KISQ Kiss 98.1FM

WTF happened 98.1fm. You guys lost me as a listener. You stopped disco saturday nights etc. My gut feeling tells me that you guys are trying to compete with the 102.1fm because now you’re playing music from the same era that 102.1fm plays. I’m a fan of the early 90s hip hop and rap too but sometimes I wanted to get away from that and listen to some Mr. Mister, Foreign, BeeGees, Barry White etc but your format changed. The sad part for 98.1 is that 103.7fm picked up on the disco saturday nights, flashback fridays and other good stuff that 98.1fm threw away. That wise saying goes «another mans trash is another mans treasure». In this case it was «another stations trash, is another stations treasure». Good luck competing with 102.1fm and thank you 103.7fm

So, Unilocal,my review from May gets 4 useful ticks inside of a month but your software deems it not worthy of being seen?
Very sorry that I have to give this station one star but after this latest format change, I truly question their business acumen and the music that gets played now is so, so stale. Shaggy? It was one of only 2 good stations to listen to in sac area, (the other being 94.7 who, btw, have changed their format to make more room for 90s alternative music. Mostly Red Hot Chili Peppers… very sad change there as well.) 98.1 was a great 80s station for a while. Played mostly just the good synthpop/​pop type tunes from that era (think bands like Berlin or Psychedelic Furs rather than Billy Joel or Elton John) and it will be sorely missed and I really want the execs at that station to know how I feel and others who agree to be able to see my post and maybe be inspired to speak out themselves. The sense of loss was great. And this way, if their ratings shrink, they will have a clear explanation as to why.
Finally Unilocal,It seems to me that if my post is seeing a decent amount of agreement from the other contemporary consumers visiting this page, that your software should be designed to acknowledge this whether I’m the «new guy» or not. This really makes me question the motives here. Even though I understand the need for the existence of some algorithm like it, as it stands, I’d say your software needs work. Just my two cents though.

Sadly this station is changing its format. In the past few days I have heard songs from:
Coolio?
Selena? (I like her music, but c’mon)
Outkast?
Notorious B.I.G.
2Pac?
Vanilla Ice? (WTF)
Sorry, but in my opinion, music from the 90s sucked and it really makes me sad to hear rap music on KISS.
103.7 is my new station.

Good ol school station, they do a great mix up too its not all old school, some great r n b, motown, every smooth song you wanna hear an not always on repeat thats what I like about these stations that go back at least they have a variety.
THey have some great parties an contests also.
I’ve been listening to kiss forever an glad they are still ticking.

A solid radio station that will more often than not have something for you to groove to. Great for the car for a semi-​long trip (a few hours).
However, much longer than 4 hours (give or take) and they start doing repeats or one full hour will be bunk. I will be mid-​groove to Michael Jackson or old school Madonna and then they will throw three flop songs on in a row and it kills my buzz. Another thing to mention/​notice is that they basically play the same rotation of songs daily. I would hate to have to listen to this at work daily, because the same songs are on loop.
My favorite thing about KISS is the Sunday Night Oldies Show. I listen every week. I used to have Sirius, and this oldies program is almost as good. One of my favorite things about the Oldies Show are all the cholos and cholas calling in with their dedications. One night I counted 5 people sending out shout out to their homies in prison and a couple of break-​ups. That is the ish that keeps me coming back for more, even if the host of the show, Tony Sandoval talks like he is from the brownest hood of East L.A. and over pronounces everyone’s name.
Throw in some more tunes, KISS and you’ll be a true 5 star station.

I love this station! I grew up close to the Bay Area and when I discovered this station about a year ago, I was ecstatic! I now live in Southern CA and do a lot of traveling to the East Coast, and I have yet to find a station that matches Kiss FM’s mix of R&B and old school hits. No matter where I am, I often tune into 98.1 KISS FM via my Android app. Listening to this station brings me back unlike any other station in the nation…

sucky, crapy, corporate playlists.
Vomit on my shoes…

Hands down the best station in the bay! They play all the classic funk, r&b, and old school hits!

Won a Christmas tree and $ 100.00 Kissmas cash — really? Not so fast. Not that I don’t appreciate the great gifts. You get a $ 100.00 gift card to Home Depot to buy the tree and have to fill out a w-​7 form to claim the $ 100.00 in the form of a check that I was told will take 2 – 3 weeks but do not come until I am called. Or, you can request it mailed by emailing the promotion person. I’m okay with this but listening to the other winners sound so exicted about getting money for Christmas makes me wonder how disappointed they will be wondering if they will get it in time for Christmas. Some winners say how they’ll buy gifts for thier kids, etc. but they may not get the check (not cash) in time. It’s a great prize but try not to be disappointed if you win!

