Kiss FM
Kiss FM is a non-stop music radio station that first broadcasted in the Moldovan media market in 1998 as Radio Contact Chișinău. The station was a local branch of Romania's Radio Contact, founded in 1990 by Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, a prominent Romanian businessman and politician and the country’s former Prime Minister. In November 2003, Popescu-Tăriceanu became the majority shareholder of Radio Contact, buying shares from the Belgian company Contact, and Radio Contact became Kiss FM. The Chișinău-based radio station too changed its name. According to other sources, businessman Cristian Burci was involved in this transaction. Two years later Popescu-Tăriceanu sold Kiss FM to the SBS Broadcasting Corporation trust and in 2013 the station was bought by Antenna Group from Greece. All these changes were also reflected in the shareholders of the company that runs Kiss FM Chișinău. Over the years, the company has also changed its name several times. Initially, the license for Kiss FM Chișinău was won by the Societatea Comercială Mixtă Moldo-Română Radio Contact LLC. In 2008, it changed its name to the Întreprinderea cu Capital Străin SBS Broadcasting LLC. Six years later the company changed its name again to A.G. Broadcasting LLC.
The Kiss FM programme in Moldova is exclusively in Romanian. The station broadcasts Kiss FM's programmes from Bucharest, as well as some local music programmes and news bulletins.
Key Facts
| Audience Share | 5,8% |
|---|---|
| Ownership Type | Private |
| Geographic Coverage | Local |
| Content Type | Free |
| Data Publicly Available | ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc. |
| Media Companies / Groups | A.G. BROADCASTING |
Ownership
| Ownership Structure | Data from the Audiovisual Council shows that the final beneficiaries of Kiss FM are the Kyriakou brothers. The company A.G. Broadcasting LLC, which founded Kiss FM, is owned by AG Radio Holding LLC of Romania. This in turn is 99.9999% owned by Nova Music New Media LLC and 0.0001% owned by Antenna Group BV. The founders of Nova Music New Media LLC are Antenna Romania 2 BV (15%) and Antenna Romania 1 BV (85%), which in turn was founded by Antenna Radio BV (100%). Both Antenna Romania 2 BV and Antenna Radio BV were founded 100% by Antenna Group BV, the sole owner of which is K Group Holding LLC. This company in turn was founded by three other companies, which hold equal shares (33.33%) - Globecast Holdings LLC, Altavista Global Holdings LLC and Praxis Global Investments LLC, controlled by siblings Theodoros, Xenophon and Athina Kyriakous, respectively. |
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| Individual Owner |
Media Companies / Groups
Facts
| Founding Year | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Radio Contact, which later became Kiss FM, was founded by Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian businessman and politician, the former Prime Minister of Romania between 2004 and 2008, and former President of the National Liberal Party (PNL) from 2005 to 2009. He also served from 2014 to 2019 as President of the Romanian Senate. Since 1993 he has been an associate partner at Automotive Trading Services (official Citroën importer in Romania). |
| CEO | Sorin David Sorin David is the administrator of A.G. Broadcasting S.R.L., the company that operates Kiss FM in Moldova. Additionally, Sorin David is involved in the management of Kiss FM Iași, Romania, where he serves as a contact person for advertising inquiries.Specific details about his educational background and political affiliations are not publicly available. |
| Editor-In-Chief | Andrei Cârlan Kiss FM has no editor-in-chief or programme director. The commercial director, who de facto is the manager of the station and is in charge of programmes, is Andrei Cârlan (pseudonym Marcu). He has a degree in journalism. He worked for a short period at the public broadcaster Radio Moldova Tineret, and at the end of 2014, he started working at Kiss FM. |
| Contact | str. Ismail, nr. 33 bir. 601, et.6 MD-2001 mun. Chişinău Moldova, Republic of economic@kissfm.md, info@kissfm.md, andrei.marcu@kissfm.md 022-26-00-30, 0794-40-407 www.kissfm.md |
| Revenue | MDL 4,877,923 / USD 268,610 thousand (2023) |
|---|---|
| Operating Profit | MDL 1,929,944 / USD 106,270 thousand (2023) |
| Advertising (in % of total funding) | MDL 4,877,923 / USD 268,610 thousand (2023), 100% of the total income |
| Market Share | Missing Data |
| Headlines |
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| Meta Data | The audience data was collected from the company Xplane, which polls viewer and listener preferences. According to Xplane, in spring 2024, 5.8% of radio listeners chose Kiss FM. Details about the company that obtained the broadcasting licence for Kiss FM were obtained from the Audiovisual Council. Data on advertising and market share are not available. | |
| Sources | ||
| Documents (PDF) |