BAM (Bay Area Music), was a free bi-weekly music magazine founded and published by Dennis Erokan in the San Francisco Bay Area starting in January 1976 and continuing on for 23 years until 1999.[1] BAM's editorial focus when it was first published was on covering the musicians and culture of the local Bay Area music scene but expanded to cover the entire California music scene when it began publishing separate Northern and Southern California editions in the 1980s. The magazine's first issue featured a Bay Area map on the cover.[2]
In the mid-1980s the magazine reached its largest circulation of 130,000 throughout the state of California, after opening an office in Los Angeles. The expansion was accompanied by a change in editorial focus, widening coverage beyond its original mandate of focus on the music of the Bay Area. In the mid-1990s the magazine suffered reductions in circulation and financial difficulties until at the time of its final issue the circulation was 55,000.[2]
Beginning in 1978 and continuing until the magazine ceased publication in 1999, BAM magazine presented the Bammy Awards, also known as the Bammies, in an annual awards ceremony honoring accomplishments of the Bay Area music community. The awards ceremony continued for a couple more years with its name changed to the California Music Awards and absent its prior focus on the music of the Bay Area.[3]