RADIO MIX SHOW DJS-WHO IS THE BEST?

[confusedandmad2]

I think mixshows have lost their edge as far as bringing quality music to the masses in MIXES....Oh, wait a minute, THERE HASNT BEEN ANY IN THE PAST FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS!! All stations have 1 or 2 mixers that do a decent job as far as mixing is concerned. Personally, I think here in Chicago, Kenny Jason does a HELLUVA job on V103 and I'll give respect to DJ phantom on GCI. Both get the respect for the quality, making their mixes SOUND LIKE MIXES.

My opinion overall on commercial radio mixshows are as follows:

As far as B96, Get rid of all of them......theyre past their time and I dont know why they hang on continue to bore us with "NEW MUSIC" that never hits the masses. I guess its cool to still have the "HOT NEW SH--" in the streets. Maybe the 'coup' that happened from Kiss to B96 was cool at the time but that time is over. And some have overwelcomed theyre stay. I love and respect Julian Perez, but I think its time to stay mix show coordinator and give some new blood a chance. (He has the ear for it and he's a legend! c'mon JULIAN!!)

At Power 92.3, Boolumaster is pretty nice and I like that kid Nephets on friday nights at 7 (the only time he's on . he needs more mixes on the radio!) Pharris needs to stick to the on-air cause mixing was never his strength.....and Kid scratch.....pffffff, waste of Lunch mixes and earth time (Trust me, they're not that good!)

With GCI, Phantom and Timbuk 2 are pretty good. Lil John is alright (he goes off on occasion) and V-dub is pretty decent.

And KISS FM with their new SHOW............A FRIGGIN' ABOMINATION! I understand that junk about following a list and IT CAN BE DONE! It really CAN! But the QUALITY of the show??? CRAP! GARBAGE! A disrespect to the forefathers who put the time and effort to make something quality on the air. They are so all over the place and off beat. Its like they just learned how to mix and were recording while practicing and hit the pause button every 2 songs mixed in. Armando himself, god rest his soul, is rollin over in his grave if he were to hear this sham.....GET RID OF ALL of THEM!

And La KALLE. (This station is pretty funny as they claim to cater to 1st generation of hispanics in the city yet theres more Spanish being spoken then English. And the 1st generation speaks ALOT MORE ENGLISH than spanish. I AM ONE!! Proven fact..... Guess with a 1.9 share they're pretty well off.....THATS Pathetic not to compete with the big boys! WUSSIES!) There's probably one mixer, Gabriel Rican Rodriguez who used to do mixes on B96 sunday night street flavor back in the 90's (check the stats....!) and then the rest are WEAK!!! MIXING VOCALS OVER VOCALS? Thats like listening going to Hawtorne race track, listening to a race with people yelling over one another!

Mixshows have lost the anticipation and their thrill. People ran to their radios to hear a good mixer. Now they run away cause its CRAP! Its never gonna be like 'BMX and even B96 anbd WGCI after BMX folded. Its gonna be a long time when we listen to some mixes that are worth hearing, here in the CITY THAT CREATED MIXSHOWS!

Sad time folks.....ITS A SAD TIME.

 

[Damixah3]

The previous post confuses me...

 

[Dizzy]

Chicago mixers suck by far.

End of story!

Most work at teenie clubs like Zero gravity, Medusa's,l Energy and a lame ass clubs throughout the city.

Like markski, Bad boy and Bobby D, I don't even know. Any of the fools at BEE ninty-sux, or Kiss.

There is no money in it anymore. Club owners are cheap Foreigners, and radio bosses are losers with no style.

The ones that have not sold out would be: Psycho Bitch, Terri Bristol, Mark Grant, Andre Harris and Jesse Da la pena to name a few. Those who mix on the radio cannot even hold a candle to these masters of the box.

Anyone can use DJTools or Final Cut. But to mix live, on the spot and in person takes a true master. Guys like Bobby D or Too Kool Crap really do suck ass in person. I have seen hundreds of dj's battle it out and most are horrible live.

To watch a true genius throwdown is amazing. I have yet to see but a handful in Chicago.

To sum it up, all the guys at B96, Kiss and a few at GCI suck hole.

Bring Back The Good Stuff!!

 

[Damixah3]

Chicago mixers suck by far.


The ones that have not sold out would be: Psycho Bitch, Terri Bristol, Mark Grant, Andre Harris and Jesse Da la pena to name a few. Those who mix on the radio cannot even hold a candle to these masters of the box.

