Radio often talks about its relevance with younger audiences. I can’t fault it. I used to do the same thing in my dating life years ago. It touts the trust listeners place in radio personalities, the intimacy of the medium, and the wonderful ROI. Then branding time comes, and everybody googles “radio station logos.” That is not what KISS UK has done. And that is exactly why I went to a UK radio expert to talk about it.
There are four things in life that are subjective: art, humor, attractiveness, and radio station logos.
If you’ve ever worked with me, you may have heard me say, don’t confuse “safe” with “good.” The KISS London rebrand doesn’t give us a pair of lips, the word KISS spelled out, a dial position, a paintbrush stroke, a musical note, or a radiating radio signal.
That alone, along with its unique positioning statement — “The Best Vibes & Energy” — is the kind of thing that should be talked about between your meetings on Sabrina Carpenter rotations and meat-truck remotes.
I wanted to talk with UK radio market expert, branding guru, and TM Studios COO and co-owner Dave Bethell about what KISS got right, what makes this rebrand different, why it feels different, and some of the stories behind it, as well as what the broader radio business can learn from it.
A Conversation with Dave Bethel
Phil Becker: Dave, you’ve got real history with KISS. You grew up with the brand, later became its imaging voice, and even did air shifts there. So when you saw this new look for the first time, what was your immediate reaction?
Dave Bethell: I thought it was bold, unexpected, and courageous — just a couple of months after relaunching its Breakfast show. The previous logo was 20 years old. That’s older than some of its target listeners. When that logo arrived, there was no TikTok, no Snapchat, no Instagram, no Twitch, no Roblox. Social media barely meant more than MySpace.
PB: The former “K” style logo was familiar. What’s the weakness in familiarity?
DB: During the life of that famous blocked K logo, KISS has been many things. It had many sounds. It has delivered some huge moments of iconic radio, mixed in with misses along the way. For some, that old logo came to represent not just the highs, but the baggage and challenges too. And I say that as someone emotionally attached to KISS. I grew up listening to the pirate version before it became legal, and years later working there. So there is history there for me. A real affection.
PB: Dave, you have deep UK media relationships, and one week into the logo it feels like there is pushback — not from the audience, but from some of the industry types. How do you feel about that?
DB: Some of the pushback from within the industry does not bother me in the slightest. In fact, I’d argue that is part of the point. Some of the same people who hated KISS leaving the FM dial were reacting from an old set of assumptions about where radio lives and how audiences consume brands. KISS chose to meet people where they actually are. This logo feels like the visual version of that same decision. And if we are honest, as industry people, our instincts can be too radio. If you gave many of us the brief for a new KISS logo, we would probably come back with something that looked like another radio station.
PB: Dave, that point matters more than U.S. radio executives may realize. KISS is no longer on FM. Bauer now positions KISS as a multimedia 15–34 brand across DAB (Europe’s closest thing to HD Radio), Rayo, social platforms, live events, and apps, while Hits Radio took over the former KISS FM frequencies in London, Norfolk, and the West of England. They believe the KISS audience thinks digital-first and terrestrial second, which gives Bauer a clean commercial story: KISS for a younger, digitally native consumer; FM for brands aimed at listeners who still expect radio to meet them on a dial. When Bauer chose NOT Wieden+Kennedy London, my all-time favorite agency, for this work, what did that tell you?
DB: If you want to create a brand that feels aspirational and culturally relevant, you need brave thinking. It’s that bold Nike “Just Do It” spirit and mentality. Bauer went to NOT Wieden+Kennedy London, the design arm of Wieden+Kennedy — the very people behind Nike’s “Just Do It” brand. You do not make that agency choice if your goal is “same, but fresher.” You make that choice when you want something unique, memorable, interesting, and with some attitude.
PB: What do you think they got right in the pieces of the KISS DNA they held onto?
DB: I’m glad they retained the purple color scheme and reintroduced pink. To me, that feels like a subtle nod to the 1999–2006 LiveSexy era. I’m also glad they kept the tradition of having an icon or pictorial mark alongside the wordmark. We’ve had Lips, a Heart, and a K. This time it is an X, which — in case you didn’t spot it — is the universal shorthand for a kiss. Regardless of what language you speak, where you live, or what your background is, we all use that “X” at the end of a message to a loved one. That is so clever. I have not seen another KISS radio brand use the X. Lips are everywhere. The X is more distinctive. Radio, for all its obsession with logos, sometimes forgets that the best visual identities are strategically sticky.
