The (not-so) surprising demise of KISS 92

June 2010

One of these old articles is going to come back to bite me in the ass and I have a feeling it’s this one. With KISS now back on the air and having jacked JACK in the same no-Vaseline style they removed KISS the first time, this article has increased relevance. I haven’t even listened to the new version of the station, so this is in no way a reflection of this incarnationI actually don’t listen to radio at all, which is kinda sad considering what I do for a living. Maybe one day. I do read Billboard though, so that’s gotta count for something. just something fun for you to read when you surf the site. As with all of these bad boys, I did not change one word that was originally written here, just the footnotes are new, so I apologize if it reads like a grade 5 grammar test.

As a quick FYI – you have asked for it more than I wanted to write it, but it’s almost done. The next article that will be posted here is In Defense of Drake – ‘The Flows & PawnsGet it, “Flows & Pawns”, like ‘Pros & Cons’… I know, I know… LAME!’ Edition. It’s almost finished, but I may let this article linger until I head to Atlanta next monthI’m going down to personally thank the Braves for sending us Yunel Escobar.

Pucker up and enjoy….

The (not-so) Surprising Demise of KISS 92

By: Chris Shaban
Originally Written for HHC.com on June 22nd 2003

The short falls of what most thought was one of Toronto’s strongest radio brands is much like that of our city’s Maple LeafsPlease remember this was 2003 and NOT 2010… or 2009…. or 2008…. or….. ; on paper KISS 92.5 looked like an ’87 Mike Tyson right hook with some Cus D’Amato on it. Put them in the real world and they are more like the new Phantom-of-the-Operaesque tattoo covering the left side of Iron Mike’s faceWord to Tek. The official downfall can be attributed to a comedy of errors. Listed here is the sequence of big events that lead to what folks in TO heard when they tuned into KISS 92 this first week of June. During last summer, rumours were swirling that popular music leader KISS 92.5 was going to throw their Rogers Communications Inc. endorsed hat into the urban radio ring. It took them till August of 2002 to address the innuendos. How was it done? KISS sent out invitations to all employees of their soon to be rival station, Flow 93.5At the time, I had about 3 peeps working inside Flow that were telling me all of the happenings and what was taking place in the meetings etc. I got enough ‘how’d you know?’ and ‘that’s not true’ emails during the weeks that followed this article to last a lifetime. Truth was, I did know and it was true, it just hurt to see it in writing I guess. I learned a lot about the industry games that summer, and I can attribute a lot of it to this article. , for the stations new format coming out party! I think fellow Torontonian Mike Myers put it best in his roll as the lovable Wayne Campbell in ‘Wayne’s World’… “Game On!” In an attempt to be more ‘urban’ and appeal to the younger folk, they let go a post-680 CFTR/AM 640/YTV Hit List Tarzan Dan. A personality that we all have a soft spot for (yeah you do), who will soon resurface somewhere like Mix 99.9 no doubtWell turns out, about a year later, he went 99.9, but in BC, so I wasn’t too far off. Not a bad guess… ;-). Just before that, they fired the first shot at ‘Toronto’s Only Urban FM’ by scooping DJ X from the highly rated ‘Trauma Unit’ (real details behind it spared for this article. Check HHC for the TU articleI’m pretty sure this won’t be on the revamped version of HHC.com for quite a while, but the site does look amazing. by yours truly and get Peace Mag No. 64 for X’s story.) What about pulling off one of their biggest coups by getting the heir-apparent to Starting From Scratch’s Toronto DJ title, Baby YuWho would be the man here now, cept shortly after this article was written, he wisely relocated to Atlanta where his career is thriving. FYI – Wristpect would be next, cept he’s moving to Brooklyn soon, so seems like we’ve all learned where the Money, Power and Wristpect is at.. They had him holding down the same time slot that he, and host RGWho, without a doubt, is one of my most favourite people in the whole world. Aside from us both having a crib up the street from each other in Durham, I try and find any excuse I can to kick it with the real Ryan Grant. And, is it just me, or does he find a way to steal the Stylus Awards every year?, occupied at Flow. KISS also had the ‘Wham-Bam’ concert promotion with 50 Cent and Jay-Z (some of those 50 promos gave me goose bumpsFYI – this was back when 50 was a good rapper, and was, what’s the word I’m looking for… relevant.). When the tickets sold-out they released commercials letting listeners know you couldn’t get tickets anywhere else, “especially any other radio stations!” but KISS 92. Seems like the makings of a great station, right? Well as with the continual fate of our beloved BudsUltra PS – I’m a Habs fan. I know I’ve said that here before, but it bears repeating since our conference finals appearance this past season., they forgot to pay attention to the pep talk that Big Daddy Kane presented to the world in ’88; a 101 called ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin’.

In their quest to plunge into the urban market, KISS didn’t account for some major obstacles that can make the difference between a Toronto radio station that just exists and one that thrivesWho is this 23-year-old kid pretending he knows radio?. Lets put all the cards on the table, the DJ line-up left something (and in some cases way, way more than something) to be desired. I’m not saying that they weren’t good Disc Jockey’s, but they weren’t urban Disc Jockey’s, feel me? Hearing the host of KISS’s ‘Ol’ Skool Lunch’ talk about how Meth and Mary J’s ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’, the 1996 Grammy winner for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, takes him back to “like 98, 99?” I’m not hating, but if you don’t know that then just don’t say anything. Combine that with the multitude of differing on-air personalities and you have a perfect recipe for mad confusion among the listeners. Was it Mad-Dog & Billie or was it Baby Yu & RG? Was it Kid Carson and Axel or was it DJ XThat urban station that CHUM just bought seems to be going through the same struggles. And again, DO NOT GET ME WRONG. I never had anything against that on-air talent on KISS at the time; I just don’t think they knew the demo they were going after. Okay, maybe I had a little against them.?

