TAB D’BIASI Words // Ms. Rivercity
Both a radio personality and a DJ, Tab D’Biasi got his start at Power 98 interning and working his way up. Da Million Dolla DJ can be heard from noon - 1 PM and 2 AM - 6 AM every Monday through Friday. Why do you call yourself Da Million Dolla DJ? My name is Tab; that’s my initials. When I started DJing I couldn’t think of a DJ name. I was drinking one day and came up with the name of an old wrestler who used to call himself Tad D’Biasi. I just flipped it. He used to call himself The Million Dollar Man. He would come in the ring with money all the time. I was a wrestling fan as a kid. So if you hadn’t become a DJ you might have become a wrestler? Hell no! I’m too little. I woulda probably been a wrestling flunky or something. Is Power 98 the first station you DJed at? Yeah. I did college radio back home in Jersey. When I got down here I got the opportunity to intern under Nate Quick. He saw me DJing at a party and said I should be on the radio. I thought he was playing. I ran into him three more times and he said the same thing. I figured I might as well go for it ‘cause something kept me running into this dude. With all the changes in the radio business, where do you see technology taking it for both DJs and artists? Free radio is becoming harder ‘cause you got all these other outlets. Free radio is governed by a lot of people that don’t take chances. As a DJ, we’re out in the streets more so we know what’s poppin’ and what to take a chance on. Sometimes we don’t get the liberty to do that. With digital downloads, I feel it’s better. It might be hurting the industry now but the industry’s gotta come up with ways to combat that. It’s all about the consumer. If we didn’t have artists only making one or two good songs on a CD, they would be selling more units. What’s something that the general public might not understand about what you do? In radio you have to follow certain rules and guidelines. I used to always listen to radio | OZONE
DJs when I was coming up and they always said it’s politics going on. But you might not agree with that until you’re in the loop and see it for yourself. Radio’s main concern is keeping listeners tuned in. In their mind, if you play something unrecognizable, people might turn the channel. It’s the same thing in the club. How do you get people to accept something new? We have a mixshow meeting with the DJs and our music director at the station. We rate the new records and if we all feel the same way about it, we’ll add it to the mixshow rotation. It bubbles from mixshow rotation to regular rotation. I think it goes from the radio to the club really. The more people hear it on the radio, the more they want to hear it in the club. Internet is a good kickoff too sometimes, like with Soulja Boy. Everybody knew “Crank Dat” before it dropped [as a major label single] so radio was forced to play it. Who are some artists you think will be around for a while? I think Hurricane will be out for a while because he can flip styles. When you try to stay in the same lane all the time and you dead end, there’s nowhere to go. Like with snap music, when it died you don’t hear from those artists no more. It’s hard for them to get another single poppin’. The rap game is changing so fast. Contact: Milliondolladj@gmail.com