WXKS-FM, better known as Kiss 108, is a top-rated radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, licensed to nearby Medford broadcasting a top 40 format. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station operates on 107.9 FM, and is a sister station to Rhythmic Contemporary WJMN, once a major rival to Kiss.

History

Kiss 108 is one of the most prominent top 40 stations in New England, notable primarily for its annual Kiss Concert, which draws some of the best-known names in the pop music business to Mansfield's Comcast Center concert venue each spring. Morning DJ Matt Siegel has been a fixture on the Boston airwaves for several decades, and was briefly nationally syndicated during the late 1990s. Kiss 108 was also the flagship station for Open House Party Saturday hosted by John Garabedian, broadcasting from his house in suburban Boston, but on March 10, 2007, Kiss 108 dropped Saturday edition Open House Party and began a new show called The Saturday Night Mash-Up. The Sunday edition of Open House Party hosted by Kannon was broadcast shortly on Kiss 108, replacing the Saturday night show, until May 2008.

The station first went on the air at 107.9 as WHIL-FM, a simulcast of sister station WHIL (AM), and broadcasting its own programming after sunset when WHIL signed-off. For much of the sixties, WHIL & WHIL-FM were country-music stations, but in late 1972, both stations switched to beautiful music as WWEL (AM) and FM ("Well").

Despite moving the FM transmitter to the top of the Prudential Tower in 1972, WWEL-FM was not very successful as a beautiful-music format. The stations were sold to Heftel Communications, operated by U.S. Rep. Cecil Heftel (D-Hawai'i) in early 1979. Heftel changed the call letters to WXKS, adopted "Kiss 108" as an identity and changed to a disco format. The first record played under this new format was At Midnight by T-Connection. Under Heftel, the station soared to near the top of the Arbitron ratings, and forced WBOS (which had been first in Boston with a 24/7 disco sound and had a short period of huge success with it) out of the format in early 1980.

Sunny Joe White, a young programmer (who had previously programmed WILD in Boston) came aboard at Kiss-108 upon its shift to disco and had much to do with the station's early success.

At the end of 1979, WXKS dropped disco to adopt an adult standards format, while the FM slowly evolved into urban contemporary when disco's popularity crashed. It eventually became a mainstream contemporary hit station, the only one in the Boston market and one of the most influential Top 40 stations in the nation.

On 27 January 2006 WXKS-FM went live with an HD2 digital broadcast referred to by Clear Channel as the "Artists' Channel". The broadcast is also available as an Internet radio station.

On January 14 2008 WSKX/95.3 FM in York, Maine began simulcasting WXKS-FM.

Kiss 108 Top 30 Countdown

The Kiss 108 Top 30 Countdown is a locally produced program on Kiss 108, hosted by DJ Billy Kosta. The countdown once aired solely on Saturday mornings from 7AM to 10AM, but now, is broadcast twice on the weekend: Saturday mornings from 9AM to 12PM and Sunday nights from 7PM to 10PM.

Notable past employees

• Carson Daly
• Jay Thomas
• Wendy Williams

References

• 1992 Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook, page A-165

External links

• Official website
• Kiss 108 Playlist from June 25, 1979