Tony, as much as I usually agree with your posts, I have to firmly disagree with your suggestion to start a negative letter writing campaign about the classic dance. What I'd rather see you do is a POSITIVE letter writing campaign about how much better you like BPM over The Beat, which frankly was sounding very much like the old KTU when it was 50% currents to 50% recurrents/gold/disco. I'll take a CURRENT dance station ANY DAY over one that is offically disco and one features too much disco and masquerades as a current dance station. New BPM is GREAT. A potential (and very likely) consequence of your letter writing campaign is that instead of a new classic dance station, they will start playing a lot of classic dance on BPM. That is too high a risk, and I'm sure many people on this board will agree.Tony Santiago said:
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
It looks like Sirius XM will kill off several channels....
- Thread starter only1moore
- Start date
Letter I sent to sirius
Please pass this message along to whoever should read it. I just want to say that ever since I had Sirius I felt that while The Beat was better than any station I could listen to on the radio for dance music, it still had much to be desired because I was seeking an outlet that focused on current music.
After the switch yesterday, and for the first time in many years, I feel like a kid in a toy store who is discovering for the first time all kinds of songs that I haven't heard before that have become instant favorites. BPM is better than my friends ever billed it, and the fact that the powers that be recognized that this was the direction to go is a testament to the talent and recognition of excellence over there. It is my hope that things will never change and that while The Beat was not a bad station; that it will never be seen as a model to eventually emulate. The Beat and BPM are night and day different.
I dropped Sirius a few months ago but as soon as I heard that BPM was coming to Sirius, I happily resubscribed. As long as BPM remains as it is, I will be a lifelong happy Sirius subscriber who will be proud to sing its praises to all my friends. Thank you again.
Please pass this message along to whoever should read it. I just want to say that ever since I had Sirius I felt that while The Beat was better than any station I could listen to on the radio for dance music, it still had much to be desired because I was seeking an outlet that focused on current music.
After the switch yesterday, and for the first time in many years, I feel like a kid in a toy store who is discovering for the first time all kinds of songs that I haven't heard before that have become instant favorites. BPM is better than my friends ever billed it, and the fact that the powers that be recognized that this was the direction to go is a testament to the talent and recognition of excellence over there. It is my hope that things will never change and that while The Beat was not a bad station; that it will never be seen as a model to eventually emulate. The Beat and BPM are night and day different.
I dropped Sirius a few months ago but as soon as I heard that BPM was coming to Sirius, I happily resubscribed. As long as BPM remains as it is, I will be a lifelong happy Sirius subscriber who will be proud to sing its praises to all my friends. Thank you again.
R
Radiofan111
Guest
PhDance said:
Ya don't give them any future ideas..
PhDance said:
PhDance,
If there's one thing that the coalition has stood for all these years is POSITIVITY and PROACTIVITY.
I don't know if you've visited the coalition site during the letter campaign regarding BPM, but take a look at it (it's in the blog). I've tried to keep that as possible as I could, although certain points had to be made. But even that, the letter was done in terms of talking to "corporate" as opposed to someone ranting, misspelling words and not making a point.
As such, we WANT to continue to be positive and proactive and the one thing I would NEVER WANT TO DO is go on a negative. That doesn't help us and that doesn't help the music.
The letter that I will be composing are for those who like the disco and classic dance sounds and want it to return back to satellite radio on its OWN channel.
There still is a fanbase that likes disco as well as classic dance from the 80's and early 90's (freestyle, techno, classic house) and they can't be ignored. In New York, fans of classic dance are lucky enough to have a 'KTU and, to a small extent, a Pulse 87. But I am certain there are classic dance fans living across the US that could only tune in to this music via satellite radio. And it's as I have said, while I mainly align with the currents, it is important that the "heritage" of dance music remain on the air somewhere.
I don't see our letter campaign influencing any change in BPM. Far from it!
People want currents and people want classics...but not blended with each other, at least for satellite radio purposes.I will keep it real! That I can definitely guarantee you!
Tony Santiago said:I don't see our letter campaign influencing any change in BPM. Far from it!
