Gay Radio

Clear Channel has discovered gay radio, with a new format called Pride Radio that they’ve been airing on HD and which may turn up on terrestrial radio. From Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher:

Pride Radio is mostly music, delivered without DJs — like almost all HD stations in this early phase of the new technology, Pride Radio airs without ads. The tunes are not the hard-edged dance numbers often heard on OutQ, but rather a more rhythmic version of the upbeat pop that might be heard on an FM pop station.

“There’s only so much bumping and thumping at 180 beats per minute you can take,” says Cohen, who adds that the playlist of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Gloria Gaynor and other dance standards is supplemented with tunes from gay artists as well as bands that draw large gay followings, such as Scissor Sisters and the Gossip. If OutQ is primarily a talk channel, Pride Radio is “a musically driven channel that you can shake to,” Cohen says. But Clear Channel is moving to add personalities to its gay programming, starting with “Ryan & Caroline,” a mix of music, celebrity gossip and entertainment news that airs both on Pride Radio and as a two-hour Sunday night show on half a dozen Clear Channel FM stations (the company’s Washington outlets do not air any of the gay-oriented programming).

While the new format probably has something to do with the success of OutQ on Sirius satellite radio, it’s not going to sound much like it… mainly because of the FCC. Fisher provides a pretty good description of the Derek and Romaine show on OutQ:

Hartley — a former movie reviewer from Fredericksburg who came to radio from a gay Web site — and Romaine Patterson — an activist who started working with gay political groups after her close friend Matthew Shepard was killed in an anti-gay attack in 1998 — offer a distinctly different brand of radio. Their nightly show features segments such as “Shocking Confessions,” when callers tell stories absolutely none of which can be related in a family newspaper, or “What’s Your Gay Problem?,” when the hosts dispense relationships advice that would result in an instant loss of license on old-fashioned broadcast radio.

(It’s a pretty funny show.)

Reaction to Pride Radio has been pretty good, though a Dallas DJ notes that they’ve gotten a complaint or two from people who hear promotions for the HD Pride Radio station on the regular FM station. (How dare gay people exist?) So don’t be surprised to find it moving to terrestrial radio at some point, because, after all, targeting minorities is profitable:

Cohen says Clear Channel executives are eager to expand Pride Radio, especially in the face of market research in which about six in 10 gays said they identify more with their sexual orientation than with their ethnicity. “This has the potential to be as big as Latino or urban radio,” Cohen says.

Break out the glowsticks…

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