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Markets where CC does not call its CHR stations "Kiss FM"

B

bringbackradio

Even though Clear Channel claims "Kiss FM" to their trademark, not every single Top 40 outlet under its reign carries the redundant branding associated with them. In some cases there is already a Kiss FM on a different station and format.

In DC, WIHT is "Hot". There was already a Kiss FM on the heritage R&B outlet WKYS even though CC's lawsuit stripped them of it.
New York's WHTZ is "Z100." Good thing Emmis sold the intellectual rights of the former WRKS to ICBC to keep CC from renaming this station to "100.3 Kiss FM." (NY is now the only top 5 radio market to have no "Kiss.")
The new WWPW in Atlanta is "Power." Cox already has a Kiss FM on urban WALR.

In a slightly different case, KHFI has Kiss FM for Austin but that station has always been a Top 40 before CC applied the nickname to the station in 2001.
 
A lot of CC's newer CHR's use the branding "Now" or "Radio Now." The translator in Birmingham is the only CHR, out of all they have launched in recent times (IIRC), to use that brand.

I personally prefer "RadioNow" over "Kiss."
 
Channel 96.1 Charlotte
105.7 NOW Greensboro
G105 Raleigh
Star 104.3 Asheville
104-7 WNOK Columbia, SC
105.3 Today's Hit Music Hampton Roads
Y-102.3 Augusta, GA
97.9 RadioNow Jacksonville
107.5 The River Nashville
101.9 RadioNow Memphis
Q103.7 Birmingham
XL106.7 Orlando
107.1 Now Tallahassee
107.3 Now Pensacola
93.3 FLZ Tampa
Y100 Miami
97.3 RadioNow Milwaukee
 
carolinaradio said:
Channel 96.1 Charlotte
105.7 NOW Greensboro
G105 Raleigh
Star 104.3 Asheville
104-7 WNOK Columbia, SC
105.3 Today's Hit Music Hampton Roads
Y-102.3 Augusta, GA
97.9 RadioNow Jacksonville
107.5 The River Nashville
101.9 RadioNow Memphis
Q103.7 Birmingham
XL106.7 Orlando
107.1 Now Tallahassee
107.3 Now Pensacola
93.3 FLZ Tampa
Y100 Miami
97.3 RadioNow Milwaukee
Click to expand...
101.3 KDWB Minneapolis/St Paul
 
104-5 SNX Grand Rapids

How did everyone miss Power 96.1 Atlanta (edit, sorry just saw in the original post, my bad)
 
Unless I'm missing something, there are hundreds of Clear Channel stations nationwide that don't go by "Kiss..."

BTW I know the original "Kiss" station was WXKS/Boston, and that was back in the early 80s long before Clear Channel bought it out - I think I remember reading that the second "Kiss" station was WNKS/Charlotte, and that was under CBS
 
A couple of months ago CC changed Kiss 95.3 to an adult hits format and re-branded WERZ (formerly a HAC) to Z107 as the CHR in the Portsmouth NH seacoast market. Kiss had a lot more rhythmic lean than does Z107.
 
CatCall said:
A couple of months ago CC changed Kiss 95.3 to an adult hits format and re-branded WERZ (formerly a HAC) to Z107 as the CHR in the Portsmouth NH seacoast market. Kiss had a lot more rhythmic lean than does Z107.
Click to expand...
You beat me to it CatCall.
 
Two that haven't been mentioned yet,
KIXZ Hits 96.1 Spokane though they use the Kiss brand on the AC in that market
Z100 Portland The common brands are Kiss, Hot, Z, and Radio Now, though there are quite a number of others.
 
bobdavcav said:
The common brands are Kiss, Hot, Z, and Radio Now, though there are quite a number of others.
Click to expand...

All the stations Clear Channel bought out in the 90s/00s retained their original names (Z100/NYC, Z100/Portland, WNCI, XL106.7, WNOK, G105, WFLZ, Q95.5, KDWB, etc.)
 
Radio_bored-Op said:
well.....
wkse kiss 98.5 has been a chr here...
in buffalo forever....and Im wondering if that
was before the boston kiss fm.....hmmmm ??
Click to expand...

Boston beat Buffalo by about six years
 
Channel 96.3/Wichita.
92.1 the Beat/Tulsa. (Though they're still on the rhythmic panel, they sound like a pure mainstream CHR).
KJ-103/Oklahoma City.
 
So, looking through Wikepedia, it seems like Kiss/Los Angeles was first (although it was AC through most of the early 70s, and didn't flip to CHR until 1976), Kiss/Boston was second (1979), Kiss/Gainesville FL was third (1981), and Kiss/Buffalo was fourth (1985)

I'm assuming Kiss/Charlotte was fifth (flipping in 1996), and then Clear Channel began creating the massive number of new Kiss stations beginning in 1997
 
bobdavcav said:
I thought KIIS was the original Kiss FM?
Click to expand...

I think you might be right
Some of the first Kiss FMs were
Kiss 108 Boston - started as a Disco station in the late 70s
102.7 KIIS-FM Los Angeles predates it - Top 40 station that signed on in the mid 70s, but took off a few years later when Rick Dees began his long-running morning show there
98.7 kiss FM New York - around 1980 the station signed as a Rhythmic station, and was the inspiration for stations like Kiss 100 London

Kiss 98.5 Buffalo didn't sign on until the mid 80s, and Kiss 95.1 Charlotte only signed on around 1995 (before that it was known as something like 95.1 Double Q and The Edge) though there was a Top 40/Rythm station in Charlotte in the 80s known as Kiss 102.
 
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