Anyone can use DJTools or Final Cut. But to mix live, on the spot and in person takes a true master. Guys like Bobby D or Too Kool Crap really do suck ass in person. I have seen hundreds of dj's battle it out and most are horrible live.

You have not heard JM3 live, Apparently

 

[Dizzy]

...not really..and dont care too!

 

[Damixah3]

that was apparent with the "closed minded" tone of your original statement.....

 

[confusedandmad2]

I agree with Dizzy on this one.....Mark Grant, Andre Harris and Jesse Da la pena: Ive seen live and yeah, these nerds on the radio cant hold a candle to them. But thats beside the point.

The radio DJ is WEAK. THERE ARE None that bring excitement and none that make a name outside of radio.

I just brang my 2cents on radio DJ's to this forum for you as I listen to every commercial mixshow in town......and to sum it up in a word for you since I guess I "CONFUSE YOU": GARBAGE! ALL OF IT.

So, what answer are you looking for 'Damixah3'?

 

[Damixah3]

Well to be honest, I was trying to see what the perception of the current mixers on the radio.....

I Disagree, not all the jocks are weak. Some since they are limited as far as cutting edge music. They come off as weak....

But the best ones on air now are:

DJ Lil John (heard him live - especially when he was with wall to wall sounds)
Steve Miggedy Maestro ( heard him live at the Clique -late 80s with Farley)
DJ JM3 (heard him at Summer Dance 2005with Ron Carroll ...he was club jock way before he got on LOVE-fm)

Now the ones that was mentioned:

Terri Bristol (was ok till she went Techno/Alternative)

Jesse Dela Pena ( can hold his own - Heard him at Summer Dance too as well as over the years.. He can go from pop to rap to house to old school without missing a beat)

Mark Grant (can hold his own).

What kills me is the term "computer mixes".... alot of jocks would slpice a reel to reel in a heart beat ("Mickey Mixin Oliver"). Or use a 4 Track to do mixes......back in the day....

 

[Hamp]

As far as Kiss having a mixshow, I don't know why they do. If all they are going to play are remixes, then what is the point? I don't mind SOME remixes, but play some new stuff as well.
As far as DJ's go, Josh The Funky 1 and Mixin' Marc play some GREAT tracks!!!!!! Louie Loop and Billy The Kid seem to be all over the place and don't really have a sense of direction musically. They just don't flow with the slammin' beats.
DJ Spin is alright sometimes, but some of his selections are like, what the ......?

 

[confusedandmad2]

now, with that said..... have those B96 mixers done anything else outside of Chicago Radio?? And is there still a crowd for "dance music" in Chicago?? Jesse and Mark Grant have, as well as Psycho Bitch and Terri Bristol. Notice: THEY ALL HAVE DIFFERENT STYLES!

I agree with you about the "computer mixes" term....yeah TOTALLY...Julian use to make awesome MIXTAPES WITH THAT, And Bad Boy Bill went crazy with it! Bobby D went ballistic (i'm still amazed how many songs he put together on radio MIXES!! GEEZ! Still hasnt been duplicated) The only problem is that these radio mixers dont know how to use the computer to make mixes. The computer is half the battle.....creativity is the word for these BUMS on the radio! All of them lack it!

My point is people dont care about radio mixers and what they sound like anymore. Corporates already got'em in a spellbound wanting them to listen to the top 20 songs on the charts.

As for Techno, progressive, or EVEN House music......(kills me to say House music......) the time has gone. We have the internet and/or satellite radio that can give us what we want at anytimes, but commercial radio mixshows have lost its value and its "mystique" we thought it had. Well, at least I thought!

WBMX.com and the only radio mixshow I listen to is on Saturday nights at 11pm......TONY CANO on WLUW, 88.7! WLUW.org if u live outside of the area.....YEAH BUDDY!

 

[wbmx]

Thanks so much for the kind words. We appreciate them. Sadly, your assessment is pretty much on target when it comes to mix shows. Those days are gone. Everyone's a DJ, not everyone can run a room. But as far as what the mix shows used to be able to do? Those days are gone. It's all pre programmed for the most part and Tony does a great job on his mixes, always has been a great jock. Believe it or not, Tim (Schomer), Bobby D were great jocks too back in the days when I worked at Safari Club, PS and others. They knew how to run their rooms. Bobby took editing to a whole new level didn't he. Incredible. Just think, Mickey did that stuff with a blade, you can't imagine how much reel tape was laying all over the place back in '81!