PB: One of the things you are hammering home is that this doesn’t look like the visual language you’re seeing everywhere. Why is that a strength rather than a risk?
DB: Because it is not supposed to look like now. It isn’t supposed to impress radio peers. It is supposed to look like tomorrow. Not only that, but if the last logo is anything to go by, it also has to stand the test of time for up to 20 years. If you are targeting Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and the audience that comes next, then you have to create a visual identity that can sit alongside where design culture is heading. Bright color palettes. Rounded forms. Soft, oversized shapes. More visual punch. It isn’t supposed to impress radio peers. It is supposed to look like tomorrow. That line should be taped to the wall of every media company conference room.
PB: For the “you only see a logo for a second” crowd, that is exactly the outdated thinking this rebrand is pushing against. In 2026, a logo is not a tablecloth or a van door — it is an app tile, an avatar, a video bug, a creator collab button, a merch graphic, an event wristband. Stations should be focused on how audiences live, listen, and scroll.
As Bauer itself says, this new KISS identity is built for growth “across audio, social, and beyond.” Too much radio branding still treats the audience like it needs the format explained with clip art. A guitar for country. A ball for sports. A lightning bolt for rock. A city skyline, just in case the audience got all the way to work and forgot where they live. KISS UK was always about youth, energy, and a city moving fast. Does this new look reconnect the brand to that?
DB: One of the original principles of KISS when it became a legal station was to be the station for a fun, young London. I still think that spirit matters, even if the wider KISS brand now also stretches outside of London and to extensions like Kisstory that speak to people like me. This new logo does more to answer that original brief than the previous one did by the end of its life.
PB: That is where radio often gets stuck. It says it wants younger audiences, then hands them branding, imaging, promotions, and music that looks and sounds like their competitors. Do you think this is the kind of logo that may need time to settle in? The kind that gets mocked before it gets respected? Kinda like my radio career.
DB: To me, it grabs my attention in a way the last logo no longer did. I also think it may be one of those “grower” logos — the kind that takes a minute to settle in before people fully understand it. I have already seen comparisons to band-aids, which is actually quite funny given the deeper KISS lore around Bam Bam Breakfast and those famous band-aid taped-mouth visuals used in early KISS marketing. It is brave. It is ballsy. And whether everyone gets it immediately or not, that may be the whole point.
Phil-Osophy
A rebrand is an important leadership conversation. In the hundreds of stations I’ve worked with, I’ve always said the logo is the flag. The hard part is getting the team and the listener to march behind it. If the people with titles full of letters don’t clearly explain why the change happened, who it is for, what problem it solves, and how it should come to life across product, programming, sales, social, talent, and every internal and external touchpoint, it will struggle.
Internal belief is what creates external clarity. Phil-Osophy #51 for those keeping track, which is really nobody but me.
And for the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” crowd — that phrase sounds practical until you think.
Mastercard modernized its identity for digital contexts. Dunkin’ dropped “Donuts” because it knew it didn’t need the whole name — or the hole name. These companies refreshed because the market changed, and they changed with it. And who doesn’t love a refreshed cup of Dunkin’ coffee?
Cars, movies, fashion, and entertainment understand this. Nobody under 60 looks at a new Mustang and says, “Why didn’t Ford just keep building the ’65 forever?” James Bond has survived generations for the same reason: different actors, aka jocks; different eras, aka your music mix; different platforms, aka streaming; same spy brand. And for a whole generation of us, GoldenEye 007 on N64, aka brand extension, did as much to refresh Bond as the films themselves.
A station logo should not be designed to impress an audience of one. Not you. And not your boss. Not your fellow PDs, not me, and not Dave Bethell. Design to endure millions.
For those of you who have read this far, thank you. For those of you who think, “man, Phil wrote 1,861 words to talk about a logo, that feels excessive,” I would argue the opposite.
Radio makes its money by asking other businesses to trust it with their marketing. We tell clients we understand positioning, recall, consistency, activation, messaging, and what moves consumers.
So let me ask an uncomfortable question: if a radio station cannot tell when its own brand needs a refresh, a repositioning, or a reintroduction, why should any business owner trust it to manage theirs?
That is why this is not a logo story.
Hugs and kisses. Phil
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