Kiss 100/London to be replaced by Hits

[Huff]

A rare format change coming to London's FM dial later this year:

Hits Radio to take over 100FM in London from KISS

Hits Radio is to replace KISS on FM in London, plus in Norfolk and the West of England later this year.

radiotoday.co.uk

 

[Miss Tuned]

A rare format change coming to London's FM dial later this year:

Hits Radio to take over 100FM in London from KISS

Hits Radio is to replace KISS on FM in London, plus in Norfolk and the West of England later this year.

radiotoday.co.uk

A law was passed just prior to this year's election which will allow for complete format flips on British FM stations. Previously, music formats were regulated, although this had already loosened up somewhat over the past decade. Once the law takes effect later in the year, we'll probably see a few more UK flips, although for the most part the FM dial is dominated by a few operators, who are likely to use this just to tidy up their formats and licenses a bit, as in this case where they're taking the opportunity to put a core brand onto London FM.

Prior to the law change, Kiss 100 was considered to be a "specialist music station" (dance/rhythmic) while Hits is considered "mainstream", although you can't really put much fresh air between Kiss and mainstream CHRs like Capital nowadays. Hits is more of a Hot AC than a CHR, with a lot of recurrents, but even so you'd struggle to listen to a music sequence from Kiss, Capital or Hits and differentiate them without hearing the presentation and imaging.

Of course, this is all happening in the context of a country where all of FM/AM has just a 26% share of listening, the rest being digital, mostly DAB but increasingly online, which stands at 28%, notably 2 points more than FM/AM. The law has been changed on format flips because the format of a single FM license is no longer that important, in a London market which has over 100 DAB stations and spare capacity for many more. DAB formats have never been regulated at all, with a DAB license you can do what you want (within the rules).

 

[Miss Tuned]

I should add that there are multiple pure dance stations covering various genres on DAB and FM in London, and Kiss will remain on DAB, so there is no net loss of stations or formats from this FM flip. Local dance stations in London include Centreforce (mostly house), Rinse FM (urban dance music), Kool FM (drum and bass, jungle, now part of the Rinse FM group), Flex FM (various styles), Select Radio (house), Point Blank FM (various) - all of which are, like Kiss, former pirate stations gone legal.

The advent of lower broadcasting costs through DAB has meant that these ex-pirates have been able to remain viable as independent operators and have kept their specialist nature. Kiss very quickly had to take investment from a major radio corporation (EMAP) when it became a legal operator, because it was a lot more expensive to run a London radio station in 1990, which then watered down its specialist nature. XFM was a similar story, an ex-pirate which launched as an independent alternative music station and quickly became soft rock under the Capital group. Nowadays, that doesn't need to happen, and London has a huge radio choice.

 

[Miss Tuned]

The flip from Kiss to Hits in London took place the other day. The audio is here, with a short tribute to 40 years of Kiss 100FM and then an introduction to Hits:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838172663086543112

Interestingly, the Hits stations in London and the other areas where it has replaced Kiss are using split playout to play dance remixes of the pop tracks played by Hits - so while Hits in most of the country is playing Ed Sheeran, the ex-Kiss stations are playing a rhythmic mix of the same Ed Sheeran track. The rules haven't changed yet, so the Kiss licenses have to play dance and rhythmic music rather than straight-up CHR or Hot AC formats. I'm not sure why they decided to change the name before the rules changed.