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What is up with BPM?

J

JWPinVA

In the past 48 hours I've heard some of the most bizarre playlist choices ever.

Shout - Tears for Fears?
Vertigo - U2?
Notorious - Duran Duran?

Yuck. I'm sure that there are others that I missed in my limited listening over the weekend.

I had to double check the display to make sure I hadn't accidentally tuned from 81 to 8 on my XM receiver.

Seriously; are they TRYING to annoy dance music fans? These tunes weren't even considered dance tracks when they were originally released - what in the hell are these tracks doing on the only (U.S. based) national dance outlet? ???

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the hand of some former Sirius Beat programmer tinkering. Does anyone here have a better explanation?
 
About an hour ago I heard "She Drives Me Crazy" from Fine Young Cannibals. Nothing wrong with dance remixes and recurrents, but I do notice it's The Beat's signature on the playlist. I also notice that they are slightly late to release new material, same style like The Beat, and hear new material first on Pulse 87 than on BPM. Sometimes I would think that The Beat is back on my Sirius reciever.
 
This horrible... Even if these are Dance mixes, they are no where on US or European Dance charts.... Granted this is why Ive given up on U.S Dance HITS stations.... Energy 98 is the exception,,, and Hot 96 portland, and a few stations on Live 365 like Party 96.7.... and John Parkers station,,, Pulse 87 OTA and Hot 97 the Original Web station.. Too bad these arent Over the air stations, eccept Pulse and all but Energy 98 have a low amount of listeners.. I-Party radio is good, but is kinda like an entry level dance station, but it least its ran good..... Brett and Krises School stations are still good,,, too bad they have limited signals and Bretts isnt 24/7 Dance... WBDG 90.9 in Indianapolis is still doing the Giant Mix with All Dance, all night, every night, but I cant pick them up here anymore because of a LEGAL Bible blaster fired up just 7 miles south of my house, and it has tripple the power of WBDG... WBDG used to get out about 30 miles south of indianapolis, but now,,, good luck getting it outside its protested contour....
 
Mid West Clubber said:
This horrible... Even if these are Dance mixes, they are no where on US or European Dance charts.... Granted this is why Ive given up on U.S Dance HITS stations.... Energy 98 is the exception,,, and Hot 96 portland, and a few stations on Live 365 like Party 96.7.... and John Parkers station,,, Pulse 87 OTA and Hot 97 the Original Web station.. Too bad these arent Over the air stations, eccept Pulse and all but Energy 98 have a low amount of listeners.. I-Party radio is good, but is kinda like an entry level dance station, but it least its ran good..... Brett and Krises School stations are still good,,, too bad they have limited signals and Bretts isnt 24/7 Dance... WBDG 90.9 in Indianapolis is still doing the Giant Mix with All Dance, all night, every night, but I cant pick them up here anymore because of a LEGAL Bible blaster fired up just 7 miles south of my house, and it has tripple the power of WBDG... WBDG used to get out about 30 miles south of indianapolis, but now,,, good luck getting it outside its protested contour....
Click to expand...

I party is far from an entry level station. Will does more research on his listeners and the music, than anyone I know.

I have to rip you about the limited signal issue. What is limited to Kris's station. It covers all of Wilmington and goes into NJ, PA and MD! That to me is a good signal. They are not a Philly station. My station covers a large portion of South Jersey. You have hear us in the car in almost all of Philly. What is limited about that? Can you hear us in your kitchen, no but how many people are actually listening to the radio in their house? We pride ourselves as a South Jersey station and we get a ton of listeners in Philly. We are what we are and damn proud of it
 
Yeah your 95.1 gets into philly pretty well indeed,,, But you need a west side Translator,,, but Philly has no more Room... WMPH is only 100 watts and touches the bottom half of Philly on a car radio... so thats great range for WMPH, and its great the Wilmington has south a station..

Unfourtunately our only Dance outlet is now blocked... WBDG is 400 watts and 28 miles from me, but I have a religious broadcaster with very poor audio that smashes them out about 10 miles from Ben Davis high School... I think the FCC messed up on that one...

The reason I say I-party is more entry level shouldnt be taken badly,,, in fact this is what could and would work in alot of markets,,, Saying this,,, I know people that dont like the more Underground Dance or the foreign stuff, Even energy 98 wasnt their thing,, mainly CHR listeners, and I hooked them up with a link for I-Party and they loved it...
 
