Thanks for the history lesson. I realize that it's a new audience that B96 is catering to but it's not that recent generations don't know what mix show content is as they can easily go to YouTube, MixCloud, SoundCloud, etc. to hear DJ mixes. It isn't like the late 1970s and 1980s, where DJ mixing was a fairly new concept and your only options was to either tune into the radio or go to a dance club (if you were old enough that is). Of course, DJ culture is much different these days than what they were in the 1980s and 1990s.

Regarding the old days of B96, Middleton was their only mixer before the WBMX mixers (Julian, Bill, etc.) joined circa 1989 and he only mixed Top 40 dance hits as management wouldn't let him play the house records played on WBMX and WGCI. B96 also had a Sunday night mix show in the early 90s hosted by Middleton but those mixes were syndicated Hot Mix sets that played Top 40/dance pop. Those type of mixes were also heard on 12pm (Lunch Party) and 5pm (Traffic Jam) though I'm not sure when exactly they started those mixes as the earliest mixes I found were from 1993 and the Sunday night mixes began in 1990. The 10pm Remix begam in 1993 and were originally syndicated Hot Mixes but within a year it changed to mixes by Bill, Julian and the other B96 mixers as what was heard every Fri & Sat night. By late 1994/early 1995, the Sunday night mix was discontinued and B96 introduced the "Street Flava", which featured 4 mini-mixes by guest mixers (1 for house, hip hop, freestyle and old school), which lasted until 1999.

The higher ups in the radio industry still see dance/club as a niche genre even back when B96 had success with it during most of the 90s. B96 steadily went downhill when they went from dance to hip hop/R&B in the late 90s (though they flirted with a more "mainstream" sound from 97-01 with all the teen pop that was massively popular during that time). Energy 92.7 could has lasted a bit longer had their parent company hadn't filed bankruptcy. There were "Energy" stations in Phoenix and San Francisco that lasted longer than the one here in Chicago. There was also the "Dance Factory" block that never really caught on it was only airing nights and wasn't a 24/7 station like Energy was. Also, they played too much trance and Eurodance for my tastes I preferred house.

Overall, I agree that B96 dropped the ball when it came to their dance heritage. Most radio listeners of the past 20+ years weren't exposed to B96's dance hits like they were with the rap & R&B hits they also were know for playing back then.