Dave Rajput, also known as Dr. Mix, is a disc jockey (DJ) and co-founder with Andrew Starr in 1985 of "Hot Mix Radio Network" in Phoenix, Arizona. He grew up on the north side of Chicago, Illinois. Rajput worked as a disc jockey, in various nightclubs in 1980.
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Beginning in the early 1980s, a group of DJ's, known eventually as the Hot Mix 5 were working in Chicago on a FM radio station (now defunct) WBMX's 'Saturday Night Live Ain't No Jive'] mix show, which was hosted by [Rivera]. The show eventually helped to establish the careers of the founding members of the Hot Mix 5 including; ["Funkin" Keith] (later known as ["Jackmaster" Funk]), Mickey "Mixin" Oliver, Scott "Smokin" Silz, [Rosario] and Kenny "Jammin" Jason. In 1982, Scott Silz left the group, and was replaced by Julian "Jumpin" Perez in 1984, who was the winner of an HMF sponsored Battle of the DJ's.[1]
By 1985, Dave Rajput convinced a radio station to play his music format, which was based on Chicago House style of house music on their station. Starting March 1985 he was hired by Art Morales, the music director at KOPA, and Reggie Blackwell(no longer living-death date unknown), the program director, to air his type of music format on the KOPA radio station an Saturday nights for 3 hours and due to the number of listeners his show received, the program was extended to 7 hours and titled the program "Saturday Night Hot Mix". The "Hot Mix" program aired on KOPA until January 1986, when KOPA changed radio formats due to poor overall ratings. The only positive ratings KOPA received were due to their "Hot Mix" Saturday night program, which had doubled the radio station's overall ratings.[2]
"During the time "Hot Mix" aired on KOPA, the show was produced and recorded during the day at a local nightclub by Dave Rajput and Art Morales. After a few weeks, the owner of the nightclub told Rajput and Art that during the times they recorded their show, the music was disruptive to the employees that worked at the club during the day. Dave Rajput needed to find recording equipment for the show because since he did not have any equipment or records of his own. He also didn't have enough money to purchase the equipment and music needed to produce the recordings on his own. While Rajput was working nights as a club DJ, working to produce and mix the weekly radio show, in addition he also attended a Radio & Television class at a local community college (Mesa Community College). During these classes he became friends with Andrew Starr, who at the time was running a DJ company (Windy City DJ's) that provided music and entertainment for College and High School events. Since Andrew Starr had the recording equipment and record albums Rajput needed for his radio show, Rajput and Starr combined their resources. Rajput would use Starr's equipment and records; in exchange Rajput would mention Andrew Starr and his company name each time "Hot Mix" show was aired on KOPA. Rajput also asked Starr to assist him with the production of "Hot Mix" at the radio station, where HOT MIX was mixed and recorded each week.[2] [3]
At the end of January 1986, and after KOPA changed its format, Rajput and Starr formed a partnership they named "Hot Mix Productions". Since they both wanted a professional appearance, because they had previously decided to pitch their program to KZZP, they trademarked the "Hot Mix" name, designed a logo, and wrote up a mission statement which included a definition of each of their duties. Rajput was responsible for contacting and building relationships with record companies, listening to new music, programming and mixing the show-The Talent part of Hot Mix. Starr's responsibilities included: producing and engineering the show, administrative work such as; accounting, negotiating with radio stations, creating, developing and designing a marketing formula in order to sell the "Hot Mix" radio format to radio stations-The business part of Hot Mix. After meeting with the program director, Guy Zapoleon for KZZP, they started out on the station's only open night, Friday. They were able to convince, Guy that the station's current Saturday night show was very different from their "Hot Mix" format, therefore the two different shows would actually complement each other, in other words, they worked together to cover all of the Top 40 music popular at the time. In July 1986, Guy gave "Hot Mix" a permanent spot on KZZP every Friday night. Rajput and Starr were also able to continue to use the recording studios at KZZP to mix and record their show.
By September 1986, after gaining a lot of popularity on the Phoenix, Arizona radio stations, they set out to see if other cities would be interested in their program. WBJW entered was interested in their Hot Mix format, and they became the first station to sign up for their programming outside of Arizona. By the end of September; Hot Mix had become an official syndicated radio program. In 1986, Dave and Andrew created a demo cassette of the show to send to CHR radio stations all over the U.S. Andrew ended up mailing over 100 packages to radio stations, and within a week Andrew had gotten calls from nine + cities. Any station that signed up for Hot Mix received the show on reel to reel tape (some on DAT) and paid cash compensation for the rights to air the show each week, for their market base. By November 1986, after many meetings with program directors, Andrew had convinced many P.D.’s to give Hot Mix program a chance on their stations. By the end of 1986, Hot Mix had five stations in syndication. Between 1987 and 1989, Hot Mix was making a big impact in radio syndication. Heavy marketing with promotional packages were being sent out to more than 30 radio markets. In 1989, Hot Mix was nominated for it’s first Billboard Magazine Radio syndication award in the category “Radio Syndication-TOP 40/Crossover” –Hot Mix was up against Casey Kasem, Shadoe Stevens, and Rick Dees. Hot Mix didn’t win (Casey Kasem won), but the nomination brought Hot Mix to the forefront of the industry. In 1989, ABC Radio Networks vice-president of programming, Tom Cuddy, told Andrew that ABC was interested in marketing, distributing, and selling Hot Mix in the USA. Their contract had them start on January 1, 1990; they started off their new partnership with a special mix call “Mix of the Decade 1989-90” which was distributed on vinyl disc to all radio stations signed up to play the program. In July 1990, ABC changed from producing programs on vinyl to producing them on cd-this made Hot Mix the first and only show of its kind, in the world, distributed weekly on Compact Disc.In 1991, Hot Mix is nominated for a second Billboard Radio Award in the Syndicated show Top 40/Crossover music category. They again lost to Casey Kasem.