Entry level dance station, that's funny... Thanks MWC, how flattering.

We're an uptempo Party station that plays about 75% dance, and yes quite a bit of that is comprised of dance remixes of pop songs. I like to think of iPR as a mash-up of two stations I was very passionate about - Party Radio B96 Chicago (hmm, wonder where the name came from) and Energy 92-7 & 5 Chicago.

It's as simple as this, if my audience wanted the deeper, underground, european tracks, I'd give it to them. I'm very knowledgeable of what my audience wants and we study our listener feedback (both voluntary and involuntary) very closely to make sure we're delivering what are audience wants.

Every programmer has their own ideas about this, but I believe that in order for a 'dance' station to survive in America, it would have to follow a model similar to iPartyRadio. I have much respect for Mikeo and Energy 98, but I don't believe Energy 98, in it's current form, would survive on FM radio here in the US - but that doesn't matter because that's not his business model - he found what works for and goes with it just like every other internet station has found what works for them and goes with it.

If you don't like what we're doing, don't listen... That's the beauty of the internet, there's more than enough stations and listeners to go around. My european numbers are quickly catching up to my US numbers... I get emails all the time from Germany, Netherlands and Sweden (just to name a few) from people who love our U.S. presentation of the 'dance' format and with they had something more like what we do on their FMs. To each his own, i guess.

I have much respect for all the stations listened above - as well as their programmers, they're doing what they feel is best for their respective audiences.

Well, I gotta go - I need to oil up those training wheels on my station.
 
Dont take what i said out of context... I actually see your station as being kinda similar to KHNC Seattle, and that isnt a bad thing considering its the longest running dance station in the U.S.... It does sound a bit like Energy Chicago as well.... I miss that station alot..

B-96 still played more ballads R&b and some crossover POP-Rock during that time,,,,, But yet B-96 had some of the best mixers ever.

You have a good user friendly website too, and make it easy to buy the songs directly from I-Tunes, supports the artist and label., alot of web stations dont even ID the songs....
 
WBZC's signal is not weak (10,000 watts!), but it's weak in the areas of highest population density. It's no Class B in Roxborough! But it can be heard south of 195 and all the way from Philly to 8 miles west of Atlantic City. Its a Burlington County station, not a Philly station.
Super 91.7 is a Wilmington station that covers downtown Wilmington and the immediate suburbs well. It can be heard 20 miles.
When you drive out of Z88.9's range going south on the NJ Turnpike, Super 91.7 is there, and vice versa.
In fact, on Friday nights, you can go all the way from Elkton, MD to East Hampton, NY (almost 250 miles), and hear dance music on the radio the entire distance on 5 different stations (91.7, 88.9, 90.3, 87.7, 101.5, 105.3 in that order). When one fades out, the next one is there. Can't do that anywhere else in the country.
 
It took me quite a while to personally get into pop mixes, but I think 2009 will be my pop year, and of course because look what's happening with pop and r&b now...

Over the years, I learned pretty much what was acceptable and what wasn't in the club/radio world of things. Took a long time to be "coached" into it, but I finally got over playing all that stuff no one has ever heard of during the times I shouldn't be doing so. I've changed a lot in 10 years... and so has music.

How convenient, though, that dance is coming back. Now I no longer have to "sneak" dance songs in.

One thing I notice about BPM on sirius is the amount of old stuff they love to play. I haven't yet heard anything too crazy, but then again I don't listen to BPM too often. It's always BBC Radio 1, The Pulse, or...well, those are the two main ones. The Pulse reminds me of growing up with Star*94 wstr in Atlanta.

2009 is my pop/electro-pop, urban dance/new generation dance sound year.
2008 was all about the u.k. garage and bassline
2007 really sucked, and this was the time I lost most of my interest in hip hop and thought I was probably never going to like rhythmic radio the same again... but now the dumb songs have seemed to all suddenly vanish and meaningful lyrics have made their come back in today's chart topping hip hop hits. I was deep into freestyle again, due to the first time Dance Party Radio was launched with a mostly old school sound.
2005-2006 was my chill out year. Smooth Electronica with a touch of Jazz and House
2004-2005 was my Jem, Utada, type stuff, shortly followed by my reggaeton, hip hop, dancehall and soca phase. I played the hell out of that Jem CD in 2004
2003 I was stuck in a lot of hip hop, but you could tell dance was where I really wanted to be.
2000-2002 - crazy times. I was all crazy about my girl (or now ex) in Cuba. My music was all over the place, and I liked hip hop a lot more than I do now.
1997-2000? The BEST years in music for me. That time I may never forget, even though I think we're pretty much in a good spot in time right now, today. It was this year I actually finally got over the late 90's music and learned to accept times have changed.

