Dance music station moves to Glasshouse

Melbourne dance music station Kiss FM will move its broadcasting studio to a space above the Glasshouse Hotel next month.

Kiss FM station manager Timmy Byrne told the Star Observer the Glasshouse Hotel — a long-time GLBT-friendly venue in Collingwood — was the first to answer the station’s calls for help when it needed to move from its current Abbotsford premises.

“[We] put up a Gumtree ad and they were the first to answer,” Byrne said.

Byrne said moving the dance music station to a well-known GLBT-friendly drinking establishment will have its advantages.

“[The move] means we can do a lot more in a live-to-air sense,” he said.

“We can put nights on, we can do media events … other promoters can put events on at the venue and we can broadcast it or advertise it, so it gives us a bit of flexibility there.”

Since its birth in the early 1990s, Kiss FM has had a strong gay and lesbian listener base. The station also recently supported the So You Think You Can Drag competition at Robarta in St Kilda.

“We like to think of ourselves as rainbow-friendly across the board,” Bryne said.

Glasshouse owner Libby Wimshurst said the move was “exciting” for the Gipps St venue and said she hopes when summer arrives, outside broadcasts in the pub’s beer garden will be a regular occurrence.

“We’re very excited and hope the community gets behind the station to support them because they have supported the community over the years and play lots of [gay and
lesbian] DJs,” Wimshurst told the Star Observer.

“It’s a good fit in that the community enjoys that music, we’ve got the hospitality side they wanted to have and I think it’s going to be positive for both of us.”

The station will move in during the next three weeks and then look at relocating its transmitters to improve the station’s reach around Melbourne’s peninsular and eastern suburbs.

Kiss FM is currently holding its annual membership drive and calling for supporters.

info: www.kissfm.com.au