Kiss 100 Archive - All the best DJ sets up to 1998!
I've created this blog because I absolutely loved pre-Emap (1998) Kiss 100 FM. Kiss started off life as a pirate radio station in London, England and has been one of few pirate stations allowed to go legitimate. This happened in the early 90's and Kiss 100 was THE place to listen to at the time underground DJs playing the best dance tunes. It mixed the pirate style of anything goes tune-wise with a bit more professionalism. Around 1998 Emap took over Kiss and things went seriously downhill. Kiss was re-branded a 'youth radio station' and suddenly the sort of fodder you listened to on any commercial radio station was now being played on Kiss. Because I've been so disappointed by this change to our beloved Kiss I have started off this Blog with download links so that everyone can hear what Kiss used to serve up on a daily basis. Enjoy and don't forget to comment on the mixes, and if you have any pre-99 Kiss mixes, please do get in touch!
posted by kiss admin at 7:32 am
8 Comments:
This was a little piece I originally wrote for my now defunct Illegal Stations website.
"Kiss FM are possibly the most talked about station in UK history, pulling in a massive 1/2 million listeners whilst still a pirate with it's weekend mix of house, soul, rare groove, and hiphop. First broadcasting in late 1985, it was formed and run by London club DJ's George Eracleous (aka George Power), Norman Jay and Gordon McNamee (who became it's managing director) from studios in and around London's N19, with transmitters in and around NW3.
It was New York's Kiss 98.7 and its legendary mastermix shows during the 80's that was the major influence on Kiss, and this was reflected by the usage of the same name and also its logo.
As a pirate from 85-88, it had attracted acclaim for it's upfront music and mixing, as well as equally close attention from the DTI. In 1988, it closed down in the hope of becoming legal, and on it's second attempt won a London-wide license, starting 1st September 1990. This was not possible without the support of media group EMAP, whom owned only part of the station until 1998 when a buy-out was completed. Its original studios stood proud in its roots - 80 Holloway Road, London, N7.
By 98, it's traditional emphasis on the best black and dance music started to give away to the wider, commercial end of the market - not wholly EMAP's fault - dance music had become the world-wide, corporate phenomenon we know it as now, and to support such a large operation, EMAP considered re-branding essential in the competitive London market.
But, before then, the original Kiss had begun to break up - a lot of the original DJ's either moved on or didn't fit the picture. BBC Radio 1's own re-branding in the mid 90's to make way for the dance music boom saw the first massive change - for the likes of Danny Rampling, Trevor Nelson, Gilles Peterson, Judge Jules and Dave Pearce, the chance to play dance music nationally was a dream just too impossible to turn down.
As the shift towards youth-oriented playlists, ever-increasing commercial dance, and the watering down of black music into what was soon to become 'urban', the likes of Coldcut, Norman Jay, Bob Jones left in disarray at what was happening. One of the most important faces on the station, Steve Jackson, was fired in 99, along with a cull of another 19 DJ's.
Gordon Mac eventually also resigned from the station this year, having been shunted to an upstairs position, whilst EMAP marched onwards. The logo went, the spiritual home was moved to new offices in W1 to be part of the EMAP empire. With Mac's departure, programming of music was taken over by Mark Story - previously with Magic FM ("classic hits"!)- it was clear the rot was set!"
Steve J (2000)
Worth checking:
http://www.amfm.org.uk - run by Stephen Hebditch - plenty of pirate Kiss info and piccies.
Sun Sept 03, 11:09:00 am 2006
Superb information there Steve, thanks very much for the in-depth analysis. Nice to see someone who's just as passionate about Kiss 100 FM of old as we are here!
Regards
Tue Sept 19, 03:59:00 pm 2006
cjcooper thanks for getting in touch and we'd love to host your PTA and Zoo shows if you can get them put onto 192kbps + MP3's. You or anyone else can get in touch with us via:-
waynetta_slob69 @ yahoo . co . uk
I've put in extra spaces to avoid webbots spamming, so please take them out to email us.
Thu Sept 28, 04:27:00 pm 2006
Just found this blog. Its superb, ive spent the last few years trying to find out any info about old kiss djs such as Steve Jackson etc to see what they are doing now.
Glad to see other people interested in Kiss pre 1999.
Wed Sept 05, 01:30:00 pm 2007
Zoo good for you !!! remember that ? - all i gotta say is Kiss 100 now is awful compared to how it was pre EMAP full takeover.
This is what ive been looking for a lonng time - having grown up listening to the trev the madhatter nelson - Steve -Swing- Jervier - Bob Jones - Giles Peterson the names go on .... Must add whats Steve Jackson doing nowadays does anyone know??
Tue Dec 11, 04:02:00 pm 2007
Wow, just found this site looking to see how much my original kiss car sticker might be worth, though I could never sell it. I'd like to think of myself as the biggest old school listener back in the day.
I recorded so many shows like Steve Jackson's house that Jack built, the Malibu Dance chart where Acen trip to the moon was number one, i've got Colin Favor playing The Prodigy for the first time, the list goes on...oh my days. I could never bring my self to throw these away coz it just "takes me back"!!
Fri Nov 06, 12:08:00 am 2009
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mon Sept 13, 07:43:00 pm 2010
Hi
here are some Steve jackson interviews :
http://www.winkball.com/blogs/Kiss25/stevejackson/
http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2010/04/16/T16041041/
Enjoy !!!!(and thanks for this blog...)
Mon Sept 13, 08:03:00 pm 2010
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