I don't doubt for a second that this is not your intention. I'm more concerned because at the business level, they have allocated three stations to dance. Chill is not going away any time soon, and "area" is going to appear on a spreadsheet as "current dance". In a Sirius board room meeting where most participants don't understand dance music, it's not too hard to imagine them saying "we already have a current dance station (area) so why not just add a bunch of gold to BPM to address the influx of letters asking for a classic dance station". Again, it happenned before with The Beat-- even when there WAS a dedicated classic dance station.
I will admit up front I don't know who from Sirius' dance "department" was kept and who was kept from XM's dance "department", but I do know I heard Geronimo on the radio today (and I believe he programmed the entire department at Sirius). Those that are used to the way things were at Sirius/The Beat are certainly going to argue for the status quo (lots of classic dance music on The Beat) when/if "it" hits the fan. It's a whole lot easier for them to make programming changes on existing channels than trying to get THEIR higher ups to launch a new channel (bandwith issues, increased payroll expenses, etc).
Tony, I'd love for there to be an option for classic dance music as well because even though I might not tune into it, there are definitely others that would. I don't see why there can't be a channel more like "Movin'" which would target female listeners. I do know that if it meant that such channel required the cannibalization of the current dance channel (BPM) then I could not justify the cost. For a current dance music affectionato (which we all are on this forum) the changes left us with HEAVEN. I for one lament the loss of Boombox (I love breakbeat music and really enjoyed DJ Icey's shows) BUT know that if I cause too much ruckus then I risk the chance that the powers that be at Sirius will not understand how significant bringing over BPM is to me- and how much that makes up for any losses.
I'd stress that if you do insist on the campaign, please encourage people to put "but I'm loving how much more I enjoy listening to BPM over The Beat" somewhere in that letter. Otherwise, I can predict the outcome of that board meeting I discussed above.
PhDance said:
I totally hear you!
However, as much as I was never a fan of "The Beat", I can't slam it either. I still think that there could have been a place for both stations on Sirius XM. As much as we may be "core" to what dance music is about, there are still people out there that just don't feel "ready" to take on a BPM style. It's not their fault....just that their "speed" may be up to just listening to pop remixes. Those fans would rather listen to a Jason Nevins style remix versus a Deadmau5. It would be as if "The Beat" would be Dance Music 101 and once people grew into the sound, they could "graduate" to a "BPM" and hear dance music the way core fans enjoy it.
I'm still in the thought process of how I'm going to create this letter, and I AM taking what you've said into consideration here because yeah, these execs just don't know.
There could be another letter for those of us that enjoy BPM whereas we could say that we're glad that the sound of that station has been kept untouched!
That way we're not slamming "The Beat".That's all I ask, Tony!Tony Santiago said:There could be another letter for those of us that enjoy BPM whereas we could say that we're glad that the sound of that station has been kept untouched!
On a related note, today at 3pm I was listening to the stream of BPM. They started playing September "Cry for you"- then literally after 10 seconds Skyy cuts the song out and says something to the effect of "I can't do it! THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE USED TO THE OLD STATION HAD TO LITERALLY SUFFER THIS SONG SINCE October '07! This time I'm here to save you! Your pain is over.. welcome to BPM!" Right after that- the (DLG) breakbeat remix to Welcome to the Jungle. Very nice!They started playing September "Cry for you"- then literally after 10 seconds Skyy cuts the song out and says something to the effect of "I can't do it! THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE USED TO THE OLD STATION HAD TO LITERALLY SUFFER THIS SONG SINCE October '07! This time I'm here to save you! Your pain is over.. welcome to BPM!" Right after that- the (DLG) breakbeat remix to Welcome to the Jungle. Very nice!
That's nice? more like a slap in the face to those of us that have been Beat listeners for many years the new programming is not to my liking. If they are going to deliberately go out of there way to bash what I have loved and listened to for 4 years they can go screw them self. Very unprofessional move and I am also calling customer care. If these new people don't straighten up there air i'm gone and never subscribing again.
That's nice? more like a slap in the face to those of us that have been Beat listeners for many years the new programming is not to my liking. If they are going to deliberately go out of there way to bash what I have loved and listened to for 4 years they can go screw them self. Very unprofessional move and I am also calling customer care. If these new people don't straighten up there air i'm gone and never subscribing again.
