Dance music format in medium markets

[David Tomm]

Dance music has been trying to make inroads in the US for many years 
since the death of disco.  However, throughout most of the world, dance 
music is their pop music, and is all over the airwaves.  Both XM and 
Sirius program multiple dance channels each and plenty of stations 
stream on the internet.  There has been some success stories in the US 
as of late.  DHT "Listen To Your Heart" was a recent number one single 
and the group Cascada is making inroads with their new song "Everytime 
We Touch"  Madonna just released a new all-dance album and more pop 
singles are being remixed for club and on-air mix show play.

Despite all this, there are very few all-dance stations in this 
country.  Most are on rimshot signals that get low ratings.  In the 
last couple of years, Dance stations in Orlando, Miami, LA and Chicago 
have dumped the format for something else.  Contemporary dance should 
not be confused with rhythmic AC, which is essentially what Star 93.7 
used to be, along with WNEW-FM/New York.  WKTU does play some current 
product, but they are still gold-heavy.

As far as Albany goes, I can't see how a smaller market with two CHR's 
already could possibly support a dance station, at least on the main 
signal.  Current dance seems to be finding a home on HD though.  
Philadelphia and Miami already have dance formats on HD.  With the HD 
radio "alliance" rolling out new formats on HD signals in the major 
markets (including Boston) I would not be surprised to see more dance 
music on the HD "band" in many cities in the future.  A format like 
that would be the perfect  complement to a terrestrial CHR/Pop or 
Rhythmic/Hip-Hop signal.

--Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"



On Jan 18, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Matthew Osborne wrote:

> Here's a general question to everyone on the list -
> The other day I noticed that our local Urban
> Contemporary station, WAJZ 96.3 FM Voorheesville
> (Albany) NY, is starting to drift away from their
> Urban format and into a Dance/Rhythmic CHR direction.
> They now have a Sunday night club mix show, and some
> notable additions to their playlist of late (Because
> of You remix by Kelly Clarkson amongst others) that
> would've been unthinkable just 6 months ago.  Now I
> know there's been talk in the past about bringing a
> dance formatted station to the Albany NY market, but
> does anyone think a market of that size is actually
> big enough to support it?  Based on my very amateur
> observations on the matter, the only places where
> dance music radio stations seem to do well is in
> extremely large markets like NYC, LA, and Chicago; and
> even in some of those cases it doesn't work.  Any
> thoughts/comments?
>
>                                         Matt Osborne
>                                         Schenectady, NY
>
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