Radio station in Toronto
"KISS 92.5" redirects here. For the radio station in Toledo, Ohio branded as "92.5 KISS FM", see
WVKS
.
For the radio station in Singapore branded as "Kiss 92FM", see
Kiss 92FM
.
CKIS-FM
(92.5
MHz
) is a Canadian
radio station
in
Toronto, Ontario
. Owned by
Rogers Radio
, a division of
Rogers Sports & Media
, the station broadcasts a
Top 40/CHR
format branded as
KiSS 92.5
.
The station was founded on January 26, 1993 as
CISS-FM
under the ownership of
Rawlco Communications
in the "
New Country
" format. CISS was acquired by Rogers Communications on February 26, 1999, and was rebranded first as
Power 92
, then
Kiss 92.5
as a
top 40
station, but the station was renamed to
92.5
Jack FM
on June 4, 2003 with the call letters
CJAQ-FM
under a jockless
adult hits
format before abandoning the concept in 2006 and played
classic rock
music. The current iteration of "Kiss" was relaunched on June 5, 2009.
CKIS studios are located at the
Rogers Building
at
Bloor
and
Jarvis Streets
in the northeastern corner of
downtown Toronto
, while its
transmitter
is located atop
First Canadian Place
.
History
[
edit
]
The beginning and Country music (1989?1999)
[
edit
]
On July 31, 1989, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC) announced a call for applications to license a new FM station on the 92.5 frequency, which was believed to be the last available FM frequency in the Toronto market.
[1]
[2]
On August 8, 1990,
Rawlco Communications
was awarded a licence from the CRTC for a new FM radio station. The format chosen to air on the frequency was
country music
that would target an audience ranging from 25?54 years of age. Rawlco planned on changing frequencies for the station to 99.1 FM, which was formerly the home of
CKO-FM-1
, but cancelled the plan after the CRTC denied this.
[3]
[4]
On January 26, 1993, at 1 p.m., singer
Anne Murray
pressed the button to launch the station, with the CISS-FM call letters and
CISS-FM 92.5
(pronounced "kiss") branding.
[5]
[6]
The station's licensing by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
had been controversial, because the CRTC had passed over an application by
Milestone Radio
for an urban music station, which would have been a new format in the Toronto market, in favour of Rawlco's application. Milestone's second attempt at an urban station was also passed over in favour of
CBLA-FM
; the company finally won a licence on its third attempt, and launched
CFXJ-FM
in 2001.
First "Kiss" era (1999?2003)
[
edit
]
Rogers Communications
announced a deal to buy the station in February 1999. The deal would not be completed until August, but immediately after the deal was announced, Rogers took control of the station's programming by way of a local management agreement or LMA
[7]
(at the time, LMAs were not actively regulated by the CRTC). Without much warning, on February 5, 1999, at 7:30 p.m., the station flipped formats to
Top 40/CHR
and changed monikers to
Power 92
, becoming the first city-grade Top 40 station to serve Toronto since the demise of
CHOG
in October 1995.
[8]
The final song on "CISS" was "
The Dance
" by
Garth Brooks
, while the first song on "Power" was "
Doo Wop (That Thing)
" by
Lauryn Hill
.
The station's on-air staff was immediately let go.
[7]
Some reports at the time indicated the staff had been taken out to a meal at a restaurant nearby, then returned to the station to find they were no longer allowed in.
[9]
In a conversation recollecting the incident 23 years later,
Mike Richards
indicated that the staff had been invited to a fine dining restaurant and were expecting a meal but, after a lengthy delay, they were instead handed their layoff notices in one of the dining rooms.
[10]
When the station flipped to Power, the station attracted adverse attention from the operators of
CKDX
, then a
dance music
station branded as
Power 88.5
in
Newmarket
, north of Toronto, and from
Corus Entertainment
, which owned several "Power" stations in western Canada at the time, and who had taken steps towards potentially turning their Toronto rock music station
CILQ-FM
in a new direction as
Power 107
. On February 26, 1999, the station rebranded as
Kiss 92 FM
.
[11]
The station would later rebrand as
Kiss 92.5
.
In its early days, the station also aired imaging material in which an announcer pronounced the name of the city "Toe-ron-toe", widely considered a
mispronunciation of Toronto
. New material was soon substituted.
Thanks to former CRTC content regulations on FM radio, CISS was the first, and remained the only
Top 40
station on FM licensed to the City of Toronto in the late 1990s and early 2000s (the closest formatted station in the market,
CIDC-FM
, which airs a
rhythmic contemporary
format, is licensed to
Orangeville
, and is a rimshot from the northwestern portion of the market). The station rode a wave of popularity for
pop music
acts like
Backstreet Boys
and '
NSYNC
, and often seemed to supertarget a primary market of young teenage or preteen girls. In addition, CISS was more rhythmic-leaning than most Top 40 stations due to the market not having an urban or rhythmic station until
2001
, when
CFXJ-FM
signed on the air with an
urban
format.