R
Radiofan111
Guest
dancemusicman said:
Well it is more true to the dance hits format than The Beat. He has a point. Can you honestly say The Beat was great?
Welcome to The Real Format the way it suppose to be. But hey.. If you like repeats and old stale dance.... theres the ipod.
R
Radiofan111
Guest
Radiofan111 said:
Well it is more true to the dance hits format than The Beat. He has a point. Can you honestly say The Beat was great?
Welcome to The Real Format the way it suppose to be. But hey.. If you like repeats and old stale dance.... theres the ipod. The real slap in the face, was The Beat masquearding as a dance station for 4 years.
As for The Beat as a Dance Music 101/ Beginners station.. We only accepted that because thats what The Beat became by poor programming. Didn't know what the hell to call it because nobody has programmed a dance station as screwed up as that one. Was there Ever really a need for a "Beginners dance station" before Sirius messed up the Beat? I don't remember dance stations on terriestrial as bad and XM listeners weren't complaining.
The Beat was cringeworthy for a lot of its existence, but it did run a familiar sounding Dance format, and ran a tight Dance Top 40 sound. Any city in America would be well served to have an FM station just like it.
On the other hand BPM is a bit advanced for the casual listener in some respects. In addition it's kind of funny that the DJ would rip on the "Cry for You" song which is by definition a dance HIT. (I thought BPM was supposed to be America's Dance Hits or didn't i get the memo). Those remarks were especially funny considering the flow on BPM leaves a lot to be desired, with one female voiced track after another after another after another.
On another note, IMO there's no way on earth "Area" makes it thru the next round of cuts: 2 dance stations were just clipped in this round, and Area's sound is much closer to BPM than it was to The Beat. The fact that it's still on the air almost seems like an oversight. Frankly if they did this it would be great if they replaced it with a Gold/Current Disco-to-Today format instead of going with another rock artist-only channel or whatev.
On the other hand BPM is a bit advanced for the casual listener in some respects. In addition it's kind of funny that the DJ would rip on the "Cry for You" song which is by definition a dance HIT. (I thought BPM was supposed to be America's Dance Hits or didn't i get the memo). Those remarks were especially funny considering the flow on BPM leaves a lot to be desired, with one female voiced track after another after another after another.
On another note, IMO there's no way on earth "Area" makes it thru the next round of cuts: 2 dance stations were just clipped in this round, and Area's sound is much closer to BPM than it was to The Beat. The fact that it's still on the air almost seems like an oversight. Frankly if they did this it would be great if they replaced it with a Gold/Current Disco-to-Today format instead of going with another rock artist-only channel or whatev.
I loved the beat as it was just because it may not have been to your liking doesn't mean myself and many others did not like it. You said it yourself BPM and Area are pretty much the same format so where is a dance hits channel like the Beat? They are alienating an entire audience. If I wanted to listen to Area I would have but the beat was to my liking now I have 2 Areas.......great job Sirius and its sad how you can be happy about it.
just because it may not have been to your liking doesn't mean myself and many others did not like it. You said it yourself BPM and Area are pretty much the same format so where is a dance hits channel like the Beat? They are alienating an entire audience. If I wanted to listen to Area I would have but the beat was to my liking now I have 2 Areas.......great job Sirius and its sad how you can be happy about it.Area is definitely not going anywhere. It serves the clubbing community pretty well with its playlist and top notch weekly show. A lot of the younger Dance fans who may not go to clubs regularly also enjoy it. It's satellite radio's answer to the Electronica channels offerered on net only stations by the likes of di.fm or 1club.fm.
BPM is a Dance Hits station, it's just that some of you got used to hearing one that relies on a steady diet of recurrents (The Beat), the same recurrents, over and over again. BPM aligns Dance radio in America with the kind of active/current-based Dance music stations found throughout other parts of the world. Furthermore, BPM's cume was much higher then that of The Beat, and was way higher then The Strobe. BPM to me is a combination of the great music rotations at C-89.5 Seattle and European radio with the type of DJs that would sound great in any of the country's major markets.
