Page "Chicago house" Paragraph 9

As with other dance music, DJs and local club-goers were the primary audience for this relatively noncommercial music, which was more conceptual and longer than the music usually played on commercial radio.

Mainstream record stores often did not carry it, as the records were not available through the major record distributors.

In Chicago, only record stores such as Importes Etc., State Street Records, JR ’ s Music shop and Gramaphone Records were the primary suppliers of this music.

Despite the music's limited commercial availability, house records sold in the tens of thousands, and the music was further popularized via radio station 102. 7 WBMX-FM, where Program Director Lee Michaels gave airtime to the station's resident DJ team, the Hot Mix 5 ( Ralph Rosario, Mickey " Mixin " Oliver, Scott " Smokin " Silz, Kenny " Jammin " Jason, and Farley " Jackmaster " Funk ).

The Hot Mix 5 shows started with the station's launch in 1981, and was widely listened to by DJs and dance music fans in Chicago as well as visiting DJs and producers from Detroit.