 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Boston |
| Frequency | 107.9MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Kiss 108 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Contemporary hit radio |
| Subchannels | HD2:WBZsimulcast (news/talk) |
| Affiliations | Premiere Networks |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WBWL,WBZ,WJMN,WXKS,WZLX,WZRM | |
| History | |
First air date | September 1, 1960; 65 years ago (1960-09-01) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | Kiss-FM |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 53965 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 20,500 watts |
| HAAT | 235 meters (771 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°20′50.4″N71°4′57.2″W / 42.347333°N 71.082556°W /42.347333; -71.082556 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | kiss108 |
WXKS-FM (107.9MHz), brandedKiss 108, is a commercialcontemporary hit radio station licensed to serveMedford, Massachusetts, and coveringGreater Boston. Owned byiHeartMedia, the WXKS-FM studios are in Medford and the station transmits from atop thePrudential Tower inDowntown Boston.
The station first went on the air September 1, 1960, as WHIL-FM, a simulcast of sister station WHIL (nowWKOX), and broadcasting its programming after sunset when WHIL signed off. For much of the 1960s, WHIL and WHIL-FM werecountry music stations, but in late 1972, both stations switched tobeautiful music as WWEL and WWEL-FM ("Well"). The calls referred to Wellington Square in Medford, where the station studios were located.
Despite moving the FM transmitter to thePrudential Tower in 1972, WWEL-FM was not very successful as a beautiful music station. In 1978, WWEL-FM broadcast the night games of theBoston Red Sox as their flagship station (WITS, nowWMEX) delivered a poor night signal in much of Metro Boston. The stations were sold to Heftel Communications, operated byCecil Heftel, in early 1979. Heftel changed the callsign to WXKS, adopted "Kiss 108" as an identity, and changed to adisco format in January 1979.[2]
Sunny Joe White, a young programmer (who had previously programmedWILD in Boston), came aboard at "Kiss 108" upon its shift to disco[3] and had much to do with the station's early success. At the end of 1979, WXKS' AM station dropped disco to adopt anadult standards format, while WXKS-FM slowly evolved intourban contemporary when disco's popularity crashed. By the end of 1981 and into early 1982, the station evolved into aTop 40/CHR with a heavy rhythmic/R&B/dance direction under the guidance of White.[4] WXKS-FM, in turn, became one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the nation, in part due to their reputation for breaking songs that did not fit the traditional Top 40/CHR model, and given that Boston lacked an urban contemporary FM outlet during this period (since WILD was an AM daytimer), it was not afraid to play songs from that genre. (The genre would later become the format now known asrhythmic contemporary, which is now the current format of sister stationWJMN.)[5] With WXKS leaning towards a rhythmic direction at the time, more mainstream titles were heard in the market onWVBF-FM,WROR-FM, andWEEI-FM. In December 1982, WXKS-FM shifted to a more mainstream Top 40 format.[6][7] WXKS-FM would compete against WEEI-FM (later WHTT) and WZOU (both competitors would later change formats; WHTT dropped the format in 1986 (though what would becomeWODS would again program a Top 40/CHR from 2012 to 2020), while WZOU changed formats and became WJMN in 1993). In 1984, WXKS became an affiliate ofScott Shannon'sRockin' America Top 30 Countdown, as well as theRick Dees Weekly Top 40.
In June 1982, Pyramid Broadcasting, headed by station general manager Rich Balsbaugh, bought the station from Heftel.[8]
In 1987, White asked Boston iconJohn Garabedian (who previously owned, programmed and DJ'd onWMEX,WBCN, andV66/WVJV-TV) to do a weekend shift. Garabedian proposed the idea of a live, nationally syndicated, all-request show calledOpen House Party for Saturday and Sunday nights. It was the first of its kind and quickly spread to over 200 radio stations over the next 30 years.[9] WXKS-FM was the show's flagship station until the station dropped the program in 2007, along with most other iHeartMedia stations (then-Clear Channel) because of a company policy that ultimately banned syndicated programming not produced in-house, thoughOpen House Party consistently had the highest ratings of any show on their stations.
In January 1996, Evergreen Media bought the station.[10][11] On February 9, 1996, sister stationWYNY in New York City simulcast WXKS-FM as part of a week-long stunt of simulcasting sister stations nationwide before flipping formats torhythmic adult contemporary the following day as WKTU. In September 1997, Evergreen merged with Chancellor Media.[12] After another merger, WXKS was bought byClear Channel Communications, now known as iHeartMedia, in August 2000.[13][14][15]
From January 14, 2008, until August 2009, WXKS-FM's programming wassimulcast onWSKX inYork, Maine. After ending the simulcast, WSKX continued to offer a top 40 format until 2012.
"Kiss 108" is one of the United States and New England's most prominent top 40 stations, notable primarily for its annual Kiss Concert, which draws some of the best-known names in the pop music business toMansfield'sXfinity Center concert venue each spring. From January 12, 1981, until his retirement in May 2022, morning DJMatt Siegel was a fixture on the Boston airwaves and was briefly nationally syndicated during the late 1990s.[16][17][18]
The "Kiss Top 30 Countdown" is a locally produced program on Kiss 108, hosted by DJBilly Costa. The countdown once aired solely on Saturday mornings but is now broadcast twice each weekend, on Saturday mornings and Sunday nights.
On January 27, 2006, WXKS-FM went live with anHD2 digital broadcast referred to by Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia), who by then had acquired the station, as the "Artists' Channel". The broadcast was also available as anInternet radio station. It then went to a "new CHR" format before becoming a simulcast ofWXKS in 2010. In August 2012, that station changed formats to all-comedy, with the HD2 channel following suit. When 1200 AM flipped toBloomberg Radio in February 2013, the all-comedy format was retained on the HD2. However, in December of that year, the HD2 channel flipped to a simulcast of the dance format of sister station WEDX; when WEDX itself changed format on June 13, 2014, and becameWBWL, the dance format, branded "Evolution 101.7", remained on the HD2. On December 19, 2017, "Evolution 101.7" was transferred to the HD2 channel of WBWL and WXKS-FM-HD2 began simulcastingWBZ, which iHeartMedia had recently acquired.[19]
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