NYC's Pulse 87 To Leave Air @ 5pm ET Fri. 10/30/09

[pjc1961]

It's all over for Pulse 87 (WNYZ-LP-87.75 New York), the little Dance Music station that (almost) could. After 20 months & 19 days & many rumors about its demise, it has finally come to an end. Mega Media CEO Alex Shvarts read an on-air announcement at 12:15pm ET disclosing the end @ 5pm ET today (Fri. 10/30/09) & thanking DJs & staff past & present, advertisers & fans who've supported the station.

1st song after the announcement: Pink's "Please Don't Leave Me".

Alex would later say that the reasons for Pulse 87 going away were "too much/too many to mention".

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

I had been recommending this station to some people who contacted me at my Energy 92.7 blog as a substitute. I did mention that the station was going to sign off at some point very soon. I actually was expecting this station to have left a while back.

Dance station Energy 92.7 in San Francisco flipped to Pop nearly 2 months ago. Hopefully New York will get another dance station. WKTU used to be pretty good until they started that no-repeat workday thing a couple years ago and then it became a Rhythmic AC with some Dance stuff still.

[Slinky]

Aww... I'm heading to NYC tomorrow for the first time since Pulse signed on, and was hoping to hear them. Oh well.

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

Both of these are from the FMQB Dance Page:

An Open Letter from Joel Salkowitz

PULSE 87 was a phenomenon! A radio station at the remote end of the FM dial….a place where nobody was likely to stumble on it by accident….on a challenged signal and virtually no resources found its’ way into the hearts and, more importantly, the ears of over a million people in New York! We did something here that people actually sought out. In the current radio climate, that is nothing short of amazing.

There is absolutely no doubt that if we had put this format on a full power FM here in New York that it would have been a much bigger success than any of the other recent format changes that were made in the market during our time here at 87.7. This was the only format change in New York, since CBS-FM switched BACK to classic hits, that anyone in this city actually cared about or showed real passion for. In this day of automated, voice-tracked, syndicated, centrally programmed radio stations, PULSE 87 was a breath of fresh air to a lot of people.

I want to thank my amazing staff that worked through the toughest conditions and put on what was just an outstanding radio station! For all the drama about the company that made it into the news and trades, it never came out on the radio. There’s just no way to say enough about that. These people fought an amazing fight and did it with one hand tied behind their backs! Their efforts helped to, among other things, force music and artists onto other stations in the market that would never have seen the light of day had we not been here! PULSE 87 also transformed much of the club scene in the New York area from Hip Hop to Dance and demonstrated that radio still had the ability to energize an audience! All you have to do is engage them! To all the trade publications and sites, record labels, area clubs and artists…especially the local artists…that supported us, I thank you too. Some of the things we did just would not have been possible without your support.

PULSE 87 proved that a well programmed Top 40/Dance format can work in the right markets. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that the demise of this station has anything to do with the viability of the format. Never forget that HOT 97 and POWER 106, when they did ostensibly the same format, were the stations that beat Z100 and KIIS-FM respectively!!

In the meantime, for all the fans that will miss us and the radio folks out there that remember one of New York’s legendary stations and still want to hear great dance music, you can get it on my internet radio station at www.originalhot97.com.

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BREAKING NEWS......

There’s A Party in NYC

After a 20 month run as NY’s Pure Dance station, Pulse 87 closes up shop today, replaced by the Rhythmic/Dance sounds of Party 105 from Long Island. One can easily see the dance music naysayers hopping on the blogosphere to spout off about how they said that dance music would never work as a format but Joel Salkowitz and his crew proved that dance music is alive and well in the Tri-State area. One has to look no further than their PPM CUME reaching close to 1 Million on a station that provided a lot of music that was unknown prior to Pulses airplay. Obtaining a CUME of 1 Million isn’t too shabby for a signal that has been challenged with a lot of obstacles , from its unconventional position on the dial to the questionable penetration of its signal into the cities dense buildings.

The station didn’t only break ground with its musical format but also with some of the ways that they went about getting Arbitron to even monitor them in the first place. I also can’t think of another LPTV signal that has ever reported to a chart in Billboard. And no, they weren’t the first commercial station to ask for the public’s help with financing although that is something that a lot of people will remember them for. Ultimately, it was the thing that kills most businesses that drove the Pulse into bankruptcy court, poor financial planning. That is in no way reflective of dance music as a format or its ability to draw sponsorship from advertisers.

Taking over the programming of the frequency is JVC MEDIA better known as the owners of Party 105 on Long Island. Look for Vic Latino to bring his unique music mix of rhythmic and dance music to NY. Most that don’t follow the radio biz as often as we do will remember Vic from his tenure as the night jock for WKTU. And while most dance purists will say that this is just another rhythmic type station they should know that Vic is very aggressive with his music especially his dance cuts and usually will play songs before anyone including the labels know what they have. Vic is also the dj for several compilations on Ultra Records. There is no doubt that he’s qualified to keep dance music fans happy in this transition.

Other changes that you’ll see in this move, Party 105 will no longer be broadcasting on 101.5 in Nassau county. Moving to that frequency will be JVC Media’s WBON tropical format ‘La Nueva Fiesta’ which is currently only heard in Suffolk county on Long Island.

[shadster]

Does anyone have any sample hours of Pulse they can post? I can post some of the ones I have from July if anyone else can share...

[oldskool2]

My stocks in this company is now worthless. I had faith in the company and invested 3k in it. Oh well

[blfdguy1]

The station is back....but online only. I think it's even better, even more clubby than before.

www.pulse87ny.com/#