''BAM'' (short for ''Bay Area Music'') was a free bi-weekly music magazine founded and published by Dennis Erokan in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
from January 1976 until June 1999.
History
''Bay Area Music'' magazine was first published in January 1976. It was a free bi-weekly magazine that was funded by advertisers.
In the mid-1980s the magazine reached its largest circulation of 130,000 biweekly throughout
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, after opening an office in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
After the opening of the Los Angeles office, separate Northern and Southern editions of ''BAM'' were published.
In October 1994, the magazine got a new publisher, Earl Adkins.
Adkins resigned in spring 1995. In 1995, Bam magazine's parent company, Bam Media, bought the copyright to the ''
Seattle Rocket''.
The final edition of the print magazine was published in June 1999.
The paper's circulation at the time of closing was 55,000.
The ''BAM'' logo was used as the music section of ''This Week'', another Bam Media publication, after the paper folded.
Relaunch
In 2011, ''BAM'' returned as an
online magazine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer mag ...
at BAMmagazine.com,
operated by Dennis Erokan.
Bammies
In 1977, Erokan founded the Bay Area Music Awards, better known as the Bammies, a yearly awards show for musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Winners were voted on by ''BAM''
's readers. In 1998, the Bammies name was changed to the California Music Awards. In March 2018, there was a Bammies Reunion Concert in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.
''MicroTimes''
''MicroTimes'' was a free regional computer magazine, focused on industry personalities, founded and published by Dennis Erokan in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
starting in 1984 and sold in 1999.
References
Biweekly magazines published in the United States
Music magazines published in the United States
Online music magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Free magazines
Magazines established in 1976
Magazines disestablished in 1999
Magazines published in the San Francisco Bay Area
Online magazines with defunct print editions
{{music-mag-stub