First Listen: Kiss 92.5 Toronto
Written Jun. 8, 2009 by Sean Ross in Terrestrial Radio with 1 Comment
When the old CISS (Kiss 92) Toronto was CHR in the late '90s, it unabashedly leaned both rhythmic and young. On the former score, it had help from a burgeoning Canadian rap and R&B scene. On the latter, it was more willing than any American CHR to play, say, Aaron Carter and a few other teen pop artists that were usually exiled to Radio Disney. It was, essentially, the forerunner to the "tween" version of "Amp Radio" that lived on HD-2 in Los Angeles until earlier this year.
The new Kiss 92.5, which returns CHR to the frequency occupied for six years by CJAQ (Jack FM), sounds a lot more like L.A.'s current more rhythmic version of Amp, (97.1 KLSX), (as do most of today's CHR launches). It pulls into a crowded market. Since Kiss' departure, Top 40 CIDC (Z103.5) has become a much stronger station, although it holds on to some of its eclectic dance lean. Adult Top 40 CHUM-FM and CKFM (Virgin Radio 99.9) have not only gone considerably more rhythmic, but managed to redefine Hot AC throughout Canada. (It's a much more rhythmic format up there. The '90s pop/rock Hot AC, faltering here, is almost completely dead there.) There's also CFXJ (Flow 93.5), which has moved back toward Urban after a more pop-leaning period.
The new Kiss will definitely differ from its competition in its rotations, running at an apparent 90 minutes on powers on Friday. CHUM-FM plays its powers 64x a week and the others are all in the high 40s. It was also more relentlessly current than CHUM-FM, which has a good amount of '90s gold (and will also throw in a Bob Marley or "Summer Of '69" now and then as well). Here's the station on Friday afternoon:
Nelly Furtado, "Do It" (Canadian)
Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow"
Karl Wolf, "Carrera" (Canadian rhythmic pop -- follow-up to his Canadian hit remake of Toto's "Africa")
Kanye West, "Stronger"
New Cities, "Dead End Countdown" (Canadian teen punk/pop)
Soulja Boy, "Kiss Me Through The Phone"
Kardinal Offishall, "Numba 1 (Tide Is High)" (Canadian)
Madcon, "Beggin'"
Beyonce, "Halo" (begins 5:00 top-of-the-hour top three countdown that ends with Jamie)
Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
Jamie Foxx, "Blame It"
Suzie McNeil, "Supergirl" (Canadian power-pop artist along lines of Pink/Kelly, etc. This is a shuffle along the lines of "So What," "Womanizer," etc.)
Kristinia DeBarge, "Goodbye"
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Canadian radio is horrbile especially AM. But now I have Sirius-XM nothing better. Star my day with Howrad Stern and then flip to over 100 stations commercial free!!!