End of an era as Smash Hits Radio closes

Smash Hits Radio is to close after 11 years of online and digital broadcasting, to make way for Kiss Fresh on Freeview.

The station launched in 2002 and received record audience figures, attracting over a million listeners soon after launch. It was removed from DAB in 2007/8 and from Sky in 2009. The magazine which it took its name from has also closed.

Kiss Fresh, one of the extra brands from Kiss along with Kisstory, starts on Freeview 712 at 2pm Monday.

The station, is already available via the Kiss Player and through the KissKube iOS app, plays non-stop new beats ranging from hip-hop, R&B, House, Garage, Disco and Bass. It also airs hour-long mixes from a range of new DJs and specials from artists such as Disclosure, Avicii and Rudimental.

Andy Roberts, Group Programme Director at Kiss, said: “This increased distribution for Kiss Fresh is firmly in line with our ambition to grow the Kiss brand across multiple platforms. Kiss Fresh has had a successful launch and can now champion new music and artists to even bigger audiences across the UK. It’s yet another example of Kiss’ successful ‘Hear It, See It, Share It’ strategy to push content across platforms people want and to be ‘always on’ in all the right places.”

Karen Stacey, Head of Broadcast Sales and Bauer Access, added: “Kiss Fresh being available on Freeview gives our commercial partners a fantastic opportunity to engage with a pure, passionate, 15-34 year-old national audience. It proves that the Kiss brand continues to go from strength-to-strength, with its content available to millions of consumers nationally across multiple platforms – radio, TV, mobile, tablet and desktop.”

The Smash Hits brand will continue with the Smash Hits TV channel, one of the seven Box TV music channels, a joint venture between Channel 4 and Bauer Media.