Denver's HOT 107.1 (KDHT-FM) now a Dance Station

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

HOT 107.1 flips formats, teams with Global Dance Music for EDM-focused radio station

Great news for dance music fans, just in time for Caffeine this weekend: Hot 107.1 just flipped formats. The former Top 40 station, owned by Max Media, will now be catering the electronic dance community. Partnering with Denver-based Global Dance Music, the station will now be spinning the biggest bangers in the electronic music scene. Page down to get the drop on which local DJs will be behind the decks on genre-specific nights.

If you tune into HOT 107.1 now, you'll notice that the station just made the switch, and as is customary with format changes, it will remain commercial-free until Monday, April 2. Sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate April Fool's prank, perhaps? (Lest we forget, this is the same outfit that once upon a time posed as The Pole -- as in stripper... -- when it switched from Indie 101.5 to The Truth.) It's not, though, program director Brian Degrasse assures us. Just a coincidence.



With imaging proclaiming itself as the Denver Dance Factory, the station has come roaring out of the gate, and has already purportedly tapped some of the area's top talent behind the decks: DJ Ishe, Ecotek and Dragon will each be on the air from 9 - 11 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, respectively.

"The Denver market is a huge dance market," notes Degrasse. "And with shows like Kaskade, Avicii and Deadmau5 selling out venues, we thought, 'Why can't it work on the radio?"

"We'll be starting off with mostly remixed top hits," Degrasse he adds, "and then in between all of that, it's going to be Pretty Lights, Deadmau5 and other electronic music producers."

The change couldn't come at a better time with the notably increasing profile of electronic music, which is steadily taking over the airwaves and attracting a growing mainstream audience thanks to Skrillex's recent Grammy nods and the rise in prominence of acts like David Guetta and Calvin Harris on the Top 40 charts. Props go out to Hot 107.1 for recognizing the trends and capitalizing on the burgeoning movement.

"We are going to do it," Degrasse concludes, "and see what happens."

blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2012/03/hot_1071_flips_formats.php

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Their website:
www.hot1071denver.com

Tunein.com:
tunein.com/radio/HOT-1071-s48218/

Just heard Oceania's "Always". Now this is amazing:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah706WO_c58

[Libra]

Mar 31, 2012 10:42:18 GMT -5 ♛ The Manticore ☯ said:

If you tune into HOT 107.1 now, you'll notice that the station just made the switch, and as is customary with format changes, it will remain commercial-free until Monday, April 2. Sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate April Fool's prank, perhaps? (Lest we forget, this is the same outfit that once upon a time posed as The Pole -- as in stripper... -- when it switched from Indie 101.5 to The Truth.) It's not, though, program director Brian Degrasse assures us. Just a coincidence.

Heh, it wouldn't be the first time a big-city station flipped on or around April Fool's Day. Detroit's WDRQ became "Doug FM" on the day of back in 2005 - and they are still that today.

[KeepDeanWeird]

They were still playing dance music as of 1 a.m. I hope this is an April Fool's joke. even though it has a weak signal - it sounds like an old AM station in many parts of Denver, including DT and surrounding area, it beats the multiple Hot AC stations and "The Party (rhythmic).

Switched pre-set for 107.1 back to KKMG (98.9) from Springs. Haven't listened to that station in a couple of years.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

It's April 3 and it's still playing dance music so I don't think it was an April fools joke.

Hopefully the station will be successful.

[popstop]

It's definitely a format change. I was listening to it yesterday, and I thought the first dance mix was a one-off, then I heard another, and another... lol. I will miss the old station, but this fills a niche that Denver didn't have.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

Interesting blog by Sean Ross on radio-info.com

First Listen: KDHT (Hot 107.1)'s Dance Format

On March 20, ROR reader Michael Linder wrote this brief on behalf of Electronic Dance Music. "EDM thrives in clubs, festivals, social media, Soundcloud, Internet and pure-play streams. When EDM DJs earn $50,000 a night and sites like Beatport sell millions annually in tracks, where's radio? We've been developing formats for more than a year, but are moving on to TV, since broadcast seems hopelessly mired in yesterday."

Things move fast. On March 30, KDHT (Hot 107.1) Denver announced that it was becoming "Denver's Dance Station." A station in the low 1-share range, KDHT had been through several permutations of CHR since 2008, rimshotting one of the last markets to resist the Mainstream CHR juggernaut.

A YouTube video, something quickly becoming a regular part of station launches, describes Hot 107.1's change as the first of its kind. It's not quite that. KYLI (Jelli Dance) Las Vegas and KLBU (Blu 102) Santa Fe, N.M., which also had the distinction of attempting a "chillout" format in the early '00s, both play a deeper version of dance music than what's on today's dance-dominated Mainstream CHR. But KDHT was a large-market station that was already on the industry's radar.

Linder's comments were in response to an article about the possibility of any new format developing in today's conservative FM climate. I'd written that a true dance station would have to go pretty far left to maneuver around where CHR is at the moment. And in a local press story, PD Brian Degrasse described the station as "starting off with mostly remixed top hits."

Relying heavily on crossover hits and remixes (and, sometimes, CHR stiffs that linger just because they have a remix) is often the strategy used for anybody willing to even consider Dance as a full-time format, but when heard on Saturday, March 31, the day after its sign-on, Hot 107.1 sounded more like "the real thing" than Degrasse's description implies, with one title after another that isn't heard on Mainstream CHR. Notably, none of the dance fans on the Radio-Info.com message boards were decrying this as "not dance enough, or perhaps they just understand how rare it is that somebody is actually willing to attempt this.

Here's Hot 107.1 just before 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 31:

3Oh!3 f/Katy Perry, "Starstrukk"
Drake f/Rihanna, "Take Care"
Avicii & Sebastien Drums, "My Feelings For You"
Oceania, "Always"
Far East Movement, "Jello"
DJ Fresh, "Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix)
Deadmau5, "Ghosts & Stuff"
Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP, "We No Speak Americano (Savoy Remix)"
Marina & the Diamonds, "Primadonna"
Sensato f/Pitbull & Sak Noel, "Crazy People"
Jason Dottley, "Pop It"
Kazaky, "In The Middle"
Cascada, "Evacuate The Dancefloor"
Porter Robinson, "Vandalism"

www.radio-info.com/programming/chrtop-40/first-listen-kdht-hot-1071s-dance-format?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=390c78fdac-Ross_On_Radio_April_03_2012&utm_medium=email

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