was not afraid to play songs from that genre. (The genre would later become the format now known as rhythmic contemporary, which is now the current format of sister station WJMN.) With WXKS leaning towards a rhythmic direction at the time, more mainstream titles were heard in the market on WVBF-FM, WROR-FM, and WEEI-FM. In December 1982, WXKS-FM shifted to a more mainstream Top 40 format. WXKS-FM would later compete against WEEI-FM (later WHTT) and WZOU (both competitors would later change formats; WHTT dropped the format in 1986 (though what would become WODS would again program a Top 40/CHR from 2012 to 2020), while WZOU changed formats and became WJMN in 1993). In 1984, WXKS became an affiliate of Scott Shannon's Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown, as well as the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. In 1987, White asked Boston icon John Garabedian (who previously owned, programmed and DJ'd on WMEX, WBCN, and V66/WVJV-TV) to do a weekend shift. Garabedian proposed the idea of a live, nationally syndicated, all-request show called "Open House Party" for Saturday and Sunday nights. It was the first of its kind and quickly spread to over 200 radio stations over the next 30 years. WXKS-FM was the show's flagship station until the station dropped the program in 2007, along with most other iHeartMedia stations (then-Clear Channel) because of a company policy that ultimately banned syndicated programming not produced in-house, though ‘Open House Party’ consistently had the highest ratings of any show on their stations. On February 9, 1996, sister station WYNY in New York City simulcast WXKS-FM as part of a week-long stunt of simulcasting sister stations nationwide before flipping formats to rhythmic adult contemporary the following day as WKTU. From January 14, 2008, to August 2009, WXKS-FM's programming was simulcast on WSKX in York, Maine. After ending the simulcast, WSKX continued to offer a top 40 format until 2012. Programming "Kiss 108" is one of the United States and New England's most prominent top 40 stations, notable primarily for its annual Kiss Concert, which draws some of the best-known names in the pop music business to Mansfield's Xfinity Center concert venue each spring. From 1981 until his retirement in 2022, morning DJ Matt Siegel was a fixture on the Boston airwaves, and was briefly nationally syndicated during the late 1990s. The "Kiss Top 30 Countdown" is a locally produced program on Kiss 108, hosted