Let's get 10 newly launched dance/rhythmic radio stations for '09!

[TonySantiago]

We are starting a campaign at the coalition to push for at least 10 cities to launch a dance/rhythmic radio station for 2009. Here's what I wrote on the coalition blog...

"THE 10 FOR '09!!

This year has been a growth for dance music in the United States! With 2 new stations (Pulse 87 - NYC and Vibe 94.5 in Las Vegas) along with revenue growth for KNGY (Energy 92-7 in San Francisco) at a time where terrestrial radio stations are struggling to survive along with dance music oriented concerts getting large turnouts, dance music is ON THE WAY UP!!! This is happening at a time where the music industry is at a crossroads. To that we must push on for more radio stations to launch a rhythmic/dance format throughout the country and to that I have a goal....

For 2009, I would like to see at least 10 cities in the United States have a dance music/rhythmic formatted terrestrial radio station! This is how it is going to happen.....

1. We need for you to help recruit dance music fans OUTSIDE of New York City to join our cause.

2. Out of those members, we will create "chapters" where one person will be the head of our coalition for a specific city. I will give you the tools you need, full-fledged support (for REAL) and pushing along side a membership of over 1,500 people!

While we are open to ANY city that does this....this is what we want...a station on a standard FM position. NO HD-2....a STANDARD position on FM. While something above 92 would be good, we'd accept a full time non-comm station (like C-89.5 in Seattle).

I'd LIKE to see these cities launch dance music stations on regular FM (but once again...we'll take ANY city)

Los Angeles,
San Diego,
Dallas/Ft. Worth,
Washington DC area,
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale,
Boston,
Providence, RI/New Bedford, MA
Chicago,
Indianapolis,
Orlando,
Tampa/St. Petersburg,
New Orleans,
Philadelphia (in the areas NOT being served by WBZC (Z88.9) and WMPH (Super 91.7)...since both are doing good jobs.)

Okay...so I gave more than 10 cities! LOL. But, we'll seek out any market....not just the cities listed above.

If you are a member and live outside of NYC, please e-mail me back if interested in running a chapter of our coalition for your city. It's a non-paying job...just as the coalition is a grass roots organization, but if you are a fan of dance music and want to push for things to grow, it's a tough job that you will love!

So....10 for '09!!!!!!!!"

Yeah, it's a lofty goal....but something that should be done! No turning back! We're going to push further growth for the dance music industry! Once we can get more markets involved can things REALLY grow for dance!!!!

 

[Mid West Clubber]

That looks like a good list of cities,, most of which would be able to support such a format,, I would like to add San Antonio and Atlants to that list as well.... Louisville KY might also be able to support one as well, they had a pirate called 99.3 Energy Dance Radio for about 2 years, It covered most the city on a car radio, but analog boomboxes couldnt hear it at all from being squashed out by 98.9 KISS FM and 99.7 WDJX.... But those stations were licensed, so we couldnt really complain much. Now days in Louisville there is a legal Country station on 99.3, so Energy 99.3 left the airwaves voluntarily shortly before Country on 99.3 signed on.

Indianapolis already has WBDG with ALL Dance from 8 PM to 6 AM, and even though its HD-2, we still have Orbital 93.1-HD2..... and Chicago has Nine FM, which airs Dance Factory from 9 PM to 4:30 AM.... I know a 24 hr format would be much better, but night time Dance is better than none at all... Chicago also has B96 HD-2 Dance... You should email John Esther at WBDG Indianapolis and try to push the idea of making them 24 Dance,, he has considered it, but he's still on the fence about it. WBDG is only 400 watts, but it covers almost all of Indianapolis on a car radio.. Nine FM in Chicago also has some signal issues in downtown, but they have 3 frequencies and cover all the Burbs really well.

 

[Dancerev889]

Tony,

I think its great that you are passionate about moving the cause along, but this cant happen until we have a story to show. You need numbers. What are the numbers for Party 105, Pulse 87, Energy SF & Phoenix? How many stations in those market target a dance demographic? Are there stations in trouble in those markets?