All you need is just to listen to BPM for a couple of times before the music become familiar, and then you'll get hooked!
Area is more underground sounding, but it exposes you to all sorts of cool records, and since there is some sort of rotation after a few hours you'll get familiar with these records as well.
You want to listen to some classic Dance? You'll hear it on the 70s, 80s, and 90s Pop channels (70s on 7, 80s on 8, 90s on 9). You'll also hear some 90s Dance on BPM.
I'm sure this merger leaves some disenfranchised listeners, but you guys are in the minority. They know the majority of Dance fans who own satellite radio were pulling for BPM and Area.
BPM is a Dance Hits station, it's just that some of you got used to hearing one that relies on a steady diet of recurrents (The Beat), the same recurrents, over and over again. BPM aligns Dance radio in America with the kind of active/current-based Dance music stations found throughout other parts of the world. Furthermore, BPM's cume was much higher then that of The Beat, and was way higher then The Strobe. BPM to me is a combination of the great music rotations at C-89.5 Seattle and European radio with the type of DJs that would sound great in any of the country's major markets.
All you need is just to listen to BPM for a couple of times before the music become familiar, and then you'll get hooked!
Area is more underground sounding, but it exposes you to all sorts of cool records, and since there is some sort of rotation after a few hours you'll get familiar with these records as well.
You want to listen to some classic Dance? You'll hear it on the 70s, 80s, and 90s Pop channels (70s on 7, 80s on 8, 90s on 9). You'll also hear some 90s Dance on BPM.
I'm sure this merger leaves some disenfranchised listeners, but you guys are in the minority. They know the majority of Dance fans who own satellite radio were pulling for BPM and Area.
dancemusicman said:I loved the beat as it was
Dancemusicman,
I realize you were directing your thoughts to radiofan but let me try to explain this the best I can here.
Unfortunately NO ONE wins in a merger. A merger is simply consolidating two companies that both have incurred debt into one "brand". For people that follow these radio boards, we all had a sense of what was possibly coming, though there was no clear direction that went about it. I've figured that channels were going to merge and quite honestly, I was afraid of losing "BPM". I certainly didn't expect that we would actually lose MORE channels than we "gained" (to which that is in quotes because honestly we lost MORE post-merger. And for those that don't follow radio boards like this, they were definitely "blindsided" by what went on.
Granted, I was never a fan of "The Beat", and I have been hearing the concerns of the fans of that station. While I do believe that Sirius did a "disservice" by not allowing "The Beat" to realize its full potential to the dance music community by leaning more currents than recurrents, I also understood that there were fans of that station that really didn't want things to be "edgy". For those fans, whom I would consider "casual" (NO DISS on that, but that's what it is.) and perhaps don't come from a dance music oriented community, "The Beat" did have a purpose. You had your pop-remixes, your recurrents from the past 10 years or so, maybe something current but more along the lines of Cascada, September, Basshunter, Kim Sozzi whereas while the dance music community would accept them, they would also serve along the "generic" lines to please the casual/soccer mom dance music listener.
As I've just stated, "The Beat" might have served well for areas that may not have strong dance music thresholds as well as those that just wanted "the basics", but for those that live in areas such as NYC, LA, Miami, Philly, Seattle as well as core fans that wanted stronger, "The Beat" wasn't enough. That's why in terms of the majority of people here on this board, you have such dissension regarding that format.
By all means I'm not telling you that you should embrace "BPM", but for those that are close to the dance music community...THIS is what dance music represented in the US, (and I HATE to say this but I'm sensing "BPM" beginning to "lame"....I LOVE Ercola feat. Danielle "Every Word", but if they continue to play it 98 times a day, I'm gonna scream! ??? )
I guess the best way to describe this would be...."The Beat" was "soda", "BPM" is "beer" and I can only imagine that "Area" would be the equivalent to a Bacardi 151!
