December 16, 2005

Spinning Fanatics ‘Spinatiks’

Thousands of hip-hop fans listen to local DJs

By Jeffrey Lo
Times Intern

The hip-hop culture consists of four elements: emcees, disc jockeys, break dancers and spray artists.

Spinatkis came to DJ at a Hurricane relief concert with local Hip Hop artists. Among the Spinatiks DJs present at the event, retired DJ 12style flashes the peace sign to the camera.

In 2004, a couple of local college students who doubled as DJs decided that they would help represent these elements, specifically the emcee and DJ parts, on an online radio show.

“The name Spinatiks was founded in 1998, but ‘SOR’ (Spinatiks Online Radio) was started in 2004 by myself and DJ Soundtrax with the Thursday mixshow,” said co-founder DJ SpinDizzy.

Spinatiks online radio started off as a small hobby among Mt. Pleasant-area friends, but has since grown larger in size as well as audience. The original home base server they used would max out at about 10 to 20 listeners, but they now have thousands of listeners around the world.

“Our first major sponsor was ‘Euphnet.’ They provided us with a bigger server, new equipment and a plan to bring Spinatiks to a new level,” said SpinDizzy.

Along with all of the new equipment, Euphnet brought the idea to make the mix show’s intention to help upcoming Bay Area artists get exposed and discovered. Among these local artists are the Flo Masters, Next Phaze and the popular Filipino singer Passion.

A regular guest at the Spinatiks “World Famous Mix Show”, Filipino-American gospel/R&B artist Passion (center) rocked the house with his keyboard and acoustic guitar.

With that new mission, SOR’s support grew larger and larger. Their current main sponsor, Netwire Solutions (www.netwire-solutions.com), handles their Web site and streaming server which now allows for thousands of listeners to enjoy the mix shows with ease.

Like any other DJ group, the Spinatiks crew can be seen at clubs, birthday parties, school dances and weddings. Since then, their popularity has grown and their appearances have increased as well.

“We’ve done live broadcasts and events in Hawaii, Vancouver, Toronto, Sacramento and the Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco,” said SpinDizzy of their appearances.

SOR owes some of its recent success to Evergreen Valley High School students. In addition to the numerous supporters around the campus, one of their first street team members was EVHS senior Huong Nguyen. She has been a street team member and promoter since August of 2004.

“DJ SpinDizzy, D-Roc and 12style were extremely welcoming,” Nguyen said “They even came to pick me up and take me to the shows.”

During their live broadcast in Hawaii, the Spinatiks crew got the chance to interview former American Idol contestant Jonah Moananu who performed alongside fellow Hawaiian natives Jasmine Trias and Camille Velasco.

Nguyen has accompanied them to many shows, including a car show in which she was an official Spinatiks model.
SOR recently entered the Canadian market, where in addition to their Thursday “World Famous Mix Show,” they have a weekly broadcast entitled “Mixdown Mondays.”

DJ Trizzak launched the Vancouver broadcast. He started out as a listener and eventually came to San Jose as a guest DJ for the “World Famous Mix Show.” After the show, he and the other DJs began talking about starting another mix show. Once everything was set, SpinDizzy flew to Vancouver to open up SOR Canada.

Today there are six resident DJs and four resident radio personalities. DJs SpinDizzy and Grubbler, as well as personality Chinky Chino, handle the Thursday “World Famous Mix Show.”

On “Mixdown Mondays,” you can hear DJs Trizzah, Yeppa, StimJ and Hunt with Levy, Pate and Lady Jane taking care of the personality duties. Two retired Spinatiks DJs are DJ Soundtrax and 12style.

Both the Thursday and Monday mix shows are broadcast live from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and are continually rebroadcast until the following show.

For more information, contact Spinatiks at info@spinatiks.com or at their toll-free hotline 1-866-SOR-JAMZ.