Armin van Buuren's ASOT vs. ID&T

[Chris Allen Veteran]

If you're an ASOT (A State of Trance) fan, you'll already be aware of the issues the show has been having lately with ID&T radio.

ASOT is a weekly trance radio show hosted by Armin van Burren, the #3 DJ in the world, playing the weeks top tracks voted by the users as well as the hottest up and comers.

Originally the show drastically moved showtimes a couple of weeks back and was dropped from it's regular 2hrs down in half to 1, this all happening out of the blue to any listeners and believe it or not, Armin himself.

Well, the most current news straight from Armin's website states the following;

18th January

A State of Trance radio show

Due to a change in the programming schedule ID&T Radio will no longer be broadcasting Armin van Buuren's "A State of Trance" radio show. We are currently looking into the possibility of collaborating with another radio station and will keep you informed.

This was pretty vague in why this had been happening but Armin sent me (and many others) an e-mail explaining in his own words (while on vacation) exactly what was up and what was going on;

Hey everybody,

I'm actually still on holiday as we speak but I got quite a few worrying messages about my radioshow.

no more?? I don't think so!!

Here's where we stand:

Before I left for Australia I had a meeting with the radio people and they simply stated they wanted A STATE OF TRANCE to continue, in my face. I prepared all radioshows for my absense like i always do (including the YEARMIX which took me two weeks productiontime). I get to Australia only to hear that the show is discontinued, including a beautiful recording of my Sydney NYE set (which was supposed to be ASOT 183). The last rating showed that ASOT had 6,3% marketshare, which makes the cancellation of the show quite hard to understand. But then again, it's not my station, it's not my money, this is something we have to deal with. But it does feel like a stab in the back and a big disrespect for all the years of free work. I do want to thank ID&T for all the freedom they have given me over the years.

The good news is however, we have SEVERAL options to choose from. So far there has been SERIOUS interest from MAJOR stations in Holland and all around the world. It's quite luxurious actually. And the reactions from the people when they heard the show wasn't there (the phone at Armada rang the WHOLE week) was really a nice thing to hear...The most important thing for me now is to think what I want with the show. It's been 3 1/2 years in running now, (the longest on ID&T), the music has changed and meanwhile a lot of people started shows that look awefully like ASOT (which is definitely not a bad thing!). I think it's a good idea to look back and consider the future. Personally, the XXL shows were always my favorites and I loved the live aspect of it all. On the other hand, mostly two full workingdays a week were spend in searching new tracks for the show and I often drove to the studio in Amsterdam thinking: why the hell am I doing this? The fanbase of the show kept the show running so far and kept me awake however and is more important than anything else.

So, what do you want? An English version of the show? More livesets? A new name for the show? A new broadcast time?

ASOT is still here, we just need to think what we want with the future.

Armin van Buuren

This is incredibly unfortunate as it was a huge step in the right direction for Trance music. ID&T had never recieved higher ratings as when Armin was playing :( I feel for him as he put countless hours of SPARE and FREE time into this show and they just cut him off.

I will be meeting with Armin in March and hopefully by this time he has gotten a new home for his station. Post your thoughts and whatnot on this situation. It's quite a blow to the Trance industry, whether you're a fan of ASOT or not.

*Edit* This is also a big deal to me as my radio show broadcast right after the regular ASOT timeslot and I end up getting a lot of overflow left from Armin's show ;) Support ETN.FM tonight and every Thursday at 10pm EST for my own radio show. Ok..enough of my mindless plug.

Links; Armin's Official Website

Armada Music

Edited January 20, 2005 by [NFC]Wave