You Say It's Your Birthday!
On September 14, 2004, I launced a radio station on Live365 called Radio One. For the first few weeks, I played alternative music from 1995-1999, the years I spent at Wartburg College. It was there I fell in love with radio, at the college radio station KWAR. That September, I was getting ready to attend my five year class reunion, and I thought it would be fun to play all the songs that we used to play on KWAR in college. After the class reunion was over, I started looking around for more current music to play. It had been a while since I was in-tune with new music so I just started exploring. And six years later, I really haven't stopped!
But, the origins of DMPulse go back further...
He was probably the best radio station General Manager I ever worked for, but I knew he was dead wrong.
Even though it would be four more years before launch, the seed was planned for DMPulse in a meeting with my station GM in 2000. I was working at a classic rock station, which used the creative slogan “THE classic rock station”! (As if there was another one in town!) I was on the verge of getting married to my fiancé who lived in another city. It was time to make some decisions.
The entire on-air staff was assembled in a conference room, a rare event. After some white-board scribbling describing who listens to THE classic rock station, the GM let something drop that planted a seed and sealed my departure.
“Guys, you need to realize that we are in the audience delivery business. What we do is deliver our audience to our advertisers, so our advertisers can market to them.”
He went on to add the music we played really didn’t matter as long as it continued to attract an audience we could “deliver” to our advertisers. You mean playing Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love" for the ten thousandth time wasn't meaningful?
I knew this, but it cemented it in my mind. Ownership didn’t care what we played on the air as long as it was easy, cheap and enough people listened to keep bringing in ads. I was on the losing end of this equation. And we were going to lose out to this new thing called “the internet” as commercial radio was never going to focus on what the audience wanted, only what the advertisers wanted.
I left a short time later, but always remembered the axiom “you can’t serve two masters”. Corporate radio can only serve its advertising master, and if I was going to work in radio again, I would have to work somewhere whose master was the listeners.
I cannot say this was all planned out six years ago today, but it appears that YOU, the DMPulse listener, have created the opportunity for me to try and test my hypothesis. If we focus on what the audience wants and deliver it, the audience will see to it we can continue to provide them what they want.
Let’s find out together,
Jay
You can share your thoughts with me at jay@dmpulse.com
New Releases
Weezer - Hurley
Brandon Flowers - Flamingo
James - The Morning After the Night Before
Azure Ray - Drawing Down the Moon
Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle
of Montreal - False Priest
The Walkmen - Lisbon
The Best of What's New
Foals - This Orient
From the album: - Total Life Forever
Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over
From the album: - Lungs
Ra Ra Riot - Do You Remember
From the album: - The Orchard
Adds - 9/13/10
Sufjan Stevens - I Walked
From the album: - The Age of Adz (Out 10/12)
Tokyo Police Club - Bambi
From the album: - Champ
Two Door Cinema Club - Cigarettes in the Theatre
From the album: - Tourist History
The Temper Trap - Love Lost
From the album: - Conditions
Marching Band - Another Day
From the album: - Pop Cycle
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This Week's Top 10
1. Frightened Rabbit - The Wrestle
2. Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill
3. The Black Keys - Howlin' For You
4. Dan Mangan - Road Regrets
5. Tokyo Police Club - Wait Up (Boots of Danger)
6. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
7. The Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
8. The National- Runaway
9. Free Energy - Something In Common
10. Mumford & Sons - Awake My Soul
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