Station personalities included Jay Michaels, first paired with
Daryn Jones
as "Mad Dog and Daryn" and then with Billie Holiday in mornings as Mad Dog and Billie (frequently accompanied by voice actress
Stephanie Beard
as "Suga BayBee"),
Kris James
(a re-hired veteran of the country format, and temporarily the
CHR
format's first morning host) middays, Tarzan Dan afternoons,
Cory Kimm
and Taylor Kaye evenings, and Slim hosting "Slim Jams", a slow jam/R&B program in overnights.
[12]
By
2002
, somewhat ironically, the station moved to take CFXJ's turf with a complete shift to a
rhythmic contemporary
format billed as "Toronto's
Hip Hop
and
R&B
." The station hired local urban flavoured talent DJX and Haddy, Axel, Kwame, DJ Baby Yu and RG.
Jack FM (2003?2009)
[
edit
]
On June 4, 2003, at 4:07 p.m., the station flipped to the "
Jack FM
" branding and the
adult hits
format, which had proved quite successful on Rogers-owned stations in
Calgary
and
Vancouver
.
[13]
The station would adopt the
CJAQ-FM
call letters in February 2004 (with
CISS
being moved to a Rogers-owned station in
Ottawa
). The station experienced a ratings drop after the flip, most likely because of the popularity of the previous format. However, once the station established itself, the station gained a boost in the ratings.
When it first launched, "Jack" operated without
disc jockeys
in an effort to establish the "Playing What We Want" concept which was new to Toronto. Though DJs were introduced within weeks of the debut, the station would become Canada's first DJ-free station in late September 2005. At the time, station GM/program director Pat Cardinal cited the move was "a result of listener feedback. The audience has been telling us that they want no DJs on Jack. They want more music." In November 2005, Cardinal defended his decision in an interview with
Michael Hainsworth
of Report on Business Television and stated why he doesn't see commercial-free
iPods
and satellite radio as a threat to a non-DJ format.
[14]
Despite the move, the station's ratings would dive from a 4.1 share in 2005 to the 2.3 share range in 2006.
Pat Cardinal would be replaced as GM/PD in June 2006 by Steve Kennedy, who had experience with the "Jack" format in Calgary. The previous month, the "Jack" playlist would be adjusted to
mainstream rock
, with the station dropping most pop songs in an effort to compete against
Corus
-owned stations
CILQ-FM
and
CFNY-FM
. The move put a dent in the music variety that is a hallmark of the "Jack" format and its "playing what we want" slogan (which CJAQ still used at the time and would not replace until March 2008, when it adopted the slogan "Toronto's Best Rock Variety"). The move to rock would further hamper CJAQ's overall share in the Toronto radio market (down 17%), even in the male target demographic (down 14%).
On December 11, 2006, CJAQ abandoned its DJ-free format when they launched a new morning show featuring Ben McVie and Kerry Gray, the former morning team at
CJDV-FM
in
Kitchener
. DJs would surface on other dayparts on December 12, 2006, including Jeff Chalmers and Samantha Stevens. Ben and Kerry were eventually fired on August 16, 2007 and replaced by Jeff Chalmers and Larissa Primeau. Chalmers and Primeau were dismissed in September 2008 and replaced by Carly Klassen and Jeff Brown. (Brown, the former PD of
CHEZ-FM
in Ottawa, replaced Steve Kennedy as PD on July 4, 2007, when Rogers market manager Sandy Sanderson became GM.) Brown and Klassen would be holding down both the morning and afternoon drive slots by May 2009, one month after "Jack FM" registered a dismal 2.0 share in the BBM ratings results for the
Toronto market
.
Second "Kiss" era (2009?present)
[
edit
]
At 3 p.m. on June 5, 2009 (one day after the 6th anniversary of Jack's launch), after playing "
Boy Inside the Man
" by
Tom Cochrane & Red Rider
, the station reverted to
Top 40/CHR
as
KiSS 92.5
.
[15]
[16]
KiSS started with a stretch of 10,000 songs without commercial or DJ interruption, beginning with "
Boom Boom Pow
" by
The Black Eyed Peas
.