KISS FM is one of the stations I listen to at work. It’s an interesting mix of old school music, and it’s delightfully colorblind. It shows that old school R&B belongs to everyone, be it Prince and the late Michael Jackson, or Boy George, the Bee Gees and Madonna. Music is transcendent. It brings people together.
KISS is a grab bag. There are great songs like Prince’s «1999» or Michael Jackson’s «Thriller»… but then there are bizarre ones like Klymaxx’s «Meeting in the ladies room”-yes, an ‘80s about women gathering in the restroom. It invites spontaneous karaōke in its sheer tackiness.
There’s «Rhythm in the Heart» with its weird noisemaker, and the one where the Bee Gees sing, in perfect falsetto, about being ladies’ men.
The strong points of KISS are its Motown, their slow jams, and most importantly, their hosts, Renel and Christie. They bring joyous irreverence to celebrity news. Give KISS a kiss!

Is this the only station in the bay area that calls themselves an «old school» station? I’m a 50 year old Filipino American and I love old school music, especially hard core black old school
Where is The Natural Four, Brass Construction, The Jones Girls, Pockets, Latimore, and so on.
Songs? Where’s Gigolette by Ozone, Hear Comes the Sun by Fat Larry’s Band, Let Me Put Love on your Mind by Confunkshun, Pillow Talk by Sylvia… and so on.
Like the Commodores have almost 20 years of hits and what do we mostly get? Brickhouse… grrr This is what happens when a corporation and sponsors runs a station I guess,
This is another reason I may switch to XM digital radio, and listening to my own collection. Sorry KISQ, old school fail!

Man while painting a room yesterday I listened 2 the Sunday night oldies show and it took me way back and beyond since I was @ my aunties house I got her 2 tell me some of her old childhood stories from way back
in the day from Fillmore the music was great and the stories were even better.
Imma listen again on a sunday it had me wanting to bring back the old school slang
Like Right on
That’s Righteous man
Later blood (what I still say that lmao)
or one my friend Deb posted on my facebook page– yeah it’s copacetic my soul sistah
or any one of the ones Stacey Posted-​Y them frm. Shaft;) wuzabadmotha^shutyomouth. Haha ican diggit.Whatbout. Slick? or oooh uhhah’uhhah.or dynomite? haha;) OUTTASIGHT~PEACE

Yaaaaay!!! I love this radio station for all of its goodies!!! I always put this station on everyday for hours and hours and hours!!! Whether it’s Renel in the Morning, The Kiss old school lunch hour. The drive at five, 80’s at 8pm, sunday super oldies, disco saturday night, or night grooves, I just truly love it all.
I love everyone who works there whether they aren’t the ones who broadcast or if they are. Renel, Lisa, Morris, and Tony!!! I love listening to them all!!!
It’s a good thing that they stopped adding Lady Poo Poo’s «Just Fart» in there and continued to keep jammin’ it as «The Bay’s Oldschool.» Great job and keep up the great work KISQ 98.1 Kiss fm. Forever, you will always be the only Bay’s Oldschool. I’m listening to it right now!!!

Here’s another great «old school» radio station that I have added to my list. I just wish I had a stronger reception on my car radio. Static comes and goes at times because I live in Sacramento, but a definite station to keep in mind when traveling to the bay area. They play some good «back in the day» music for us old schoolers & baby boomers!
I almost get this urge to put on a disco dress, platform shoes and big hair! Now if only there was a place for me to go without making a spectacle of myself! Maybe another Unilocal event? :-)

Love Kiss FM and Renel! Good quality old school and R&B.
Not the garbage that’s played on the air nowadays. Keep up the good work!

KISS 98.1 FM is number one on my radio station presets.
They play a lot of 80’s freestyle, funk and pop — exactly what my mom was listening to on the radio when driving me back & forth to school. But somehow I mostly missed out on perhaps the best group from that era:
MIDNIGHT STAR
I knew «Operator,» but I had no knowledge of «Midas Touch,» «Freak-​A-​Zoid,» «Electricity» or «No Parking on the Dance Floor» until moving to Oakland from Santa Barbara about a year ago.
These are now five-​star songs in my iTunes library. And I take my song ratings very seriously.
KISS also plays some modern pop, R&B and hip hop, with mostly positive results. Every once in awhile they eff up and sneak some Katie Perry and Jordan Sparks in there, at which point I switch to CD.
Until these guys put together a rap station that sticks to 80s and 90s hip hop, there will be no competition for the top spot on my dial.

