Mixes / Groove Radio - Edits & Mixes
AIRED:
Groove Radio 103.1, Los Angeles.
SOURCE:
CD-R from Warners
MIX USED FOR EDIT:
Club 69 Mix
DESCRIPTION:
Radio does not pay. Radio does, however, open doors.
While doing lots of radio edits for Groove Radio, Warner Brothers took notice. I was hired on as a Contractor. I did various radio edits, and other tasks, for the label for many years. Unlike radio, the label paid.
When Depeche Mode released "It's No Good" as a single, Warners asked me to edit the lead remix from the single: The BT Remix. Most hardcore Depeche Mode fans will pause there, and say "BT's remix was never released." You're right, nerd! By the time the CD-R with the BT Remix hit my hands, the work order changed. Instead of editing the BT Remix (which was by then rejected), I was asked to edit three other remixes. Three paychecks instead of one? Sure!
These Depeche Mode edits were "released" on small run (25 or so) CD-R discs to key radio stations in the U.S. that would be interested in playing a shortened dance remix. Because I already worked at Groove Radio, I just brought the station a disc with my three edits.
All three were aired.
File uploaded: January 15th, 2023
Mixes / Groove Radio - Edits & Mixes
Groove Radio 103.1 FM. This was the third radio station I "worked" for. Take note of those quotes. I did work at the station, but I was not paid. I was assured of "opportunities", instead of actual money.
Unlike at KROQ and MARS FM, opportunities actually happened.
I busted my ass, doing over 80 radio edits in a little over a year. I never received a cent from the radio station. I rarely received credit on air. I occasionally received a sticker or shirt or some other swag, but I never got a dime for my work.
I did, however, get true opportunities. Due to the amount of work I put into my edits at the radio station, record labels began recognizing my skill. Record labels hired me (either as freelance or as "contract") to do work for them. For actual money. By being contract at Warner Brothers, that directly gave me the opportunity to approach the New Media department at the label, and eventually get the job of Webmaster for the band Depeche Mode.
Fast forward (at the time of this post) 24 years. I now run Depeche Mode's website, control their socials and am in charge of their tape vault, with the official title of "Archivist". All of that is due to slaving away for a year, doing radio edits of songs that (honestly) I only occasionally liked, for a radio station that paid me nothing.
Radio does not pay. Radio does not respect you. Radio will use you up and toss you out. But, rarely, you can leverage your radio time into bigger and better things.
For additional clarity: when Groove Radio came back as an online streaming radio station in 2000, I was hired to do edits, radio imaging and to host a show. I was promised $2,500/month. After working for eight weeks, and never receiving a cent, I quit.
Repeat after me: Radio does not pay.
Some notes about these edits. Groove Radio 103.1 FM, and MARS FM, were both on the same low power FM radio signal. You could literally be driving away from the station, turn the first corner, and lose the signal.
Most of these edits are sourced from scratchy vinyl. Swedish Egil would get a record, quickly record it to a DAT (digital audio tape), and then I'd make a radio edit from that. The radio signal was so weak, you (the listener) could not tell that the records were scratched, because the static of the radio signal masked the surface noise! You are hearing these edits now in better fidelity than you did if you listened to them on the air back in the day. I just wanted to provide a "heads up" for anyone expecting crystal clear audio. These are the exact edits aired back in the 90s, surface noise and all!
Every single edit below was on the playlist. My work was a large chunk of the actual playlist of the station.
Enjoy these Groove Radio 103.1 edits, for free! Well, free for you. I'm paying near $300/mo to host this site! Support the artists, and buy the full length versions where you can.
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