Meet Rida Naser: An Essential Staple Within The Dance Music Radio Industry

SiriusXM titan Rida Naser is a woman who needs no introduction to many. The program director for The Pulse and BPM as well as the on-air host for BPM has created well-respected and original programs such as BPM’s Virtual DisDance Festival and BPM Empowered. In addition, the premier programmer was integral in the launch of Steve Aoki’s Remix Radio, a station that has its roots in the relationship Naser created with Aoki through radio and concert events. Indeed, Naser proves to be an essential staple within the dance music radio industry.

The former 19-year-old dental hygienist student realized her love for radio after winning a contest, at what was once CBS Radio, to meet Selena Gomez. Upon entering the radio station with her younger sister, Naser was enamored by the possibility of working there.

“I couldn’t stop staring at everything that was happening within the radio station,” she says. “There were so many people my age working there, and I was like, ‘This is such a cool job. This is just so interesting to me.’ I turned to my sister and I was like, ‘I want to work here.’”

Naser believed in herself, so much so that she used the Gomez tickets that the station gifted her for the contest as a way to network and inquire about internships, which she obtained. The station asked her to be there at 5:00 AM the next day, and sure enough, she was there.

She learned a multitude of skills during her internship, such as editing, phone screening and speaking on-air. She later received a part-time job at the same station, and she juggled school and working at a restaurant during this time. Naser went on to work at other stations before landing a position at SiriusXM.

Her transition from pop music into dance music came from her SiriusXM mentor, Tommy West. In 2015, when she was 21 years old, she didn’t know much about dance music but he told her to listen to BPM for two weeks to help her submit a demo to potentially get on-air. Once she was accepted to be on-air, Naser says she honed her skills and was able to showcase them at Miami Music Week. West later said he was stepping down, which led her to become assistant program director. It was through this process that she fell in love with dance music.

Her original programming at SiriusXM, where she has worked for seven years, includes BPM’s Virtual DisDance Festival and BPM Empowered. The two radio events began at the start of the pandemic to bring a festival experience to the airwaves. For BPM’s Virtual DisDance Festival, Naser was able to enlist A-list stars such as Tiësto, Marshmello, Calvin Harris and Martin Garrix for the three-day virtual event. The radio festival also benefited the Recording Academy’s MusiCares, a non-profit organization that assisted many artists financially and mentally through the pandemic.

BPM Empowered, which is the highlight of Naser’s career, is the first-ever festival for women who deejay. The idea sparked after Naser received many questions about what it’s like being a woman in the dance music industry as well as being a woman of color in the industry. BPM Empowered was truly kicked off after 1001Tracklists released their top tracks of the year and not a single woman was represented. The programming heavyweight decided that she had a platform to showcase female deejays in a male-dominated industry.

“I didn’t realize I was interviewing men every single week,” Naser says. “You don’t think about it until you actually sit there and you’re like, ‘Wow, really?’ The amount of men that we play compared to women…you don’t realize it. Me being a woman myself, I had this big revelation and I was like, ‘This is my time.’ I’m one of the first women to work on BPM as well. So I was like, ‘Let me do something. What if we did a woman-only virtual festival?’”

The two-day radio event boasted the likes of TOKiMONSTA, Alison Wonderland, Qrion, Nora en Pure, UNiiQU3, JVNA, Eli & Fur, Nina Las Vegas, Coco & Breezy, Rezz, Anabel Englund, and more.

In addition, Naser played an important role in the launch of Aoki’s Remix Radio. The on-air host was doing a long-form on-air interview with the legendary artist—her first interview with Aoki was a quick chat at Ultra Music Festival. Her second interview with the acclaimed producer was about his book, “Blue: The Color of Noise.” Naser says she stayed up all night reading his book and the two had an in-depth genuine and emotional conversation, starting their professional relationship. From there, the idea to create his radio show based on remixes was started since Aoki is renowned for his remixes.

“Just within a year and a half, we were able to launch it. I love working with his team,” Naser says. “He’s amazing. He had his hand in it so much. He would message me all the time [saying] we should play this song, we should play this song, or I want to do this or I want to do that. It was really awesome to be able to launch something like that.”

When it comes to music that she is pitched, Naser says she looks for music that is different, gives her goosebumps and brings her to a moment in time. She adds it can be hard to pick at times since there are so many sub-genres within dance music, but it helps that SiriusXM is allowed to play bootlegs.

“We love experimenting,” the programmer says. “We love [asking], ‘Will this work?’ I’ve learned what our listeners like, but then sometimes I also like throwing some new things at them. They’ve become accustomed to a UK house, so that’s been something that we’ve been having fun with, which if you were to ask five years ago, they would not be into that. It’s all about evolution and keeping up with what’s going on.”

In addition, she notes that there are different moments meant for different music: a festival moment versus a club moment, driving, walking, listening to the radio and more.

“What do people want to hear? When you’re at the club, you want to hear something that just goes off, but what if you’re driving your kids to school? Is that what you want to hear?” she says. “So you have to get into their brains and figure out ‘Okay, what are they looking for?’ We’re very big on listener feedback. I read everything and, even if it’s one person saying something, I’m like, ‘How can we change this? How do we fix this?’”

Naser’s favorite things about interviews are seeing artists excited about their music, relating to their listeners and having their music on the airwaves. Only eight radio states in the United States play electronic dance music, so artists are only doing a few interviews.

“The excitement is always there and the friendliness is there, and we all become friends,” she says. “I think that’s what makes me really love it so much is because it’s a genuine relationship.”

As for advice she would give to those seeking to enter the dance music radio world, she says to keep working hard and don’t let anyone discourage you.

“I’m a firm believer that when you put in the hard work, it comes back in some way and you get rewarded in some way,” Naser says. “I truly feel like all the hard work that I put into…whether it was at the library [where I worked] or whether it was at the restaurant…I’m able to bring that work ethic into radio. I think it’s important to have that very strong work ethic because it will be worth it one day. The thing with radio is, you don’t know where it could take you. You don’t know if you’re going to be on the air, you don’t know if you’re going to be a producer, you don’t know if you’re going to do it for a year and then you’re going to leave. It’s just important to work as hard as you can and don’t get discouraged.”