''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, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, after opening an office in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. 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 A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

'' music magazine. 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 an online only magazine was the comput ...

at BAMmagazine.com, operated by Dennis Erokan.

Bammies

In 1977, Erokan founded the Bay Area Music Awards, better known as the Bammies, a yearly award show for musicians in the

. 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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

''MicroTimes''

''MicroTimes'' was a free regional computer magazine, focused on industry personalities, founded and published by Dennis Erokan in the

starting in 1984 and sold in 1999.

References

Biweekly 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