 

[TonySantiago]

Tony,

I think its great that you are passionate about moving the cause along, but this cant happen until we have a story to show. You need numbers. What are the numbers for Party 105, Pulse 87, Energy SF & Phoenix? How many stations in those market target a dance demographic? Are there stations in trouble in those markets?

It can happen.

The "story" which is the way we have to go about this is to start "building the blocks" with the communities we are seeking. We have to get to the fans of dance music in those cities to get others involved into pushing their scenes onto a radio platform. Noise has to be generated and created in order to get the attention.

We can't use the numbers or go about these things in a conventional manner because, yeah, the radio numbers may not be so "high", but then again in a majority of these cases, the stations don't have much of a signal to push into and doesn't TRULY reflect the potential.

I've said this MANY times in NYC that if Pulse had a signal strength of a 'KTU, that station would be in the Top 5! The same could be said about Party 105 as well. I also went with the cities listed (and hey...we'll take on others, such as what Mid West suggested ) because there is potential there and it's what is needed to push our "brand" further

 

[Dancerev889]

Tony,

We live in a world that is sales driven, program driven. You could have 3000 people sign a petition or go to a club to support dance music, but a radio company is not going to flip just because of that. Have you even looked at the climate in each of the cities involving the radio stations and the companies that own them? Just look at the dance stations in the US. Not one is owned by a major broadcast company. Let's just look at Philadelphia. There is one commercial station that is independently owned. Guess what they are the number one rated station in the market. So they are not going to flip.

You need to come up with a model. Ask Joel up at Pulse, he will tell you the same exact thing. You need to research a market. Find out about the stations, which ones are doing well and which ones arent. Then you need to look at the demographics. How about the sale of dance music in those markets? If you want radio companies to take you serious this is what you need to do. Plus who's going to run these stations?

My advice is support the ones you have and help them spread the word. Have you reached out to San Fran or Phoenix? What about Party 105?

 

[TonySantiago]

Tony,

We live in a world that is sales driven, program driven. You could have 3000 people sign a petition or go to a club to support dance music, but a radio company is not going to flip just because of that. Have you even looked at the climate in each of the cities involving the radio stations and the companies that own them? Just look at the dance stations in the US. Not one is owned by a major broadcast company. Let's just look at Philadelphia. There is one commercial station that is independently owned. Guess what they are the number one rated station in the market. So they are not going to flip.

You need to come up with a model. Ask Joel up at Pulse, he will tell you the same exact thing. You need to research a market. Find out about the stations, which ones are doing well and which ones arent. Then you need to look at the demographics. How about the sale of dance music in those markets? If you want radio companies to take you serious this is what you need to do. Plus who's going to run these stations?

My advice is support the ones you have and help them spread the word. Have you reached out to San Fran or Phoenix? What about Party 105?

I've tried to at the DJ Expo.

My sense, and perhaps I am reading this all wrong, is that while most of the programmers were cordial towards me, there was also a sense of hesitancy or cautiousness. Maybe it was the shock that people actually see that I really DO exist and no longer hiding behind a computer; showing up at an industry event. Or as much as I was trying to figure them out, they were trying to figure me out...thinking, "so THAT'S the crazy dance music fanatic!" Maybe they felt I was "stalking"?? I honestly don't know.

I was also trying to reach out to you as well, but you had things going on at the Expo. Add TO the fact that you were also busy at Beatstock, I just left things as a "hello"...nothing more.

Point is....I AM supportive of what we currently have on the radio with the few dance stations we have. And yes, things DID improve from last year (so I've heard). But we can do more, but more importantly, WILL do more. I'll work on a model, it was never a question of that. And during each of the coalition runs, I have studied the charts, saw which stations were doing well and failing, and it was those stations I had targeted. But from my end, I gotta work on getting the PEOPLE and start to put up that fanbase. There are talented and skilled people out there within your industry that can do an excellent job running such stations...no doubt. And on another level, perhaps you also need some new "blood" in there too. I mean, all of you guys had to start at a "beginning". You (in general) just weren't deemed as experts unless you were given that opportunity to prove things and "work" a certain market, right?

That's why with what I am doing, I need people who are actually in any given market to be the "coalition leaders", thus the "chapters", since they can go direct to the powers that be...and if things are going well and they need me to help with the conversation, I'll fly out to any of these places personally. We have a "bank" of members who are in the radio industry and if they want to gain employment as a PD or MD, I will back them.

