Kiss FM relaunch – Carl Cox Returns

On Saturday 8th September at 0200am, Carl Cox makes a triumphant return to Kiss 100 FM, fresh from the success of the fifth Carl Cox Global season at Space, Ibiza and the news that the Carl Cox Global radio show’s audience figures have reached 2 million per weekend.

Emap Radio is calling on the help of DJ legend Carl Cox to help relaunch its dance station Kiss 100 FM and the rebranding of two of its local Vibe radio stations under the Kiss name (Vibe 101 in Bristol and Vibe FM in East Anglia). In a bid to inject a fresh sound and rebuild the Kiss brand, the London relaunch happens on September 6th with a new line-up of shows and DJs across the week.

Carl Cox will act as a figurehead for the major rejuvenation in September. On Carl’s return, Kiss MD Bill Griffin states; “We wanted to build on Kiss's incredible heritage”, and Andy Roberts, Group Programme Director of the expanded Kiss network, who is responsible for the new sound of the station, adds; "It's important that Kiss constantly evolves. I've already refreshed the music policy, providing a more optimistic and upbeat promise to the listener along with a new selection of presenters and specialist DJ's to come."

Showcasing the very best in cutting edge electronic music Carl Cox’s ‘Global’ is a four-part, two-hour radio show which kicks off with his ‘Global Warmer’, Carl’s biggest tune of the week, then his ‘Global Lowdown’, a special mix from Carl featuring music from a selected label or producer, including Buzzin’ Fly, International Deejay Gigolos and Soma amongst those forthcoming. The show then thunders through to the ‘Global Alliance’ - a 30 minute guest DJ set that has previously seen the likes of Todd Terry, Laurent Garnier and X-Press 2 in the mix. Forthcoming guests include Sven Vath, Jaques Lu Cont and Josh Wink. The show then wraps up with ‘Going Global’ – a studio or live mix, taken from highlights of a recent set from Carl’s International Diary, which has recently included Miami WMC, Global Gathering, Cannes Film Festival, Dance Valley, Coachella and of course his residency at Space in Ibiza.

Produced by The Radio Department, one of the UK’s leading production and syndication companies, responsible for Armin Van Buuren’s and John Digweed’s weekly shows, Carl Cox Global’s world syndication has dominated airwaves in the prime-time slots of some of the world’s premier radio stations for nearly 3 years, currently running weekly across twenty countries, including America, Argentina, Turkey, Holland, Romania, Macedonia, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The show now currently airs to two million listeners each weekend.

The relaunch marks a return to Kiss FM’s heyday: In its prime the station played an integral part in bringing underground dance tracks with commercial crossover potential to a much larger London audience, breaking vocal house tracks, UK ‘speed garage’, drum & bass and home grown R&B/ hip hop/ dancehall talent. It was cutting edge and unique in many ways, including the possibility of hearing mixes by drum and bass veteran DJ Krust and big name DJ/ producer Bushwacka doing mixes on the drivetime slot, music normally consigned to the evening if not graveyard shift.

Bill Griffin, the managing director of the new Kiss network, who joined Emap from his role of Channel 4 marketing chief, said; "Kiss is one of the biggest youth media brands in the UK and is consistently the number one station for 15-34s in London. We wanted to build on Kiss's incredible heritage and to recognise Kiss's status as a national media brand: we are building on the current 'young, fun London' ethos with a new philosophy - 'first to move'. We'll also be putting a fresh emphasis on the multiplatform distribution of Kiss."