No Pulse? Party!
The odd saga of the signal at the very bottom of New York City's FM dial - so far down, in fact, that it's not actually part of the FM dial - took yet another odd turn this weekend, as the 87.75 FM frequency (actually the audio portion of analog TV channel 6) changed from dance music formatted Pulse 87 run by a now-insolvent nascent media group to...dance music formatted Party FM (itself actually a simulcast of Party 105.3 out on eastern Long Island.)
Because of Party 105.3's history, I've got an odd mixture of emotions about this...
On the one hand, I'm very happy for the folks corralled together by Tony Santiago's New York Dance Music Coalition, who appear to really be organized and involved enough to convince not one but two media companies that the dance music genre deserves a spot on New York radio.
On the other...well, the fact that Party 105.3 was once the sister station of WLIR, whose battered husk now unceremoniously makes money pumping out a simulcast of sports-talk WEPN 1050, just reminds me of the fact that Tony and friends were able to do something alternative fans haven't, and that's return a proper alternative station to NYC (or even to NJ Shore) commercial radio. Sure, there's WRXP, which to my mind is a lot like WLIR before it finally went for broke in 1982 and became the station that "dared to be different", but there's little likelihood they'll go for the Full Monty over there, Matt Pinfield notwithstanding.
That's really only a minor dark lining on what, for dance music fans, is really a fully silvery cloud. Good on 'em; they've worked hard for a dance station, and now they've got it (and that station has a voracious horde of committed listeners, who'll stick with the station at least as long as analog Channel 6 can legally stay on the air in New York City...a sunset that nonetheless approaches.)
Perhaps someday alternative fans can accomplish the same feat, but it might be that much harder to corral such a sea of iconoclasts...
Because of Party 105.3's history, I've got an odd mixture of emotions about this...
On the one hand, I'm very happy for the folks corralled together by Tony Santiago's New York Dance Music Coalition, who appear to really be organized and involved enough to convince not one but two media companies that the dance music genre deserves a spot on New York radio.
On the other...well, the fact that Party 105.3 was once the sister station of WLIR, whose battered husk now unceremoniously makes money pumping out a simulcast of sports-talk WEPN 1050, just reminds me of the fact that Tony and friends were able to do something alternative fans haven't, and that's return a proper alternative station to NYC (or even to NJ Shore) commercial radio. Sure, there's WRXP, which to my mind is a lot like WLIR before it finally went for broke in 1982 and became the station that "dared to be different", but there's little likelihood they'll go for the Full Monty over there, Matt Pinfield notwithstanding.
That's really only a minor dark lining on what, for dance music fans, is really a fully silvery cloud. Good on 'em; they've worked hard for a dance station, and now they've got it (and that station has a voracious horde of committed listeners, who'll stick with the station at least as long as analog Channel 6 can legally stay on the air in New York City...a sunset that nonetheless approaches.)
Perhaps someday alternative fans can accomplish the same feat, but it might be that much harder to corral such a sea of iconoclasts...
posted 11/02/2009 02:20:00 PM
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