Radio Africa Group Shuts Down Kiss TV, Explains Why

Radio Africa Group Limited (RAG) has announced that it is shutting down Kiss TV, one of its TV stations, less than a year after it was relaunched.

RAG Chief Operating Officer, Martin Khafafa in an internal memo seen by Viral Tea dated Friday, March 17 revealed that the TV station was exiting its branch of RAG media houses owing to a lack of capacity in generating revenue.

The decision to immediately shut down the station will also spell doom for its staff, even though RAG owns the likes of radio stations KISS 100, Homeboyz Radio and Radio Jambo as well as The Star newspaper and online entertainment and news platform, Mpasho.

Radio Africa Group Chief Operating Officer Martin Khafafa during the relaunch of Kiss TV at Capital Club in Westlands on May 25, 2022. /THE STAR

"As you may be aware, our TV department has been unable to generate any revenue despite efforts by everyone involved to turn the station around.

"Consequently, we will be shutting down the station today, 17th March 2023. All affected staff will duly be informed of the handover process by the HR team," the memo read in part.

Back in May 2022, Radio Africa relaunched Kiss TV, having re-branded and hoping to revamp it. They went as far as to rope in their existing radio stars including Kamene Goro (formerly of Kiss FM) and Quellie (from Homeboyz Radio).

It had promised to bring viewers a dose of their favourite entertainment, music, sports and live shows.

The re-branded Radio Africa-owned TV was viewed as bringing fresh new programmes geared towards captivating its audiences all day, every day.

It was the second relaunch in just two years after the last relaunch in February 2020. Before that, Kiss TV had also been relaunched in 2013, four years after its launch in early August 2009.

Other than the guests who would be brought on, all the programmes would be hosted by radio personalities drawn from Radio Africa’s sister radio stations Kiss FM, Homeboyz Radio and Classic 105.

Other than the entertainment shows, Susan Kimachia would bring daily news bulletin skits of stories making headlines a few minutes to 10.30 am every day of the week.

A source who spoke to Viral Tea on condition of anonymity had attributed the latest decision to shut down the station to a retrenchment notice RAG had issued in December 2022, which informed its employees of an intention to reorganize its business operations.

According to RAG Group CEO Patrick Quarcoo, the move was informed by a shift in the media environment that has forced it to make changes to its business model to keep it in competition with other media houses in the country.

"As you may have observed in the recent past, there has been a shift in the media industry that has over time forced us to make changes in our business model, to maintain our competitive edge as a company. 

"As management, we have been faced with a situation that requires a critical business decision to be made to ensure business continuity. We will therefore be reorganizing our internal business operations and in the process, we may declare numerous positions redundant based on the new structure," Quarcoo explained.

Radio Africa Group CEO Patrick Quarcoo. /THE STAR