Thanks for listening to us. Check out our flagship site 1club.fm
We're carrying about 70 channels there, many have 128K streams to compliment their low speed streams.

Happy Thanksgiving if we don't type to you before then

 

[Damixah3]

Now this thread is going in the direction I was hoping it to. Here are some questions to think about....

How do we get people to care?

When we get them to care, How do we put the power back in the hands of the Club DJ where it belongs?

Do people contact the station and tell them what they dont like?

 

[wbmx]

Unfortunately radio is no longer in control of its own destiny. You have to remember that back then, go back to DAI, there were no alternatives to anything, hell, the only alternative you had was SPECTRUM or ONTv for anything "different" in the media field. When Disco DAI did Hot Tracks and then the mix shows on Friday Nights it was DIFFERENT PROGRAMMING. That's what the mix shows were all about. DIFFERENT MUSIC, breaking new songs. Now, it's "play this horsehit remix of a top 40 record". Its pathetic. While some of them a fine it's not what the mix shows were about and doesn't allow a mix show to do what it can for a radio station. They've defeated the purpose of it by diluting it with a bunch of banging bullshit or top 40 remixes and in the midst of all of that - GREAT SONGS WILL NEVER BE HEARD. While stations like WKKC, WCYC, WCRX and other college stations did their part in offering something different that people would actually listen to, we’re talking major power covering an entire city here.

When Lee took over WBMX and the mixes were running the jocks were playing HITS. We all were. In the pools we got record after record that were GREAT SONGS. Lee would gauge a hot song like Indeep's "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" or Jimmy Ross' "First True Love Affair" or a song out of nowhere like Weeks & Co. "Rock Your World" and because they were so huge in the mix shows and phone action was huge and sales at a measly like what? 5 stores that sold 12's were so damn huge, he added them.

Now it's about some guy with a punked out hairdo playing some "lifestyle" track no one will ever remember because it's not a song, it's made to rave to. While that's cool and everything, it's limited to whom it will appeal to in a market. Mix shows were a great source of revenue and if you knew what you were doing you could garner 2 million a year just off of those mixes (as a station of course)

Much of the club music today... there's great songs that deserve pop recognition but they'll never get it. You remember these: You Dropped A Bomb On Me, Relax, Holiday, Let The Music Play, Keep On, Situation, Blue Monday/The Beach, Bizarre Love Triangle, Do You Wanna Funk, Angel Eyes, Color My Love, Go Go Gorilla, Hypnotic Tango, If You Only Knew (actually B96 played it briefly), Jack Your Body, It's Raining Men, So Many Men, Jam On It, Summertime Summertime, I Wonder If I Take You Home, Party Train, Babe, Scars Of Love, We're Gonna Love Tonight, Wake Up by Stop, She Has A Way, Native Love, Don't Go (by Yaz), Loose Touch's Bad Of The Heart, Cynthia's "Change On Me", MY GOD! The list goes on, NONE OF THEM WERE EVER PLAYED ON B96 or ANY OTHER STATION (save G106 who played Jam On It in there short life). They were all no-brainers for a station to play and yet it took what 20 years for the "white" stations to say "ok, our demo likes these because they liked them back then". Crazy! Very few club songs other than Inner City, Pretty Poison, Stacey Q, Company B, Expose - SHIT! It took Expose' almost two years before a station other than WBMX played them. AN URBAN STATION PLAYING MORE THAN URBAN MUSIC. What a concept. WBMX re-defined URBAN as a collective or white, black and brown PERIOD. WBMX acknowledged what other stations didn't and that was that there was a different way to do things because different people, while different had a collective taste that WBMX catered to.

Sure, we all listened to or knew about Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, The Cure and such but we listened to much more than the other stations LET US LISTEN TO and the only place to hear it was WBMX. Notice how many of those songs are now staples at WHITE STATIONS. Hilarious. You couldn't get them to play any of the songs I listed above and today? You can't get them to stop.

B96 was a useless doldrum until Buddy Scott left and Dave Shakes was at the right place at the right time because Bill, Julian and Frankie put the joint on the map and became the station of habit for the next 7 years after the sale of WBMX. They merely did what was started at WBMX only now this time it was being done at a mainstream station not urban. With the acceptance and EXPLOSION of B96s ratings, it showed how legitimate WBMX was. Its amazing how many people of all colors listened and what's even more amazing is how many of them are listening now. And it all started out with MIXES. Times are different and you can get mixes on a jillion sites. It all depends on what you want, there's a place for it and once again, radio can't cater to that kind of mindset.