While I've always liked a variety of music, I've gone through a lot of phases, but noticed how dance was always my main thing, and everything I did was either dance related or was associated to dance in some way.

BPM surely would've been a dream come true for me 1995 - 2007.....
 
Nick said:
WBZC's signal is not weak (10,000 watts!), but it's weak in the areas of highest population density. It's no Class B in Roxborough! But it can be heard south of 195 and all the way from Philly to 8 miles west of Atlantic City. Its a Burlington County station, not a Philly station.
Super 91.7 is a Wilmington station that covers downtown Wilmington and the immediate suburbs well. It can be heard 20 miles.
When you drive out of Z88.9's range going south on the NJ Turnpike, Super 91.7 is there, and vice versa.
In fact, on Friday nights, you can go all the way from Elkton, MD to East Hampton, NY (almost 250 miles), and hear dance music on the radio the entire distance on 5 different stations (91.7, 88.9, 90.3, 87.7, 101.5, 105.3 in that order). When one fades out, the next one is there. Can't do that anywhere else in the country.
Click to expand...

I know this is late to ask, but that "dance pirate" on 95.3 around Princeton, is it still around or did the Fools Club Coalition shut them down.
 
Mid West Clubber said:
Yeah your 95.1 gets into philly pretty well indeed,,, But you need a west side Translator,,, but Philly has no more Room... WMPH is only 100 watts and touches the bottom half of Philly on a car radio... so thats great range for WMPH, and its great the Wilmington has south a station..

Unfourtunately our only Dance outlet is now blocked... WBDG is 400 watts and 28 miles from me, but I have a religious broadcaster with very poor audio that smashes them out about 10 miles from Ben Davis high School... I think the FCC messed up on that one...

The reason I say I-party is more entry level shouldnt be taken badly,,, in fact this is what could and would work in alot of markets,,, Saying this,,, I know people that dont like the more Underground Dance or the foreign stuff, Even energy 98 wasnt their thing,, mainly CHR listeners, and I hooked them up with a link for I-Party and they loved it...
Click to expand...

our 95.1 doesnt hit Philly it hits a county above Philly. I think you need to re-examine where you can hear us. We are a Philadelphia market station. But we are a South Jersey station. Most of our listeners come from out of the county.
 
Gotta add to this...

"Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran (the 1983 version....not a 2009 remix)

Look, we're NEVER going to expect BPM to sound like it did when it was solely on XM. Those days are GONE :'( Eventually, the presentation of it in terms of recent, I grew with and accepted. But not this! For the 80's station...OKAY. NOT for BPM.

If it's all about how programmers are looking into the marketing, testings, etc. and the result came out to be this, then this is how you'll end up losing listeners that want their currents (or recurrent but OF the dance music brand) on BPM.

Okay....now to hit some clubs for the WMC!!!!
 
Everyone has their favorite type of sound, and its great that via the net you can find the Dance station that fits you best. I'm not big on those that play too much Diva House, or play nothing but minimal. Dance stations that play a lot of Dance remixes to Pop songs are also not my cup of tea as I'd rather hear a purer Dance sound, or listen to Z-103.5 type station (where the Pop songs air in their original form, alongside good Dance from around the world).
Sucks that BPM's sound is changing for the worst, but at least they havent screwed up my favorite satellite radio station - Area.
 
Tony Santiago said:
I will say one thing.....the folks at Sirius/XM read these things! :D

All I can say is that the 80's stuff WILL go away this week!
Click to expand...

Does that also mean BPM will go old school instead of The Beat lean too ;D
 
Tony Santiago said:
I will say one thing.....the folks at Sirius/XM read these things! :D

All I can say is that the 80's stuff WILL go away this week!
Click to expand...
That's certainly good news. I was having flashbacks to the day I originally cancelled Sirius because The Beat was adding more 80's new wave songs than currents!
 
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