This is my old school plus contemporary R & B station when I am at home. This is the only time you would catch me singing in the privacy of my car with EWF, The Emotions, Luther, Whitney, Anita, Teddy, Barry and Chaka!
I followed this station after KMEL 106.1, ended and before that, KSOL 107.7.
When I leave the bay area and head towards Sacramento, I hit Benicia then I turn on KHYL FM V101.1.

I have been feeling out of touch with the current jams since being hooked on my iPod. With my PowerBook’s hard drive crashing, limiting my connection to the interweb, I’ve had more time to devote to my other sources of music: my vinyl and turntables and my transistor radio that I bought at a variety store on Clement for $ 3.
I had a pretty shitty day at work yesterday and just wanted to lie down on my bed and listen to my radio… Powered by two AA batteries, I searched through the frequency modulation stations and came upon a familiar tune…
«to be my girl… you don’t have to be cruel to rule my world…»
I almost shrieked since Prince helped me lock down on this station. What station is this?
«ninety eight point one… kiss eff emm» AWWW YEAH!
I kept listening… and oh my heck… «between the sheets…» SLOW JAMZZ!!!
how excited did I get when the robotic/​industrial sounding first 5 notes played, followed by a series of beats and scratches… then the mechanic voice uttering… «c.o.m.p.u.t.e.r.i.z.e.d.»… ohhh daynnggg!
ZAPP AND ROGER!
then Ready for the World came on…
«let me love you down…» ooooweeeee!
bringing it back to the old school… and it was nice.

I don’t dance. I boogie. And that is why this station talks to me. It’s what I play on my rundown boombox in my garage when I’m doing chores/​yard work. Kool and the Gang, Earth-​Wind & Fire and Michael Jackson (back when he was Black, you know «Off the Wall» MJ) This is some serious groovin stuff. They’ll even mix in some old school slow jams of the Delfonics, Atlantic Starr, Marvin Gaye and the unforgettable Luther Vandross.
If you are familiar with hip hop music then you will learn where all those samples and bites come from. Hip hop has made it’s identity through sampling from this era of music and it’s actually fun to play a game of trying to match the original song to the hip hop song that eventually sampled it. It’s amazing, it seems like more than half the songs on their play list have been sampled. Also commercial jingles have borrowed many of these tunes. I was just in my car listening to this disco tune and I thought «hey, this is on a cream cheese commercial».
So while listening to this station, just remember the impact these classics had on our pop culture. It is literally woven into the fabric of our society. And also, while listening to this station, please, and I repeat, please, do get up and get down. Boogie that is, shake what yo momma gave ya. Lord have mercy.

OK I’m listening to 98.1 right now, and it is playing some unreal stuff. Deep in your stomach soul. If you read this review now — def. tune in.
Anyways…back to the review.
When I used to live near Albertsons (now Lucky) there used to be this guy who would sell old records across the street.
Amazing collectible stuff. I scored countless Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, and other great records from him. Alot of times I would buy the records just for the record art. But after scoring some choice soundtracks, I knew I had to finally listen to my gems.
After buying about close to 80 records, I figured it was time to buy a record player.
So I went on craigslist and found a beautiful wooden record player console. It was and continues to be gorgeous. One of my favorite things in the world (outside of…)
Nothing can really replicate the sound of slow turning vinyl.
Nothing.
Ipods can’t do Janis Joplin justice, the way a record player can capture the rasp and angst of her voice.
The great thing about this particular record player is that it also has a radio. A radio with taste. It’s picky and only gets the quality stations — many of which happen to play alot of old school jams (old school is relative I guess…)
One of them is Kiss 98.1.
My record player radio adores 98.1.
It beams as Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Smoky Robinson, Prince, classic Santana, 90’s Usher, and more greats (Usher’s 90’s stuff puts usher in this category) croon out of it’s fabric covered speakers.
Curled up onto my bed, I let 98.1 guide me.
Last night, I pulled out all of my art supplies and began painting on an old pair of white leather funky boots, that I had bought the other day from a sidewalk sale.
Once they’re completed, I’m posting pictures and dedicating them to 98.1. As a tribute, to a station that continues to spread classic funk, R&B, and soul.
Croon on…