What I'm saying here is that there are ALL KINDS OF ALTERNATIVES now. Dozens of styles that at any given moment a person may be in the mood to hear and radio can't do that for people that's why they play it safe. While I have some ideas on what would help I just have no faith whatsoever in the ability of most people running radio, not "working" at radio but running radio. Technology renders many thing useless or antiques, look at your Computer Football game back in 1979, look at Magnavox's Magnavision (Video Disc), Odyssey (Video Games), and now look at your PSP, your Movielink, your satellite... technology just gets the next generation ready for a new way to experience things and leaves the old for history to laugh at.

Save your breath man, you're a noble person but you can't save the horse and buggy when Henry Ford's got a village set up with people cranking out cars 24/7. It's too late, it's in HAL 2000's great grandchildren's hands now.

 

[wbmx]

This is in response to someone's post back at about the first page of this thread:

Actually there's a ton of money in being a mix show jock if the station supports it mixers and promos it and them through the week. When your name is plastered all over your mix and you're getting 500.00 and hour to spin at parties and 300 to do a two hour guest spot at a club you're getting PAID. It wasn't about making the money on the mix show, it was about getting your name out there so you'd get booked. Imagine it's Friday night, you're booked at four parties that night at 500.00 per party and you're doing that two to three nights a week, then, you're throwing your own gigs and drawing 4 to 5000 people at 10 bucks a head and your costs were 7Gs. It was done religiously back then. With that in mind, really, do you give a ------ if you get a dime from the station? They're the ones hooking you up with the free promo to get the booking. Just to put it all in perspective folks.

You sure about that? Alot of big talk there, sir......
Actually Maurice makes $65.00 per mix. JM3 & lil John been doing clubs since 83.

There was never any money in Radio mixes to begin with.....

 

[Dizzy]

Ohhh $65 bucks a mix. Who cares

 

[Noiseboxxx]

This is in response to someone's post back at about the first page of this thread:

Actually there's a ton of money in being a mix show jock if the station supports it mixers and promos it and them through the week. When your name is plastered all over your mix and you're getting 500.00 and hour to spin at parties and 300 to do a two hour guest spot at a club you're getting PAID. It wasn't about making the money on the mix show, it was about getting your name out there so you'd get booked. Imagine it's Friday night, you're booked at four parties that night at 500.00 per party and you're doing that two to three nights a week, then, you're throwing your own gigs and drawing 4 to 5000 people at 10 bucks a head and your costs were 7Gs. It was done religiously back then. With that in mind, really, do you give a ------ if you get a dime from the station? They're the ones hooking you up with the free promo to get the booking. Just to put it all in perspective folks.

You sure about that? Alot of big talk there, sir......
Actually Maurice makes $65.00 per mix. JM3 & lil John been doing clubs since 83.

There was never any money in Radio mixes to begin with.....

I know too well there's money to be made doing mix shows. Yes, it's all about promotion to get booked. I remember going out on Friday and Saturday nights with a couple of the mixers when I wasn't spinning. They would be mixing LIVE ON THE AIR from clubs all over town - sometimes 3 and 4 clubs in a night (1 hour each @ about $450.00 a pop) PLUS going to their club and spinning for 2 or 3 hours for anywhere from $300.00 to $500.00 for the rest of the night. B-A-N-K for pretty much having FUN.

3 mixers that I can think of (FHR, Middleton and Schommer) - who have quite a bit of creativity and can program in 'da club - do and did quite well. They worked their butts off to develop their styles, all are different and quite excellent at what they do. I think FHR has an edge at being the most versatile, having gone through 90% of the changes from 'DAI to BMX to B96. (Also many points between and beyond as a producer and an artist.) BadBoy Bill expanded his little empire from mixes to competing in many worldwide contests, owning a record label and touring - which he is still a HUGE draw. Tim is the "king of freestyle" and does tons of club dates, and Brian has a recording studio and his own label and writes songs as well. There are many others worthy of note, but these are just a FEW examples.

I do think, that not in the too distant future, dance music is going to come back in a HUGE way. I remember when it was the coolest thing to be sitting outside on one of the bar patios @ State & Division listening to passing cars pumping the 3 different mix-shows ('BMX, 'GCI and B96) and hearing OUR RECORDS being played! It was awesome. It will happen again...maybe a "re-invention" is due.

