Owned by the major Australian Radio Network (ARN), Kiis used to be known as Mix106.5 until late last year when it brought in the likes of Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands as part of its ratings battle against 2DAY FM. It started broadcasting last week.
Kiss FM Station Manager, Program Director & Music Director, Tim Byrnes, revealed, “As negotiations with ARN have lead nowhere Kiss FM will be seeking a resolution with an application to the Federal Court to stop ARN’s dishonest actions.”
Kiss FM Dance Music Australia has sent cease and desist letters to ARN, stating it “is determined to protect its name and rights and will do whatever it takes to do this as long as ARN tries to effectively steal the name and significantly infringe Kiss FM’s widespread and established intellectual property rights in the name Kiss FM.”
Byrne said some negotiations had taken place between the two broadcasters but talks broke down. He said “ARN’s response has been one of contempt and proactive bullying attempting to force Kiss to effectively surrender its name.”
He added, that Kiis FM’s mainstream and commercial stance and the employment of identities as Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands was “the complete antithesis of everything that Kiss FM Dance Music Australia has stood for.”
According to figures based on Mcnair 2007 & KLS 2010/11 & Daily Stream Stats, Kiss FM’s listenership includes 70,000 weekly via 87.6-88FM (53% listen for two hours and more each day), 10,000 on their servers, 11,500 on the weekly EDM (which 157 DJs resend to their networks), 300,000 via the Telstra T-Hub and 25,000 on the Naturally Grown social media network.
