Perry Broadcasting launched Urban “Kiss 105.3” 1340 KQIS/105.3 K287AN Fayetteville AR.
Perry acquired the now former Christian AC “105.3 The Voice” KFMD from Hog Radio in October for $50,000. The new format launched on Saturday morning promoting 25,000 songs without commercials and “Nonstop Hip-Hop & R&B hits all over NW Arkansas”.
KQIS is now the only Urban targeted station in the market.
They’re paying iHeart to use “Kiss”, right?
iHeart does NOT own a national copyright on the Kiss branding.
98.9 KYIS Oklahoma City is branded as Kiss FM and not owned by Iheart.
98.9 in OKC has been Kiss since 1991. Citicasters (a subcompany of Clear Channel/now iHeart) gained federal registration for “Kiss FM” in 1997, which is still active according to the USPTO database. While there were well-publicized battles over the name (which CC usually won) in Chicago, Bakersfield and other cities, they chose not to fight stations that had previously established themselves with the name (in DC and Charlottesville, VA, they named their new CHRs “Hot” rather than “Kiss”). The reason I brought this up is that iHeart has a presence in the Fayetteville market and thus, a reason to protect that name…
…oh, it just occurred to me that KISR (“Kisser 93”) Fort Smith has reached into Fayetteville for many years. So that may be a moot point anyway. My bad. If anything it may be KISR they have to worry about.
iHeart DOES NOT have a trademark on the name “Kiss FM”. They do have a trademark on a specific imagemark that includes the words KissFM .
Perry broadcasting has a second station branded as “Kiss 105.3” (KDDQ) a classic Rock station in Lawton Oklahoma. In the 90s CC and Perry seemed to have a friendly working relationship, they both programmed one of CC’s AM stations in Oklahoma City.
Perry bought time on KEBC-1340 which CC owns from 7 PM to 7AM to broadcast their KVSP once AM 1140 signed off at sunset. The rest of the time KEBC aired Spanish programming. Once Perry bought an FM and moved KVSP to 103.5 that discontinued.
My question is will an Urban format work in Fayetteville, AR which is 3% Black. Maybe a CHR/Rhythmic format would probably work, but an Urban? Thoughts on this?