If any of you WANT to talk to me, the door is ALWAYS open. But if not......I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do anyway, love me or dislike me. We are on the same side......are we not?

Bottom line....dance music has to gain a bigger reach in the US and while most people have "given up" on terrestrial radio, I still think it is viable to a big extent. This time around, things look very promising for dance music in general. Just a matter of pushing more waves.

 

[Dancerev889]

Tony,

We live in a world that is sales driven, program driven. You could have 3000 people sign a petition or go to a club to support dance music, but a radio company is not going to flip just because of that. Have you even looked at the climate in each of the cities involving the radio stations and the companies that own them? Just look at the dance stations in the US. Not one is owned by a major broadcast company. Let's just look at Philadelphia. There is one commercial station that is independently owned. Guess what they are the number one rated station in the market. So they are not going to flip.

You need to come up with a model. Ask Joel up at Pulse, he will tell you the same exact thing. You need to research a market. Find out about the stations, which ones are doing well and which ones arent. Then you need to look at the demographics. How about the sale of dance music in those markets? If you want radio companies to take you serious this is what you need to do. Plus who's going to run these stations?

My advice is support the ones you have and help them spread the word. Have you reached out to San Fran or Phoenix? What about Party 105?

I've tried to at the DJ Expo.

My sense, and perhaps I am reading this all wrong, is that while most of the programmers were cordial towards me, there was also a sense of hesitancy or cautiousness. Maybe it was the shock that people actually see that I really DO exist and no longer hiding behind a computer; showing up at an industry event. Or as much as I was trying to figure them out, they were trying to figure me out...thinking, "so THAT'S the crazy dance music fanatic!" Maybe they felt I was "stalking"?? I honestly don't know.

I was also trying to reach out to you as well, but you had things going on at the Expo. Add TO the fact that you were also busy at Beatstock, I just left things as a "hello"...nothing more.

Point is....I AM supportive of what we currently have on the radio with the few dance stations we have. And yes, things DID improve from last year (so I've heard). But we can do more, but more importantly, WILL do more. I'll work on a model, it was never a question of that. And during each of the coalition runs, I have studied the charts, saw which stations were doing well and failing, and it was those stations I had targeted. But from my end, I gotta work on getting the PEOPLE and start to put up that fanbase. There are talented and skilled people out there within your industry that can do an excellent job running such stations...no doubt. And on another level, perhaps you also need some new "blood" in there too. I mean, all of you guys had to start at a "beginning". You (in general) just weren't deemed as experts unless you were given that opportunity to prove things and "work" a certain market, right?

That's why with what I am doing, I need people who are actually in any given market to be the "coalition leaders", thus the "chapters", since they can go direct to the powers that be...and if things are going well and they need me to help with the conversation, I'll fly out to any of these places personally. We have a "bank" of members who are in the radio industry and if they want to gain employment as a PD or MD, I will back them.

If any of you WANT to talk to me, the door is ALWAYS open. But if not......I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do anyway, love me or dislike me. We are on the same side......are we not?

Bottom line....dance music has to gain a bigger reach in the US and while most people have "given up" on terrestrial radio, I still think it is viable to a big extent. This time around, things look very promising for dance music in general. Just a matter of pushing more waves.

I had some medical issues I was dealing with in AC and Beatstock I had a guest with me. I was at the show as a fan not for business. I dont think anyone was trying to push you away, I think it was more who the heck is this guy and there was a lot of stuff going on that day.

The cities you mentioned, there is no way they will hire a PD without some experience.

Lots of good things have happened over the past year. Ida Corr, Enur, David Guetta, Cascada and September made it to Top 40 radio. When was the last time the dance world had that many on Top 40? Pulse went on the air in NYC. A radio war in NYC has started. Two huge freestyle shows happened in Philly which shows people still love the music. The major labels are starting to support dance like they havent in awhile. Ministry of Sound has opened shop again in the US. C 89.5 had another successful pledge drive. Coke & Ultra's bottle campaign for the Olympics. Hell I could rattle off 10 major accomplishments we have made at my station with making the Arbitron book for the first time number.

