KISS FM must air a program with music and spoken word which focuses on all fields of young life in Berlin, especially vocational training, work, leisure time and youth-related problems.
In its beginning, KISS FM was broadcast solely via analogue cable on 98,45 MHz, making it hard for the station to reach a significant number of listeners.
Typical artists heard on the station included Freundeskreis, Apollo 440, Run DMC, Janet Jackson, Robert Miles or Nas.
Shortly after the commissioning of the new frequency, a quarrel flared up between the majority shareholder Frank Otto and founder Costoula Dornbach who held 24.8% of the shares.
He installed a new managing director in March 1995 replacing the founder with the aim of turning KISS FM into a CHR format and thus making his shares more attractive to prospect buyers.
After hefty protests by the staff, the managing director Norbert Schmidt quit his job and the threatened DJ shows were left untouched.
In 1996, KISS FM was shown for the first time in the radio audience study Media Analyse with an average of 20,000 listeners per hour, 80% of them living in West Berlin.
For instance, the morning show hosts revealed the "money hits" during a 104.6 RTL promotion and told their listeners when to call in at the competing station with the right answer.
After receiving various rebukes by the media authority of Berlin-Brandenburg, and because the renewal of the broadcasting license was due in 2007, one could observe that future promotions on the station became far less scandalous with campaigns against truancy and youth violence in Berlin.
Artists that are being played on the station include Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Taio Cruz, David Guetta, and one-hit wonders like Stromae, Yolanda Be Cool, or Edward Maya.
Major promotions during the audience survey didn't cause any outrage anymore, shifting the focus from scandalous contests to sweepstakes related to the music being played on the station, like "Track Discoverer".
In 2011, Frank Otto bought all shares (49.8%) from minority owner Europe 1 making his company the sole shareholder of Kiss FM.