Kiss FM

I remember years and years ago when Kiss FM (100.00 London) was a pirate radio station. Its popularity grew and they went legit!

At first, the music played really appealed to me. It was modern dance/club music (not everyones taste I know!) However they then seemed to go through quite a long phase where they played a lot of hardcore and trance music. As this is not my type, I stopped listening for quite a few years.

A couple of years back, I started to listen again and found that once again they were playing music that I liked and that they were really coming upmarket!

Its true that they play mostly UK garage/two-step and dance music and aim their shows at teenagers and twentysomethings. However they do manage this quite well, through the music, the fun loving DJs and guest sets from well known DJ's - DJ EZ for example.

In my opinion, without doubt, the show that has come on leaps and bounds is the breakfast session, hosted by Bam Bam (anyone who hasn't listened will probably wonder what I am going on about!) and Streetboy. Incidentally, Streetboy's career at Kiss is quite interesting - he started off doing work experience there whilst at school and then managed to get in as the boy on the street who basically harrassed the poor public in any way possible. Finally he got his own show, and now hosts the breakfast show in conjuction with Bam Bam. The two can be quite comical when together, although I doubt anyone of an older generation would find them funny!

Kiss claim that they have overtaken Capital FM in terms of listening figures by under 25's to their breakfast show. Judging by the number of people I know who now listen to Kiss as opposed to Capital, I can quite believe it.

The quality and taste of the shows may not be as good as some more professional stations, however they do appeal to the younger generation. The music is always current and I find that you tend to hear all future releases on Kiss, months and months before they are released. This shows that they are genuinely into music and giving their listeners a taste of forthcoming tracks. This is quite unlike other stations who only play released or nearly released chart music for listening figures.

Kiss won't appeal to all, but I personally like it and if you like UK Garage then you should love it!