Most stations that call themselves "Motown radio" reach for the label's hit-parade classics, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson singles everyone already knows. Radio Motown, broadcasting online from Florida under the tagline "The Sound Of Detroit," picks a narrower and stranger lane: it plays only the extended 12-inch disco pressings that Motown and its sublabels released during the genre's late-1970s peak.
One Label, Four Imprints
Berry Gordy built Motown out of layered sublabels rather than a single brand. He launched Tamla Records in 1959, added Motown as a companion imprint, then folded in Gordy Records in 1962 along with Soul and V.I.P. to sort artists by style and market. That structure meant a single company could release radio-friendly pop through one imprint and grittier, dancefloor-first material through another, without diluting either brand. By the disco era, those same sublabels, Gordy, Soul, Tamla and V.I.P., were the ones pressing the extended 12-inch mixes built for club play rather than radio rotation.
Built for the 12-Inch, Not the Jukebox
The 12-inch single existed because DJs needed longer, louder, bass-heavier mixes than a 7-inch 45 could hold, and Motown's disco-era output leaned hard into that format once disco took over American dance floors. Radio Motown's entire premise is built around that specific catalog slice: the extended cuts and remixes that were pressed for clubs, not for Top 40 rotation, and that rarely get airtime on stations built around the label's more famous singles.
A Niche Worth Preserving
It is a narrow format by design, and that is exactly the point. Plenty of stations will play "My Girl." Far fewer will dig into the b-sides and 12-inch mixes that Motown's disco sublabels were quietly releasing while the label's mainstream singles dominated the charts elsewhere. For listeners who already know the classic Motown songbook by heart and want to hear what the label sounded like once it followed disco onto the dance floor, this is the station built specifically for that gap.