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Intern David Baldassarre sits in front of the 10-line phone in an office just outside the main studio of FM 107.9, also known as KISS 108, "Boston's Most Listened to Radio Station."

"Hello, KISS 108...yup, we have it...we'll try to get that on for you."

"Hello, KISS 108...Hanson tour information? I don't have that info, but you can call the Next Ticket line to find out...let me give you the number."

"Hello, KISS 108... "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia? Great song...we'll put that on for you."

The next call is a hang-up; perhaps it is a prank, more likely it is someone who got tired of waiting. As part of KISS 108's ongoing commitment to keep up with its listener's interests. David must record each call, keeping track of the caller's approximate age and gender: "We want to know what songs people want to listen to at what time." he explains.

David is one of four people in the KISS 108 studios in Medford on a Friday night in early Spring. The studios are in a mundane building resembling a windowless cube." Every hour at 50 minutes past the hour, David sorts the last hour's music and organizes the next hour's. No sooner than he finishes, he must go back to his office to man the phones and take requests.

A full-time student at Northeastern University, David handles a full courseload along with the internship at KISS 108, an eight hour per week commitment. After taking advantage of Northeastern's co-op program for several semesters at various corporations, he called up KISS, was invited for an interview and was offered the job on the spot. "I love it here," grins David, "Everyone is really cool, my supervisor Skip Kelly is really helpful and is always available to answer my questions. The DJ's, too, are really cool, very nice, and they're always respectful. I look forward to coming here each week-it's such a different atmosphere from the corporations I've worked at before."

Skip Kelly, as loyal KISS 108 listeners well know, is a DJ at the station, currently on the air during the late afternoon and early evening. A Boston native, he has been involved in radio for ten years. Skip's good looks and charm light up the studio as he eagerly talks about plans tonight for his 25th birthday party. Behind him are walls lined with thousands of CDs and tapes categorized by color according to release date. Their labels conveniently list how many seconds there are before the song starts. This serves to tell the DJ how long he or she needs to talk before the music begins.

His longtime friend and broadcast colleague Artie "The One Man Party" alternates between conversation in the studio with Skip and their wowed visitors and occasional 10 second quips on the air between breaks. Artie demonstrates the VoxPro computer system which records all of the phone calls which he receives. The screen displays the sound frequency wavelength of the call so that Artie can go back to edit the conversation later. When heactually plays calls on the air, he is playing theedited version rather than the live version. Atapproximately 9 p.m., Artie congratulates the 12thcaller in a contest to win some arcane collectionof gifts. He points at Skip and his visitors, whocheer on cue for the winner. He then edits thephone call, and all present listen to themselvesscream on the radio.

Skip and Artie met at WZOU--the precursor tocurrent rival station Jammin' 94.5--several yearsago, and later were roommates for three yearswhile working at a station in Rochester, New York.Now full-time DJ's at Kiss, the two couldn't behappier.

"KISS has the biggest ratings," Artie explains."And the pay's awesome. Any DJ in the city wouldlove to work here." He equivocates landing a jobat KISS to "working at the local station in EastBum to becoming Dan Rather. This is the networknews."

"This is a four-star hotel," adds Skip.

Unlike many other pop radio stations, KISS hashad the same staff for approximately 20 years, anunusual feat for a radio station, considering therapid turnover of trends and styles.

One such KISS veteran is "Kid" David Corey, theAssistant Program Director and Music Director.Tonight, at 11 p.m., the station will air itsweekly Friday night broadcast from Avalon, a clubin downtown Boston, with Artie as DJ. David willremain in Medford in the studio to make sureeverything on the technical end runs smoothly.Meanwhile, Artie will party it up at the club,interacting on-air with the crowd.

Tomorrow night, Skip will host "Club Kiss," aweekly dance show aired from various local clubs.Tomorrow night's scheduled location is TheJukebox. Once again, a staff member will remain inthe studio to ensure that the broadcastsuccessfully goes from, as Artie explains, "thebooth to the mixer to the radio station."

In addition to his aforementioned duties,David's job entails programming and coordinatingthe combined efforts of the research, promotion,and music departments in order to bring KISSlisteners exactly what they want. Perhaps notsurprisingly, the effort involved in choosing thesongs that air is not at all simple. Everythingthat DJs such as Artie and Skip play comesstraight from a "play-list" compiled by an outsidecompany hired by the radio station. KISS 108staffers refuse to divulge the name of thiscompany.

Each week, a new play-list comes out. It is alist of roughly 40 songs that are to be played.For reference, a number indicating the amount oftimes each song was played the previous week isincluded.

In addition to these 40 songs, the station, inaccordance with its listener-friendly policy,welcomes call-in requests. These songs arenormally played within 20 to 30 minutes of theirrequest, making for an ever-changing song lineup.

David explains the philosophy of KISS. "KISS108's mission statement, from its inception in1979, was to bring our target audience what theywanted to hear, whatever that might be," he says.""In fact, in 1979, KISS was actually a discostation, because thatB-13