To me thats progress. A story is starting the happen. What we need to do is keep writing the book. If I were you I would mail each one of the programs a letter talking about what you do, then follow up with a phone call or email. Im all about extra help.

 

[Techno Kelvin]

Tony,

We live in a world that is sales driven, program driven. You could have 3000 people sign a petition or go to a club to support dance music, but a radio company is not going to flip just because of that. Have you even looked at the climate in each of the cities involving the radio stations and the companies that own them? Just look at the dance stations in the US. Not one is owned by a major broadcast company. Let's just look at Philadelphia. There is one commercial station that is independently owned. Guess what they are the number one rated station in the market. So they are not going to flip.

You need to come up with a model. Ask Joel up at Pulse, he will tell you the same exact thing. You need to research a market. Find out about the stations, which ones are doing well and which ones arent. Then you need to look at the demographics. How about the sale of dance music in those markets? If you want radio companies to take you serious this is what you need to do. Plus who's going to run these stations?

My advice is support the ones you have and help them spread the word. Have you reached out to San Fran or Phoenix? What about Party 105?

I've tried to at the DJ Expo.

My sense, and perhaps I am reading this all wrong, is that while most of the programmers were cordial towards me, there was also a sense of hesitancy or cautiousness. Maybe it was the shock that people actually see that I really DO exist and no longer hiding behind a computer; showing up at an industry event. Or as much as I was trying to figure them out, they were trying to figure me out...thinking, "so THAT'S the crazy dance music fanatic!" Maybe they felt I was "stalking"?? I honestly don't know.

I was also trying to reach out to you as well, but you had things going on at the Expo. Add TO the fact that you were also busy at Beatstock, I just left things as a "hello"...nothing more.

Point is....I AM supportive of what we currently have on the radio with the few dance stations we have. And yes, things DID improve from last year (so I've heard). But we can do more, but more importantly, WILL do more. I'll work on a model, it was never a question of that. And during each of the coalition runs, I have studied the charts, saw which stations were doing well and failing, and it was those stations I had targeted. But from my end, I gotta work on getting the PEOPLE and start to put up that fanbase. There are talented and skilled people out there within your industry that can do an excellent job running such stations...no doubt. And on another level, perhaps you also need some new "blood" in there too. I mean, all of you guys had to start at a "beginning". You (in general) just weren't deemed as experts unless you were given that opportunity to prove things and "work" a certain market, right?

That's why with what I am doing, I need people who are actually in any given market to be the "coalition leaders", thus the "chapters", since they can go direct to the powers that be...and if things are going well and they need me to help with the conversation, I'll fly out to any of these places personally. We have a "bank" of members who are in the radio industry and if they want to gain employment as a PD or MD, I will back them.

If any of you WANT to talk to me, the door is ALWAYS open. But if not......I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do anyway, love me or dislike me. We are on the same side......are we not?

Bottom line....dance music has to gain a bigger reach in the US and while most people have "given up" on terrestrial radio, I still think it is viable to a big extent. This time around, things look very promising for dance music in general. Just a matter of pushing more waves.

I really like what you're trying to do here. Although it seems kind of hopeless (To me at least) it's a noble effort. Over here in South Florida we have Party 93.1 back (It was removed from FM 3 years ago and is back on HD2) and as great as it would be to get a new dance channel on FM it seems unlikely. Even if it was possible odds are because of the drive to make lots of money you wouldn't hear much traditional dance but instead dance remixes to mainstream music. I know there are dance channels around the country that find the balance between mainstream dance remixes and actual dance music but that's because you're established. I highly doubt a new dance station starting fresh today would be given leeway to play older dance hits. Maybe it's just me.

I see the future in Online Radio Stations. With newer cars coming built with internet in them and internet access available and many more ways than ever before (Phones, air cards, WIFI hot spots, etc.) terrestrial and satellite radio will be a thing of the past. Instead they will be replaced with more dedicated Online Stations that, if financially sound enough, will be into the station not for money but for the music genre itself.

I know I plan to launch my own Dance Online Radio Station in the not so distant future. I'm starting to build it now and as I get more money I plan to make it a reality.