[17]
KiSS (which would eventually swap the
CJAQ-FM
call sign for Calgary's
CKIS-FM
) features a music playlist consisting mainly of
pop
,
hip-hop
and
R&B
music; the station often avoids
rock music
, though it does include some Canadian
rock
artists to meet
Canadian content
regulations. KiSS competes head-on with
Toronto area
stations
CKFM-FM
,
CIDC-FM
(which airs a
rhythmic contemporary
format, and is based in the suburbs), as well as, to a lesser extent, Toronto
Hot AC
station
CHUM-FM
, and
Top 40
station
WKSE
in
Buffalo
.
It was announced on July 8, 2009 that
ET Canada
'
s
Roz Weston
will be hosting the new morning show, along with Mocha, formerly of
CKBT-FM
in
Kitchener
. Both were formerly co-hosts and producers of
Mad Dog & Billie
during the station's first
Top 40
incarnation. Maurie Sherman (Damnit Maurie) joined the show as Senior Producer/Reporter in March 2011.
Beginning in January 2010, CKIS would offer "Commercial Free Mondays", a campaign patterned after many
Top 40
stations across the
United States
, and offer hourly prize giveaways. (CKIS followed
Edmonton
's
CHBN-FM
as the 2nd station in Canada to offer a whole day commercial-free; KiSS competitor
CIDC-FM
would follow suit one month later with a promotion they label as "The Zone", also on Mondays. The promotion label was dropped on May 13, 2011, to avoid confusion with
the block aired on YTV
.)
In 2013, the station's DJ Clymaxxx and Mocha won their 2nd consecutive Stylus Award for "Radio Mixshow DJs of the Year" for Set It Off.
HD Radio
[
edit
]
In April 2016, the CRTC granted approval for CKIS to utilize
HD Radio
operations.
[18]
On June 27, CKIS added simulcasts of
CFTR
and
CJCL
on their HD2 and HD3 sub-channels, respectively.
[19]
[20]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
(CRTC), Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (31 July 1989).
"ARCHIVED - Public Notice CRTC 1989-93"
.
www.crtc.gc.ca
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Who will fill Metro radio's missing link?
[
permanent dead link
]
, Greg Quill,
Toronto Star
, March 10, 1990
- ^
(CRTC), Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (8 August 1990).
"ARCHIVED - Decision CRTC 90-693"
.
www.crtc.gc.ca
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
(CRTC), Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (6 August 1992).
"ARCHIVED - Decision CRTC 92-543"
.
www.crtc.gc.ca
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Country Music radio makes surprise debut
Archived
2016-11-15 at the
Wayback Machine
, Greg Quill,
Toronto Star
, January 27, 1993
- ^
Cliff Dumas (18 December 2016).
"Cliff Shania CISS commercial (1998)"
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-13
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
– via YouTube.
- ^
a
b
"Broadcast Dialogue"
(PDF)
. February 25, 1999. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2006-03-08
. Retrieved
December 18,
2015
.
- ^
Country station changes its tune: Focus shifts to Top 40 as Rogers takes over CISS-FM
Archived
2016-12-20 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Toronto Star
, February 6, 1999
- ^
"CISS kisses off country for Rogers' Power92"
(PDF)
.
RPM
. Vol. 68, no. 17. February 15, 1999. p. 4.
- ^
Richards, Mike (January 25, 2022).
Jeff Lumby and Mike talk about the mass staff firing at CISS 92.5! Its a Canadian Radio UrbanLegend!
.
YouTube
. Retrieved
February 4,
2022
.
- ^
Rogers CISSes Power 92 goodbye
Archived
2016-11-15 at the
Wayback Machine
, Peter Goddard,
Toronto Star
, February 24, 1999
- ^
Some Old Videos (26 March 2016).
"Mad Dog and Billie on Kiss 92.5 (2003)"
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-13
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
– via YouTube.
- ^
Rogers woos adults with death of KISS-FM
Archived
2016-11-15 at the
Wayback Machine
, Christopher Hutsul,
Toronto Star
, June 6, 2003
- ^
"Source: Hainsworth.com"
.
hainsworth.com
. Archived from
the original
on 28 September 2007
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
- ^
Jack gets the KISS-off; Station's format never really worked in T.O.
[
permanent dead link
]
, Greg Quill,
Toronto Star
, June 9, 2009
- ^
Friday afternoon brought a high-profile format change in Canada's biggest market
,
Scott Fybush/North East Radio Watch
, June 5, 2009
- ^
KISS 92.5 is back
Archived
2009-06-08 at the
Wayback Machine
The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV board
, June 5, 2009.
- ^
"Canadian Radio News"
.
www.facebook.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2022-02-26
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
- ^
"Canadian Radio News"
.
www.facebook.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2022-02-26
. Retrieved
16 April
2018
.
- ^
http://hdradio.com/canada/find-hd-radio-canadian-station
HD Radio Stations in Canada
External links
[
edit
]
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