I did okay with my club gigs and making sure that all these guys got the "records" they needed.

Yes, Mr. WBMX, it's "the pool guy" where all the great stuff came from! LOL

Good luck to all.

 

[wbmx]

I'm still waiting for Rocky to get service on RCA.

author=Noiseboxxx link=topic=53000.msg384008#msg384008 date=1164128475]

This is in response to someone's post back at about the first page of this thread:

Actually there's a ton of money in being a mix show jock if the station supports it mixers and promos it and them through the week. When your name is plastered all over your mix and you're getting 500.00 and hour to spin at parties and 300 to do a two hour guest spot at a club you're getting PAID. It wasn't about making the money on the mix show, it was about getting your name out there so you'd get booked. Imagine it's Friday night, you're booked at four parties that night at 500.00 per party and you're doing that two to three nights a week, then, you're throwing your own gigs and drawing 4 to 5000 people at 10 bucks a head and your costs were 7Gs. It was done religiously back then. With that in mind, really, do you give a ------ if you get a dime from the station? They're the ones hooking you up with the free promo to get the booking. Just to put it all in perspective folks.

You sure about that? Alot of big talk there, sir......
Actually Maurice makes $65.00 per mix. JM3 & lil John been doing clubs since 83.

There was never any money in Radio mixes to begin with.....

I know too well there's money to be made doing mix shows. Yes, it's all about promotion to get booked. I remember going out on Friday and Saturday nights with a couple of the mixers when I wasn't spinning. They would be mixing LIVE ON THE AIR from clubs all over town - sometimes 3 and 4 clubs in a night (1 hour each @ about $450.00 a pop) PLUS going to their club and spinning for 2 or 3 hours for anywhere from $300.00 to $500.00 for the rest of the night. B-A-N-K for pretty much having FUN.

3 mixers that I can think of (FHR, Middleton and Schommer) - who have quite a bit of creativity and can program in 'da club - do and did quite well. They worked their butts off to develop their styles, all are different and quite excellent at what they do. I think FHR has an edge at being the most versatile, having gone through 90% of the changes from 'DAI to BMX to B96. (Also many points between and beyond as a producer and an artist.) BadBoy Bill expanded his little empire from mixes to competing in many worldwide contests, owning a record label and touring - which he is still a HUGE draw. Tim is the "king of freestyle" and does tons of club dates, and Brian has a recording studio and his own label and writes songs as well. There are many others worthy of note, but these are just a FEW examples.

I do think, that not in the too distant future, dance music is going to come back in a HUGE way. I remember when it was the coolest thing to be sitting outside on one of the bar patios @ State & Division listening to passing cars pumping the 3 different mix-shows ('BMX, 'GCI and B96) and hearing OUR RECORDS being played! It was awesome. It will happen again...maybe a "re-invention" is due.

I did okay with my club gigs and making sure that all these guys got the "records" they needed.

Yes, Mr. WBMX, it's "the pool guy" where all the great stuff came from! LOL

Good luck to all.
[/quote]

 

[Noiseboxxx]

;D ;D ;D

i got all that bmg stuff that he couldn't for some reason. must have been my charming personality. no, wait...

LOL

 

[Tom Wells]

Now?

I don't know now, but I had people asking for copies of my mixes in '81. And yeah, it was because it made em dance.
And the guys who knew how to use the reel to reel were better.

And where has the 1974-79 stuff been hidden? It's as if it never existed, and is just as easy to drop into a groove.

Blinders don't help any musical style. Let people know where a musical genre has traveled over the years.

 

[Noiseboxxx]

wow. there's a name i haven't heard in....forever.

glad to see that there's someone else who believes that the 'archives' deserve as much attention as the 'new stuff'.

people used to get on to me because i would drop a "classic" or 5 into a mix. ;D or when i would mix the "new-wave" stuff with the disco. or the industrial with the house...whatever. i still do that when ever possible. i figured as long as it sounded GREAT and the people kept DANCING - that was all that mattered. when the crowd would scream as another song came through the mix - that was the payoff. especially when spinning at the larger venues like Limelight, the Riv, Shelter or China Club. good times.

the mix-shows that i mixed live-to-tape were better than my bladed-up reel attempts, so i would just do 26 or 55 minute mixes straight through and hand 'em in. can't remember any complaints.

i still do all my mixes live, but record to hard-drive in case i have to edit them down to fit programming. modern times.