But to get back on topic, good luck on your campaign. Although I think the battle for the FM Dance Stations is lost (At least down here in South Florida) I wish you the best.

 

[ronkaram]

I think a successfull a dance station would have to have a top 40 type sound. Songs that probably could get airplay on other stations, but they don't. I remember in the days of Groove and KDL in Los Angeles, KISS would play some artists like Kristine W and Olive, but they never did before or after the stations were gone. Also radio edit mixes not more than 4 minutes long. Add a few slow songs so that it doesn't get too monotonous. I know for the hard core dance fans, this doesn't sound ideal, but in order to survive it would have to draw listeners from other formats who might enjoy dance but aren't big fans of dance. There aren't enough hard core dance people to support the format so it's would be important to get other people to listen.

 

[TonySantiago]

I really like what you're trying to do here. Although it seems kind of hopeless (To me at least) it's a noble effort. Over here in South Florida we have Party 93.1 back (It was removed from FM 3 years ago and is back on HD2) and as great as it would be to get a new dance channel on FM it seems unlikely. Even if it was possible odds are because of the drive to make lots of money you wouldn't hear much traditional dance but instead dance remixes to mainstream music. I know there are dance channels around the country that find the balance between mainstream dance remixes and actual dance music but that's because you're established. I highly doubt a new dance station starting fresh today would be given leeway to play older dance hits. Maybe it's just me.

I see the future in Online Radio Stations. With newer cars coming built with internet in them and internet access available and many more ways than ever before (Phones, air cards, WIFI hot spots, etc.) terrestrial and satellite radio will be a thing of the past. Instead they will be replaced with more dedicated Online Stations that, if financially sound enough, will be into the station not for money but for the music genre itself.

I know I plan to launch my own Dance Online Radio Station in the not so distant future. I'm starting to build it now and as I get more money I plan to make it a reality.

But to get back on topic, good luck on your campaign. Although I think the battle for the FM Dance Stations is lost (At least down here in South Florida) I wish you the best.

It's tough....sure, I'll be the very first to admit this. To add, it is a CRYING shame that Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (out of ANYWHERE in this country) does NOT have a dance/rhythmic station. Phil Michaels did an excellent job with Party 93.1 so there's no doubt who should be behind the helm of a new dance/rhythmic station

Regarding a new dance station given the leeway to play older dance.......Pulse 87 in NYC, with Joel Salkowitz as PD (who was the PD at Hot 103/97 during the dance days in the late 80's/early 90's) And just as NYC has a strong history of classic dance, Miami would qualify as well. The only thing I say is.....yeah, play some classics, but don't run it as if it was 1988. While acts like Nice n' Wild, Triniere, Nancy Martinez, Sweet Sensation, Tina B, Sequal, just to name a few, mean something to South Florida and HAS to be heard on a rhythmic/dance station for the region...don't overrun it without putting on the current and new material.

The part about the new technologies....I FULLY AGREE with you on that. Even I wonder at times why I am trying to push terrestrial when you do have Internet streamers. With 3G out there, I'm actually tuning into these stations on my PHONE! All I need is a female input (for the headphone jack) to a USB and I'm blasting the Netherlands (dance.fm) in my car! THOUGH, as is the case with Brett (Dancerev), C-89.5 and Energy 92-7 in SF, there are few rhythmic stations taking on the technology (using Shoutcast) to which they can be picked up with a cell phone with programs like Pandora and MunduRadio. And of course, there's the iPods.

Yet somehow, and maybe it's sadistic of me to think this way with all of the emerging technologies out there....I'm a traditionalist. With terrestrial radio taking major financial hits due to their deregulation "greed" (even satellite radio as well with Sirius stock going under $1 a share), these radio corporations are blind to realize that they have to do something INNOVATIVE if they want to "save" their industry somehow. I'm not saying that dance music is the full out answer to their problems, but for markets that are open and friendly with it....you can certainly fill a void that could actually be profitable. KNGY (Energy 92-7) recently seen an increase in billing.

South Florida, IMHO is NOT a lost cause if corproate wants to "open their eyes". Miami is America's "Ibiza"....no reason why that market should continue to be without a rhythmic station. We'll fight along side ya!