But hey, us core fans suffered too! We lost "Boombox"; there was an audience that wanted mashups. We lost "The Move"...which was a deep house station on XM, "The System" remains as an online option only but it's only a matter of time before that vanishes. Disco/classic dance fans are in a mad frenzy since BOTH "The Strobe" (Sirius) and "Chrome" (XM) are gone! So really, when you get down to it, there are no winners. And even though Sirius and XM merged the "Chill" stations, the feedback I'm getting is that everyone HATES IT! Not counting "Chill" since I don't really consider that as "dance" though they are more down tempo, we only have 2 dance stations.
Having said that, while I was never into "The Beat" I could see where it actually did serve a faithful audience that wanted things as it was. The station SHOULD have remained since it did have a differing programming philosophy than "BPM". But you also have "suits" that have NO idea regarding dance music as we see it. So yeah, you got hit and my apologies for it. I did believe there was room for both "The Beat" and "BPM".
For now, I have to work on trying to get back a channel for a disco/classic dance station on Sirius XM.
The best I can say is to give it a try. If you have to drop Sirius XM because of it, understandable and you're certainly not going to be alone in doing that.
Good luck
today at lunch I got in my car to the horror of hearing nothing but beats for my entire lunch break not one vocal then on my way home the same thing. BPM is horrible and I have emailed everyone at sirius from the top down to tell them my thoughts and opinions. My wife now makes me shut off the radio when we used to sing along together to the music of the beat. What a horrible move.The fact is that the dance offerings have been dwindling for years. There was a time when Sirius had - Remix, Vortex, Strobe, Planet Dance and The Beat (5). It's down to 2 now. So don't be shocked if one day BPM is all that's left and in place of Area is the "Pink Floyd channel" or something. It's ok though - it's not like there aren't other technologies other than Sat. radio.
Personally, I hope Sirius XM don't turn BPM into The Beat v2.0, so can you blame Skyy for how he really feels about his former rival?
As for The Move, The System and Chrome, I think they should've kept them. This doesn't make sense that a satellite service would reduce the Dance channels but at the same time have more Rock-formatted channel offerings. Even R&B/Hip-Hop fans are furious over losing some of their offerings (like The City and The Rhyme). And like Tony I enjoy hearing classic Dance and Disco tracks, but I doubt 70s on 7, 80s on 8 or 90s on 9 will go deep into a Dance or Disco cut that did not cross over to the Billboard Hot 100.
I always thought that satellite radio would be the savior for the Dance music genre when terrestrial radio gave up on the format. I guess I was wrong.
As for The Move, The System and Chrome, I think they should've kept them. This doesn't make sense that a satellite service would reduce the Dance channels but at the same time have more Rock-formatted channel offerings. Even R&B/Hip-Hop fans are furious over losing some of their offerings (like The City and The Rhyme). And like Tony I enjoy hearing classic Dance and Disco tracks, but I doubt 70s on 7, 80s on 8 or 90s on 9 will go deep into a Dance or Disco cut that did not cross over to the Billboard Hot 100.
I always thought that satellite radio would be the savior for the Dance music genre when terrestrial radio gave up on the format. I guess I was wrong.
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
I was furious over losing the move... Sat Radio has no place at all for deep and soulful house,,, and with The System gone,, that sucks too, cause they had great shows like AVB-A state of Trance,, which is no longer accessible in the US except on webstreams. I personally didnt listen to Disco, but if it was a channel that played more 80s and 90s dance... Freestyle-New Wave-Euro-House-Rave,, I would have listened. I didnt care for Boombox too much,, but I did like the DJ Icey Show,, Im hoping maybe BPM can pick it up and add it to the weekend lineup. I am not a subscriber anymore, but if they bring back some House and good Trance I may return. Area is okay,,, especially at night and weekends with their mixshows, but during the day its just a repetative jukebox,, its not that the music is bad,, their just isnt enough of it ya know. Is BBC One even still available,, if they didnt talk so much it would be a great Dance Friendly station, but with plenty of Rock and Hip Hop as well,, but at Night, I didnt usually like most of the odd specialty shows on BBC during over nights. Heck,, I wouldnt mind having Nile FM from Cairo Egypt, or MIX 104.4 in Beruit as a Dance top 40 outlet,, kinda like Z-1035,, In fact having Z-1035 on Sat in the U.S would be the SHIZNIT and I would subscribe just for that.
- Status