Friday, December 21, 2012

Boston EDM FM Radio Station Launches - Making Country's First

Boston EDM Radio Station
The wild ride for Electronic Dance Music in Boston continues! Whether you've been following EDMBoston.com from the start or joined the movement today with the big news, it has been a wild ride. Our city went from a scene remiss of public acknowledgement of dance music to it being one of the hottest cities in the country for dance music. Along the way, we saw artists gradually increasing their frequency to the hub to it now being a semi-mandatory stopping point for them.

This proliferation of electronic music in Boston hasn’t gone unnoticed. Among the people paying attention are the executives at Clear Channel Media. This week they took the risk and launched Evolution radio on FM 101.7. If that station is familiar to you it is the old home of indie rock station, WFNX(now relegated to online radio).

Evolution, 101.7 is Clear Channel Media’s first broadcasted EDM station in the country. It launched yesterday (December 20 at 6pm) on 101.7, which is now renamed WHBA, with a special hour-long program by Pete Tong. Pete Tong (the mastermind behind the infamous Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1).

Now Evolution radio isn’t exactly unique to Boston. The radio station will be a broadcast extension of the popular online station Evolution on iHeartRadio. Nevertheless, this station will feature a two hour daily show from Pete Tong called “All gone Pete Tong”. In the program Pete will feature his essential New Tune of the Week, as well as the hottest tracks from the global Top 100 chart on Beatport.com. Monday-Friday 7-9pm. In addition, we will be spoiled with programs from Diplo, Wolfgang Gartner, Fatboy Slim, Manufactured Superstars, Paul Van Dyk, Roger Sanchez, Congorock, Dillon Francis, John Dahlback, and the list goes on.

"We've seen the impact of EDM in Boston through music downloads, sold-out concerts and passion for iHeartRadio's new Evolution channel," said Dylan Sprague, Vice President of Programming for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Boston. "We're proud to bring Evolution 101.7, the company's first EDM broadcast station, to Boston, and to team up with format-leading artists like Pete Tong. The music scene in Boston has a vibrant EDM community as well as a rich history of bringing new music to audiences in the area and around the country. We're excited to continue the tradition by giving dance music a home on Boston's airwaves."

We are extremely happy that Boston has been so blessed for this experiment. We are hoping Evolution radio sees a big jolt in numbers upfront to encourage Clear Channel Media to build an Evolution radio Studio in Boston.  If that happens you can guarantee that we will be blessed much like NYC is with the SiriusXM studio and the DJs that visit that with frequency.

Nevertheless, it’s time to tune in and see what kind of quality Clear Channel Media is throwing at us on Evolution Radio Boston EDM Radio.