 

[Techno Kelvin]

Well, Cox Radio would be out for the FM Dance channel as the recently returned Party 93.1 is now on HD Radio and they are running it. That would leave Clearchannel to compete (Those are the only two radio companies I know of who are in South Florida) and, from my knowledge, have not showed any interest in Dance music. Well, I take that back. Rumor was they were going to release their own Old School Dance Channel on the Power 96 HD2 slot.

As for the play lists having more mainstream remixes, I'm for it. There area great mainstream dance remixes but sometimes Dance stations (BPM and Party 93.1 specifically) play them way too much. I'm disturbed at how many times I've had Disturbia (JDB Remix) by Rihanna shoved down by throat by both stations. I understand the need to draw in the mainstream crowd so that those stations can stay on the air but it doesn't mean I have to like it. ;D

I'm all for dance music being back on FM but I'm more into helping Party 93.1 get back on their feet anyway I can. With Ultra Music Festival being the biggest event ever held at Bicentennial Park (The location in Miami where it was held), the new electro trend bringing in more mainstream audiences and Party 93.1 getting resurrected I see the future getting brighter for dance music in South Florida and hopefully the country and I want to be there for every step of the way, helping the push.

 

[TonySantiago]

I'm all for dance music being back on FM but I'm more into helping Party 93.1 get back on their feet anyway I can. With Ultra Music Festival being the biggest event ever held at Bicentennial Park (The location in Miami where it was held), the new electro trend bringing in more mainstream audiences and Party 93.1 getting resurrected I see the future getting brighter for dance music in South Florida and hopefully the country and I want to be there for every step of the way, helping the push.

One word of advice, if I may. Get what you can!

If it is Party 93.1, great...but whatever station comes out of this doing dance music, go for it!

 

[Saladressing]

I've long maintained that the way to get Dance music to have mass appeal in the US is to have stations like Z103.5 popping up all over the country.

This would create a demand and familiarity for the music, and then you'd see companies justifying trying the format on its own signal.... as a way to compete with the crosstown dance/hip-hop/rock/pop station (z103.5 clone) that does so well.

Until then, we'll see it as a pure niche player as it is now.

Follow the money.

 

[Radio_bored-Op]

this may be bold but * here it goes:

i agree w/ tony S.
only read a few of the replies from danceRev,
and it seemed like more and more excuses
or danceRev, was a road block - or wants
dance, his way, or no way.

just an observation - - ( bring on the attack, as i know u will )

TONY

....FIRST AND TEN - ( # down, ten to go : )

 

[Dancerev889]

this may be bold but * here it goes:

i agree w/ tony S.
only read a few of the replies from danceRev,
and it seemed like more and more excuses
or danceRev, was a road block - or wants
dance, his way, or no way.

just an observation - - ( bring on the attack, as i know u will )

TONY

Why would I want to road block anything? Its called a business plan. Every business has a plan. Lets get 100 dance stations by next year. How about lets get every market to have a dance station or how about two dance stations for every market. Saying that without a plan to bring to the companies is not a wise decision. They will laugh at you. You cant wait outside with picket signs demanding dance music on the radio. You cant just have a few performances and expect these companies to flip. Im looking at reality. What major radio company has a dance format right now? These are excuses this is the world we live in. We need ratings because radio is controlled by sales people now. KTU's change hurt the cause. Their numbers went up after that. So I doubt Clear Channel would flip a station.

....FIRST AND TEN - ( # down, ten to go : )

