Let's Get Dance Radio in San Diego (Oct 6, 2008)

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...

Begin Quote:

"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.)

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!!!!

TONY SANTIAGO,
Your friend in Dance Music!
Coordinator, New York Dance Music Coalition
http://www.myspace.com/nydanceradio

Analysis To Above (Oct 6, 2008)

103.7 could have gone all-dance in circa 1996 when Groove Radio 103.1 came out in the L.A. basin. 99.3 could have done so in 1999 instead of the ill-received country format that went nowhere in the ratings. 102.1 could flip off its low-rated AAA format and put on a dance format similar to ipartyradio.com. 103.7 could have gone dance when they dropped the Free-FM format last year.

One way to get a dance radio format going is for more listeners to request dance pop songs on the pop stations. Vote thumbs up on the dance songs and down on the downbeat songs on the station's websites.

Another problem with dance music on terrestrial radio is that we are so used to listening to it on our mp3 players, satellite radio, and Internet radio, that we are conditioned into thinking that we'll never have a dance station, and for the most part, don't care if Clear Channel San Diego flips New Country 95.7 into Hot Dance 95.7 or some other format that will bomb to the terrestrial listeners.

Sure, there's Pride Radio and House of Sophie on two HD2 channels, but their wattage is so low that hardly anybody is bothering to get an HD radio receiver just for them. There's plenty of other dance stations on the Internet to listen to as it is.

What about finding a general manager who knows how to find and hire a staff who is knowledgable in the genre of dance music? Most of them are either Internet broadcasters or podshow producers, and are not primed for the field of broadcast radio.

A successful dance station would have to sound like top 40, but only with dance mixes of popular songs, as opposed to Groove Radio, which for the most part was playing it deep and unfamiliar.

For dance radio to work on terrestrial radio, advertisers need to understand that dance fans are like smooth jazz or rock and roll fans; they all need to buy mainstream stuff like insurance, technology, food, and cars. Think of a huge swath of audience advertising is missing out on because a large unknown chunk of dance music fans are not listening to terrestrial radio because their genre doesn't exist there.

In this day and age of Internet, would you care for dance on local radio?