The second reason is one that really began to expose the cracks in KISS’s foundation. Our country’s urban community didn’t take them too seriously. We all knew that, in a vast majority of cases, KISS would wait for Flow to break a track before they’d risk playing itThis is the line that got me in the most trouble from a producer at KISS, who had jumped ship from Flow. I’ll leave the back and forth of it aside, but he correctly referenced that his evening show was the first Toronto station to play 50 Cent’s ‘Wanksta’. Well, I mean, I can’t front on that, it was in October 2002 when they played it and Fif wasn’t as household as he would be 2 months later in the Great White North – but all that commotion and we’re talking about one song? He also told me that the station was NOT urban; it was ‘rhythmic contemporary’. My rebuttal was, then why is the station’s tagline “Toronto’s Hip Hop & R&B’? Either way, probably one of the only people I WASN’T trying to get at in this article was this dude, as I respected what he had done and I hope that everything has worked out for this gentleman and he was able to hitch a ride to Miami as well.. Sometimes it wouldn’t even have to be a Canadian joint in order to receive the cold shoulder from KISS. It just had to be a song that their ear-to-the-street ‘urban’ staff wasn’t confident inI had a much bigger sack back then as well…. You can’t sell people your idea when you don’t believe in it yourself (aka HALF STEPPIN’).

The final key point comes in the form of different coloured paper. This business is about advertising dollars and whether radio fans knew it or not, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose; it’s how much you win byRIP Papa – You gave me so many words of wisdom.. During the early spring months of this year, Toronto radio began another sort of battle. ‘Sweeps’; as it’s called in the industry, is the time period when the BBM (Broadcast Bureau of MeasurementNOT BlackBerry Messenger ) monitors the airwaves and its listeners (remember when Flow began having Lil’ Redaka Jus Red on the Trauma Unit and started the ‘Count the jams for Cash’ promo?) This is the meal ticket that stations will take to all potential clients (company’s paying for commercial spots and sponsorships) and demand a rate based on the ratings. Although they still were thumping Flow according to the BBM, it wasn’t enough to keep the cheeseEven back then, I would intertwine slang and regular English. This joke only made sense if you knew I was referring to money here. The older I get, the more I just realize that I’m like a kid who has his own language and I just expect people to get it. Shabby… they don’t pal., by Rogers’s standards, from getting moldy. So we had to say goodbye to KISS and hello to JACK... fitting name isn’t it?

Do I wish KISS was sill here? Of course I do! The competition was great. Even if in your heart you knew both stations were operating at a lower competence then you knew they really could, it was still great. I had all these great ideas for the coming months for them to fight over, like bringing Russell Peters and Mastermind back together on Toronto radio, or the idea of getting DJ Mastermind back here in TO an link with comedian Russell Peters to host the big radio program in the city or having Russell PeYou don’t have to watch one of his three MTV Cribs episodes to realize that this is NEVER going to happen now, but there was a slight outside chance it could have happened then. For those of us that were lucky enough to know Russ way before he blew up, you know that he’s as real as it gets. Not only that, you know he’s a DIE HARD supporter of Hip-Hop and the city of Toronto. Having him host that show would have been a perfect marriage. Quick personal story to make me sound cool… Russell had just done a show at Seneca College where I was attending at the time and he was going to Universal to get some CD’s, but offered to give me a lift back to my crib in Markham after… Nice guy right... Well, this is where the Cribs reference is most important… He showed me his new watch, a Rolex, his first. The car, a Lincoln LS. This was 2000. Now, 15 watches and multiple Bentley’s later, the elevator in his spot is worth more than most houses I’ve seen. That’s where humility and talent can get you kids. If you bug me enough, I’ll post the picture to prove it.… (are you getting the message?!?!) Is everyone in the city really that scared of having an urban music radio format? KISS wasn’t even ‘urban’ for a year? If you look at the Billboard chartsIssue date – June 14th 2003 down south, the top 5 songs (and 8 of the top 10) are urban. Radio play is a big part of that. The format works, you radio folks just need to learn how it sell it betterFYI – I would never talk like that now… I’d just think it instead.. Now I’m a smart dudeIbid previous footnote, but I don’t think it takes a John Nash to see in order to sell it better you have to commit to the format, you can’t just try to jump on the bandwagon when the wheels.ca are hot. As with anything in life, you get back what you put in, and when you half step… well I won’t continue to beat a dead horse. WellThis ‘Well’ is way too close to the well in the previous sentence, but I told you I wouldn’t change anything… I’ve tried to get better in the last 7 years., with all that said, it always comes down to dollars and cents aka advertising money, so now we’re stuck with JACK 92.5. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s what would happen if Q107 and Mix 99.9 bore a man-child, thus leaving folks asking “was KISS really that bad?”

If you’re dying for more radio (as you should be), check out the Project Bounce series of radio programs (www.projectbounce.com) everyday from 12am – 5am, my man AlbarAlbar actually came out to one of our FUSION joints last year when we had Ritz and Taboo… The whole night was a throwback to when we used to be at the CIUT radio station till 3am (I left early of course), smoking trees (not Albar) and talking about music. For as complicated as I thought life was back then, it’s hilarious compared to now. is running a tight ship. Also thanks to Cyberkrib.com and Billboard.com for extra research info for this article. As well, all you cats and kittens with stubs for the 50/Jay-Z ‘Wham Bam’ show, of course it’s still on, just thought I’d let you know!