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I think a few of you have some good points,,, but your trying to do too much at once. In Bretts defense, he is only telling it like it is,, We would all like to have 10 new dance stations by the end of the year, but since thats a new dance station almost every month. I agree with the poster who says launching some Z-1035 type stations would be cool, thats really a great idea, but why not first look at smaller Dance Friendly stations like my WBWB in Bloomington Ind, and of course Fun 107 in the Fair Haven-New Bedford market. Sure, niether of our stations are quite like a Z1035 station, but we do our best to support two POWER dance tracks, and 2 lower charting fringe hits at a time, plus, I cant speak for Fun 107, but we have a huge 98-2008 Dance Recurrent list, and yes people do still call in to request songs like Sonique, Feels so Good, Daft Punk-One more Time, and Daniel Beddingfield-Gotta get through this, DJ Sammy-Heaven in fact any track older 2005 in our Library is either Dance or Urban, If you guys consider thise song dance,, INOJ-Love You Down,,, we still play it too. We even still play a very occasional 90s classic like Rockell-In A dream prolly once every two or three months, another song I know we still occasionally play is Amber-Sexual.. What we need to do know is focus on smaller market stations that arent so Consultant driven, and preferably stations without another local CHR..... Keep in mind, you wont hear all these classics in one day, or even a week, but rather spread out.... Also, Indianapolis 50 miles north is a much larger market and has an Urban and Rock competition,,,,, Rayne the PD is a dance fan, as is Mixshow DJ,, DJ ORION... I honestly cant claim any responsible for this, but when WNOU was bought from Radio One, they dropped the Sat Open House Party for a Pure Dance Mixshow, which I hear does raise SAT Night CUME, although they politely declined to mention the numbers on Paper work, But Modern ROCKER 103.3-THE X airs Hit The Decks every sunday night, and its not a sound that you think a Rock Station would play, since they even play stuff like Nelly Furtado Remixed and so fourth, but the second hour is more underground Dance, Usually lots of Drum n Bass, and even Jumpstyle and Hardstyle, Usually but not always, the second hour on WRZX is a profesional World Famous DJ, they had DJ Rapp-Cute Female Junglist, and they had DJ ICEY on about a year or so ago... Plus, similar to Bretts School station, and the Dance Factory situation in Chicago, Indy has WBDG with all dance at night, every night... So anyway, my point is, and some greatly disagree with me, Dance is already coming back to the airwaves compared to the 2001-2007 years.. More stations have added Pure Dance Mixshows instead of Hip Hop,,,ETC..... But who you need to focus on Tony is small stations in small to medium markets, and not owned by CC or Cumulous for instance. Encourage that they add more Dance intensive Mix Shows, and try by getting just 2-5 Dance Currents in rotation at a time, No station is gonna go 50-100 percent Dance without a few success stories. I cant personally give our figures and Im not management so often dont even know,, But DONT LAUGH AT ME, but add a one hour Dance Mixshow at 5 am just before the morning show, and add a Dance Intensive Live at 5 Drive,,, If you could get solid dance from 5 to 6 pm that would be great, but even if they only test with a 20 or 30 or even 45 minute set would still be great.

Also , Doesnt Y-100 in Miami still do all Dance from like Midnight to 4 or 5 AM,,, I know thats horrible hours, but doing different thiings at off point hours can raise Cume... This stuff above we need to get more stations to do,,FOR NOW<,, It could pave the way to more Z-1035, and Slam FM Holland type stations. Im sure Brett probably would agree with alot of my points cause you have to ease Dance in gradually to get them comfortable with it before you make a 50 percent dance playlist.

 

[TonySantiago]

A lot to cover here, so here goes.

Brett (Dancerev) IS being realistic about what he is saying. A business plan has to be formulated and presented because if we have to go that route via corporate, so be it. Here's the problem......

You have 8 dance/rhythmic formatted stations in the U.S. And out of those eight, four of them are "conventional" (Energy 92-7 (San Francisco), Energy 92.7/101.1 (Phoenix) , Party 105.3/101.5 (Long Island) and Vibe 94.5 (Moapa Valley/Las Vegas). C-89.5 (Seattle), Super 91.7 (Wilmington, DE) and Brett's station (Z88.9/Burlington, NJ) are non-comms. Pulse 87 in NYC, while commercial, is located below 92, is technically a TV station and has to get rated differently to which the general public cannot see those numbers; therefore not getting a true indication of how the station is doing. Not trying to make an excuse that because of this, it will be hard...we just have to go about things differently. Granted, I could "sell" the usual suspects as those willing to put their ad bills on such a station (clubs, tanning salons, health clubs, limo companies, car dealerships, etc.) but how do we get corporate to take notice when there are technically only FOUR stations to go off of? That's what I am trying to work on for that side, but it also has to take PEOPLE from the other side to bring about awareness. Corporate can look at numbers...but with the way things are financially, they may have NO choice but to really look at people and see where they became "out of touch" somehow.

