dang

[galaxyg]

Horrible, what am I going to listen to now?

Party 92.7, the Bay Area's only dance station, is now gone and turned into Power 92.7 aka Tupac Radio.

Comments

[keainuren]

HEY!! When I came back to LA from Winter Break, I discovered that the only dance station here turned into some weirdo 80's rock station. Why are these wonderful stations disappearing?? :*(

[galaxyg]

I have no idea! I thought these dance stations were popular cause everyone I knew listened to it. The dance station here though was getting really repetitive. There wasn't a DJ and I would hear the same song every 3 hours (I think the music was controlled by a computer).

What will we do w/o our dance station emme?

[bakasan]

two words, Clear Channel

[bakasan]

According to this report [futureofmusic.org] ClearChannel owns 1244 stations and owns 27% of the listenership. They've achieved this largely by playing to the safe music picks in CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) and other formats, with a focus on crossover music (songs that fit in more than one genre) so they can play the same song on all the different stations they own in the same market.

Or, to put it a different way, ClearChannel is the "McDonalds" of radio. They find safe bland songs within each genre (mostly about sexual attraction), and serve it up constantly, heavily laden with ads. About a quarter of Americans love this format -- just like some people love McDonalds. And they have parlayed that profitability into such a dominant position in radio that they can use their market power to drive even better deals for themselves from the RIAA and musicians.

New songs? Forget it. Unless you have already climbed the dial elsewhere or have big money backing you.