Kiss 21

[Slinky]

Brand new imaging (and the occasional commercial) on the CHR recently taken over by Clear Channel, Kiss 21, but the big news is that the station is actually a pretty good CHR.

They dropped the biggest-hits-of-the-2000's thing they had been doing under XM's control, and now they're mostly new music with a few recurrents and golds.

All they need is a personality or two. It'd be nice if Clear Channel let some of its big name personalities voicetrack this channel. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing Cubby or Kane on XM.

[The Music Man]

This is interesting. An improvement over that awful "All Recurrents, All The Time" format they seemed to have going on, but they've taken a complete 360...I'm hearing stiffs that serve no purpose left and right. Jack Johnson "Upside Down"? 50 Cent "Best Friend"? LL Cool J/J. Lo "Control Myself"? I'll admit to screaming "Holy s h i t!" and cranking it when I heard the opening chords of Lifehouse's "Blind" tonight, but seriously, some of these have got to go.

The imaging is quick and to the point, but seems better than the crap that was on before. If they could add some DJ's into the mix and tighten the musical screws, per se, I'd listen all the time, no doubt.

But what the hell are they doing with Mix 22? Elton John and Poison have no place on a Hot AC in 2006. That station is an absolute mess.

[Slinky]

Mix has turned into Clear Channel's version of Jack-FM. Way more currents than a typical Jack though.

See, I like the stiffs on 21. I figure XM needs a channel to go deep into the CHR genre and Kiss is doing it. I turn it up everytime I hear "Upside Down" or "Gold Lion". Shockingly, I'm even starting to like "Control Myself". Let 20on20 and Hitlist be the tight CHRs.

[The Music Man]

slinky said:

Mix has turned into Clear Channel's version of Jack-FM.  Way more currents than a typical Jack though.

See, I like the stiffs on 21.  I figure XM needs a channel to go deep into the CHR genre and Kiss is doing it.  I turn it up everytime I hear "Upside Down" or "Gold Lion".  Shockingly, I'm even starting to like "Control Myself".  Let 20on20 and Hitlist be the tight CHRs.

Deep CHR, eh? I can tolerate some of what they're doing, but they about lost me at "Best Friend" by 50 Cent. Some of these songs are refreshing..."Blind", anyone? But I think if they focused themselves slightly, they'd sound awesome. A few of these records would sound really good interspersed with a better current and recurrent mix.

And yeah, "Control Yourself" is not that good, but that Afrika Bambataa (sp?) sample is too good for words.

As for Mix, well, I'm not thrilled. I'm all about variety, but this is just messy and makes no sense. Hot AC can be an awesome format when executed properly, but between the staleness of Flight 26 (and the former Mix) and the trainwreck that is currently Channel 22, it seems XM is incapable of doing so. Which is a shame.

[Slinky]

Maybe my standards have dropped. I guess I'm just glad to hear something other than the usual.

Then I tune in Sirius Hits 1 and they're breaking stuff like "World Wide Suicide" and "What You Know", and great imaging and jocks, and I realize Kiss has a long way to go to be a good CHR.