A KISS BEFORE DYING?

EMAP is planning a panicky reworking of former dance music giant Kiss FM, after the station followed the downward spiralling of dance music which has already done for the superclubs, most of the dance music magazines and more than a couple of dance labels.

Although Kiss never managed to grab the attention of more than one out of every twenty minutes of radio listening in London, England, it's since seen its share slide to 3.5%. While the dance slump hasn't helped, the station has long since lost its association with the more interesting end of dance music. Forged as a pirate station which came to terms to go legitimate, since its sale to EMAP Kiss has been drifting closer and closer to getting lost as just another Top 40 station. How does EMAP plan to recapture its feisty, outsider edge? By, erm, bringing in Channel 4's old marketing manager Bill Griffin. Piecharts! That's what the station needs.

(Hint to EMAP: Try getting a jump on the raids on pirate stations across the capital, and get there before the police with a chequebook and a genuine desire to build a schedule that will appeal to the dance music hardcore rather than the slightly more twirly office market).

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