After around a year of planning and two rounds of employee layoffs, one of Victoria’s most prominent radio stations has announced a major change in their sound.
As of 1:03 p.m. on Thursday, KiSS 103.1 has switched back to their original 2004 brand, Jack FM 103.1.
KiSS’ swan song, fittingly, was NSYNC’s “Bye bye bye”.
See also:
- Three KiSS 103.1 Victoria radio personalities let go by Rogers Media
- KiSS 103.1 Victoria lays off several radio personalities in second round of cuts
The company, owned by Rogers Media, flipped to a modern-hit station in 2015 from its original brand ‘Jack FM’, which launched in 2004.
The radio station’s 2019 iteration of Jack FM is self-described as “Victoria’s newish radio station”, which plans to play a diverse range of music, or simply “playing what we want”.
That being said, the music clips played during the radio station’s announcement tended to stray towards pop-hits from decades past.
Before the rebrand, in November 2018, the station let go of erstwhile morning show hosts, Vanessa Chiu and Tyler Barr (of Vanessa & Tyler), and afternoon announcer Bailey Parker.
They were replaced by a new set of hosts – Dez Fernando and Jay Hatton (Dez & Jay morning show), and Johnny Novak – who were then fired without warning last week.
“Join us as we try this whole ‘Jack Radio’ thing again,” said the station in their announcement.
No hosts have been announced as of yet.
