Manny Esparza & Gregory Schweitzer

Keeping Gay Club Music Alive

“We want young gay people to embrace dance, because it’s part of their history”, says Manny Esparza, Nexus Radio program director. The openly gay music programmer goes on to say, “Disco has been the soundtrack for the gay community since before Stonewall.”

He and Gregory Schweitzer spoke with Get Out! about their ongoing award-winning radio program; their theories on dance, EDM, pop and club music; as well as their DJ picks for the future.

Tell me about Nexus.

Esparza: We are an Internet radio station that has been around for over 10 years. We are an award-winning Internet radio station that works closely with the LGBT community. We specialize in EDM music and pop. We’ve added several channels including alternative, urban and some Latin music. So we play all kinds of music, but we have a close relationship with the LGBT market. Our biggest station is actually our dance station. That’s what makes it so popular.

If I wanted to listen to your radio station, how would I do that?
Esparza: We are available on most platforms, and we are trying to get into more platforms, for example Roku and Amazon. I think we are currently on the Apple TV. We have apps for Apple and for Android and Amazon. People can listen on the website as well by going to Nexus.audio and selecting their favorite station.

Do you have specific hours, or are you 24/7?
Esparza: Yes, that’s correct, we are 24/7. We are a live dance station. We do play several shows and several podcasts. We have a live show on Saturday with our host Todd Michael.

Are you guys club DJs?
Esparza: No, I am a programmer. I help select the music. We filter all the bad music. I guess you can say we are radio DJs.

So you guys are focusing on trying to promote dance music in the gay community, correct?
Esparza: That is correct. That’s something we’ve been doing for a long time. Actually, we sponsored New York Pride. We were there, and I think we are going to try to do a float next year. Last year we were part of the festival, and the Dance on the Pier, and the VIP party.

Are you based in New York?
Schweitzer: We are based in Chicago.

Are you guys gay?
Esparza: Yes, we are out. We are publicly out, and we are part of the community, but our station is open to everybody. That has actually been one of the more controversial things, because we have never labeled it “gay.” We just say that we work with the gay community. We are always at the Pride parade, and we are pretty open about it personally and in the industry. We just don’t tag it gay.
Schweitzer: We don’t identify one or the other, but we are very active within the gay community. Our audience is 50-50.

How did you begin?
Esparza: Funny story, I was a raver kid; we loved techno. There was an FM station that played all that music here in Chicago. They went off the air, and some of the fans created a tribute group for the station. We met them and decided to start an Internet station to keep the music going.

Who named it Nexus?
Esparza: We were Fusion Radio for 10 years. The name was acquired by another company a couple months ago. We renamed it Nexus. It was inspired by a group who played dance music. The meaning came to me when I was taking a shower. The meaning of Nexis is actually pretty cool. It is “the intersection of two very important things.” So we are at the nexus of what is happening with the dance music scene.

Why do you believe that the gay scene doesn’t listen to dance music or EDM music as much as they should? In New York, I feel that everyone listens to dance music and EDM.
Esparza: Well, we are losing a lot of people to the mainstream. The mainstream of EDM isn’t exactly always gay friendly. We try to play the music that comes from the artists that support the gay community. We have had some drama from DJs that are homophobic. So we have done the work for you to filter these people out, and to support our own as well. We have a problem with the lack of gay DJs in the mainstream.
Schweitzer: Dance music and EDM have become very mainstream. With that you have a much more blended atmosphere. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Esparza: In the pop world we have a lot of supporters; that’s a given. That’s not necessarily always been true. When we started, Christina Aguilera came out with a video with the two guys wkissing. That was a breakthrough. There weren’t that many gay people out there, except for Melissa Etheridge. I love her, I love Ellen, but before that we didn’t have many gay figures. We are actually pre-Gaga. When she came out, we supported her a lot. We come from that mentality, that we still need supporting. I guess the world is changing, but we haven’t.

Do you guys have a favorite DJ, or someone up-and-coming who we should look out for?
Schweitzer: I like DJ Ranny, DJ Drew G from San Diego, the Perry Twins, but they’ve been kind of quiet. A lot of the gay DJs have disappeared a little bit. DJ Grind – I believe he’s based out of New York – I love his productions.

If you could say anything to the public what would it be?
Esparza: Download my app, tell all your friends about it and give us five stars.

http://nexusradio.fm