and others come on and smash the dial at this time ,and possibly even worse was what happened to the 2 north and south London licenses becoming crap extra it was once 2 different black music stations

[bristolpirates]

You put too much emphasis on the stations themselves and none on the straight jacket that the government, IBA and Ofcom have maintained on legal stations since the 70s up to now. The reason Gordon Mac had to be strict with DJs from the get go was that he had to obey the broadcasting laws and regulations to stay on air, otherwise he may as well have kept running Kiss as a pirate. Living in Bristol, 90% of pirate output was Reggae and Soul, and whilst our local legal dance station Galaxy (previously FTP) was doing it's best it was a lot more like Kiss is now during the daytime (just in 1991 instead of 2015). To hear Kiss suddenly come in from London on a lift with Grooverider at the controls was fucking unbelievable. I don't think people in London really understood or appreciated what they had, in either pirate or legal radio.

[famefm]

If your from Bristol let me tell you that choice fm was meant to be for south London only and for 11 years it was very good and you had no wishy washy watering down until 2001 when capital got a share in the station

[bristolpirates]

If your from Bristol let me tell you that choice fm was meant to be for south London only and for 11 years it was very good and you had no wishy washy watering down until 2001 when capital got a share in the station

The fact that Choice started as a legal station means they were watered down in comparison to any pirate by default. They were very popular by all accounts and I'm sure they did well under the circumstances, just as Kiss did when it became legal. They would have to keep the authorities and advertisers happy as much as Kiss had to.

[teckniqs]

I'm 100% sure I heard Choice started as a pirate.

[bristolpirates]

I'm 100% sure I heard Choice started as a pirate.

Fair enough Teck, but the legal version would still be watered down from the pirate version.

[teckniqs]

That's true, as more time went on the more it became. I remember they did some good Jungle shows on there back in 1993/1994 on weekend nights and it certainly used to seem more like a station out there to cater for the people rather than fill their own pockets. A sad tale told over and over again. RIP commercial radio.