Kiss 101 - History

History

The station originally started broadcasting as a pirate radio station called For The People or FTP, which secured a legal licence to broadcast to the city of Bristol in 1990 on 97.2 MHz FM. However after only a year on air, it was acquired by the Chiltern Radio Group and was renamed Galaxy 97.2. Chiltern's Paul Chantler then became the station's programme director and chief executive.

On 4 September 1994, the group won the UK's first regional licence and Bristol's Galaxy 97.2 became Galaxy 101, broadcasting to an area stretching from Swansea in Wales through Bristol and south into Somerset on 101.0 MHz FM. Since reception quality of the new service was poor in central Bristol, the station was permitted by the Radio Authority to retain its 97.2 transmitter, which beforehand was considered an entirely separate licence.

In October 1995, the station became part of Chrysalis plc, who invested £1 million in Galaxy 101.

Galaxy 101 was sold to GWR Group and Scottish Radio Holdings in 2002 and rebranded Vibe 101, but this purchase was subsequently vetoed by the Competition Commission over concerns regarding control of the Bristol radio advertising market. The Commission ordered GWR to sell their stake, which was bought by Scottish Radio Holdings later that year. In July 2005, Scottish Radio Holdings was in turn taken over by the Emap group, owners of the Kiss brand that Galaxy 102 and Galaxy 105 were formerly licensed to use.

Vibe 101 (latterly broadcasting as Vibe FM) has been relaunched as Kiss 101, effective 07:00 on 6 September 2006 as Emap integrates the stations of the former SRH into its own portfolio. Kiss 101 launched simultaneously with the rebranding of sister station Vibe 105-108 to Kiss 105-108 and a relaunch of Kiss 100. All three new Kiss stations started to carry the new Kiss blue logo, and the core music genre was changed to focus more on Dance. Both Kiss 105-108 and Kiss 101 retained many shows presented by the DJs who previously presented under the Vibe brand, but now offer shows that are networked across all 3 stations at the same time.

Emap gained clearance from the UK communications regulator Ofcom to network programming between Kiss 101, Kiss 105-108 and Kiss 100. Emap have also pledged to significantly increase the amount of specialist programming on the former Vibe stations, with the minimum weekly amount of specialist output stated on the (former) Vibe licences more than doubling from 16 to 36 hours.

Emap sold its radio and consumer magazine businesses, including the Kiss stations, to Bauer Verlagsgruppe on 29 January 2008, as part of the complete breakup and sale of the company to various suitors. Consequently, Emap Radio now operates as Bauer Radio.

Bauer is now the fifth company to have owned "101" in barely six years.