No, we're not going to protest in front of radio stations with picket signs and all. We just have to pick up things in terms of clubs, bringing about awareness, taking the steps somehow. On the other side we can no longer take things "for granted" and definitely no backstabbing/causing drama from within the dance music community.

No...a PD/station owner won't go and say "well, if Tony Santiago says on those radio boards that we must go dance, then we must do it NOW!" However, from my end I will have to "bring a face" (which I HAVE been doing a lot of lately; if I believe that dance music should no longer be "faceless", then I TOO should no longer be hiding my face!) in order to bring about publicity regarding dance music to the mainstream sources. If I could get to a Rolling Stone, Spin or Blender or Village Voice for that matter, that would be good. If those in the "power" are not going to pay attention to boards, then we just have to go about getting mainstream attention somehow. So we go "guerilla marketing".

Z103.5? I wish more CHR's were like this! That's an extraordinary dance friendly CHR. But for what it's worth and being America...at least 3 dance tracks on rotation would be fine. If Chris Willis has to be spun after a Jonas Brothers track...we'll take it! And Josh...I do agree, While I was aiming rather high for the big market areas, small areas do matter! Using the Hudson Valley, New York market as an example...if it came back with a dance/rhythmic station tomorrow (as it was with B-94, WBPM - Kingston, back in the mid 90's) we'll take it! If K-104 (WSPK) started becoming dance friendly again, though maintaining it's CHR format, we'll take it!
No issues there.

Is it doing too much? Perhaps and from my end, I should slow it down a bit because yeah, the goal is lofty. But more has to be done since for one, things ARE improving. We just can't rest on our laurels though, that's the one thing we cannot afford to do. And yes...support the stations that we do have now! NEVER stop doing that.

Okay...so give me the damn ball!! lol

 

[porkythepig]

Speaking about Dance Friendly CHRs, 92.1 The Beat in Duluth, MN (not to be confused with 92.1 The Beat in Tulsa, OK, which is a full rhythmic) was a dance friendly and rhythmic leaning CHR that had mixed results, albeit horribly executed and with clocks not properly set, though it performed alright in the 18-34 demo.  But, it flipped it to AC last February so the market is left with a station (Mix 108) that's Hot AC in the day and CHR at night.  To Mix's credit, they air Open House Party.  The market's historic CHR, 102.5 KZIO, was also dance friendly, which aired mixshows and OHP on weekends, and had huge numbers.  That went Modern AC before being blew up for rock (as The Bear and later KHQG...the KZIO calls are being used today for another rock station) due to a new PD at the time who didn't want the station having the "teen station" mentality.  There's a pirate with a dance format in the Duluth area...I don't know why for sure but I think the market might lean a little dance for CHR tastes because of the proximity to Canada.  KZIO and The Beat weren't anywhere close to Z103.5 in Toronto, but they played more dance product than average by US standards, ala B97/WBWB in Bloomington, IN.

While these stations aren't dance friendly, there's several small market non-MMR-monitored CHRs spinning September "Cry For You" more than 15 times a week including KKXL/Grand Forks, ND, KCLD/St. Cloud, MN, KKCK/Marshall, MN (Sioux Falls, SD area), KQKY/Kearney, NE (Grand Island, NE area), WBIZ/Eau Claire, WI, and others.

That guy who posted about Bob Saget buying KMVN in LA and flipping it to dance is on crack. ;D

 

[Mid West Clubber]

We also need to do something in a bit more uniformed way.. If we have 20 CHR or Hip Hop stations that play 1-3 Dance songs in regular rotation yet they are all different Dance songs, then that isnt going to raise anyone on the chart. We all need to uniform together and all play the September's, the Chris Willis, and the Cascada's of the world so we can raise the chart position on these certain songs. Im sad to say that David Guetta-love is gone is losing spins and going into Recurrent for us, but we had a nice long run with it, but on the other hand September-Cry for you is still holding strong in the top 5, and we have got Cascada-Faded in rotation now, so keep your fingers crossed.