The boating and marine lifestyle has a massive following, yet enthusiasts often lack a dedicated media platform that captures their specific culture. Generic radio stations and standard streaming playlists fail to connect with the unique atmosphere of marinas, fishing trips, and waterfront living. Without a unified audio experience, the marine community misses out on the stories, brands, and music that bring them together on the water.
Brian Burns solves this disconnect with Dock Side Live Radio. As the founder of the fast-growing streaming station, he curates a 24/7 blend of Trop Rock, reggae, and country specifically designed for boaters and waterfront businesses. In this interview, we discuss the inspiration behind the station, the value of the Marina Partner Program, and how music builds a stronger coastal community.
Q: What specific gap in the music and entertainment industry inspired you to launch Dock Side Live Radio?
Brian Burns: Dock Side Live Radio is the year-round audio network connecting boaters with the people, places and businesses that make the boating lifestyle possible. Through music, stories and conversations, we’re helping grow the boating community while creating Earibility™ for the brands that serve it.
Q: The station focuses heavily on Trop Rock and coastal rhythms. Why do these specific genres resonate so strongly with the boating community?
Brian Burns: Trop Rock and coastal music don’t just entertain boaters they reinforce the emotions and memories that drew them to the water in the first place. Whether you’re heading to the marina before sunrise, spending an afternoon at anchor, or watching the sunset with friends, those songs become part of the experience.
But we’ve learned something important over the years. People may come for the music, but they stay for the lifestyle. That’s why Dock Side Live Radio has grown beyond a playlist. We blend Trop Rock, coastal country, reggae, beach rock, and other waterfront favorites with conversations about destinations, boating stories, marine businesses, and the people who make this lifestyle possible.
Our goal isn’t simply to play music. It’s to create the soundtrack for the boating lifestyle while connecting listeners with the brands, marinas, destinations, and experiences they’ll discover on their next adventure.
That’s why our tagline is, “Where the music meets the water.” The music sets the mood, but the stories and relationships keep the boating community connected all year long.
Q: Your Marina Partner Program allows local businesses to broadcast directly to boaters. How does this feature help marinas increase foot traffic and engagement?
Brian Burns: Today’s boaters are making decisions long before they tie up at a dock. They’re choosing destinations, planning weekends, looking for fuel, restaurants, service providers, and their next boating experience. Our Marina Partner Program helps marinas become part of that conversation before the customer arrives.
When someone listens to Dock Side Live Radio, they’re not just hearing music. They’re discovering local events, waterfront restaurants, marina amenities, nearby businesses, and stories that create a stronger connection to the destination. That familiarity makes people more likely to choose that marina over another.
For our marina partners, it’s about creating a year-round relationship instead of a single visit. They can welcome arriving boaters, promote events, highlight tenant businesses, recognize sponsors, and share what’s happening around the marina all through an audio experience that feels natural rather than intrusive.
Ultimately, we’re helping marinas do more than increase foot traffic. We’re helping them build a community. When boaters feel connected to a place, they stay longer, spend more, return more often, and recommend that destination to others.
We believe the future isn’t just about filling slips it’s about creating destinations people want to experience again and again. That’s where Dock Side Live Radio fits in: connecting people, businesses, and boating lifestyles year-round.
Q: Dock Side Live is highly involved in community impact, including supporting youth fishing programs. How do these initiatives align with your overall mission?
Brian Burns: For us, community impact isn’t a separate initiative it’s the reason Dock Side Live Radio exists. If we want boating to thrive for the next generation, we have to invest in the people who will become tomorrow’s boat owners, anglers, marina customers, and marine professionals.
Supporting youth fishing programs, boating education, waterfront charities, and local events is about strengthening the entire boating ecosystem. Every young person who catches their first fish, takes their first boat ride, or learns to safely enjoy the water has the potential to become a lifelong advocate for the boating lifestyle.
That’s also why we created The Next Boat Journey. It’s not about selling boats it’s about helping more people discover boating, find the right lifestyle for them, and stay engaged throughout their journey. When more people enter and remain in boating, everyone benefits: manufacturers, dealers, marinas, service providers, tourism, and the communities that depend on the water.
At Dock Side Live Radio, we measure success by more than audience growth. We measure it by the connections we create, the businesses we help strengthen, and the opportunities we create for more people to experience life on the water.
If we can inspire someone to take their first boating adventure, support a local marina, volunteer at a youth event, or simply spend another day on the water with family and friends, then we’ve accomplished our mission. That’s what we mean by “Where the music meets the water.”
Q: You recently featured "The Next Boat Journey" series. What is the most important lesson a new buyer should learn before purchasing their first boat?
Brian Burns: The biggest lesson is this: before you choose a boat, choose the life you want the boat to support.
Too many first-time buyers start by comparing horsepower, length, or price. Those things matter, but they come after a much more important question: What do you want your weekends to look like? Are you fishing at sunrise, cruising with family, exploring waterfront towns, entertaining friends, or spending quiet evenings at anchor?
Once you understand the lifestyle you’re pursuing, the right boat becomes much easier to identify. In fact, one of the best pieces of advice we heard throughout The Next Boat Journey is to spend time on other people’s boats first. Experience different styles of boating before making one of the biggest recreational purchases of your life.
The Next Boat Journey isn’t about convincing people to buy a boat. It’s about helping them become confident boaters who make informed decisions and stay in the boating lifestyle for years to come. When someone buys the right boat for the life they want to live, they’re happier, they use it more often, and they’re much more likely to remain lifelong members of the boating community.
At the end of the day, the best first boat isn’t necessarily the biggest or the newest it’s the one that helps you create the memories and experiences that made you fall in love with boating in the first place.
Q: With listeners tuning in from all over, what are your next steps for expanding the station's programming and reach this year?
Brian Burns: We’re excited about where Dock Side Live Radio is headed because our goal has never been to become the biggest station it’s to become the most valuable audio destination for the boating community.
This year, we’re continuing to grow our audience, which has now surpassed 42,000 listeners, but we’re doing it strategically within the marine community. We’re expanding original programming like The Next Boat Journey, adding more Dock Talk interviews, telling more destination stories, and creating content that helps people discover boating and enjoy the lifestyle year-round.
We’re also growing our partnerships with marine associations, destinations, marinas, and businesses that want to educate and connect with boaters in a more authentic way. Instead of interrupting listeners with advertising, we’re creating conversations and stories that people genuinely want to hear.
Another exciting step is the continued development of our Marine Audio Network. The vision is to give marinas and waterfront destinations their own customized audio experience while still connecting them to a national boating audience. We believe that creates a better experience for boaters and new opportunities for the businesses that serve them.
At the end of the day, everything comes back to one mission: helping more people discover, enjoy, and stay in the boating lifestyle. If we can continue connecting boaters with great destinations, trusted businesses, and meaningful stories, we’ll keep growing the community one conversation at a time.
“Where the music meets the water” isn’t just our tagline it’s our commitment to bringing the entire boating lifestyle together through the power of audio.
Dock Side Live Radio has evolved from Providing a dedicated soundtrack for the water… to Providing a dedicated audio platform for the boating lifestyle.
This conversation highlights the strong connection between music and the marine lifestyle. Burns proves that a specialized radio station can do much more than play songs; it can actively support waterfront businesses and educate new boaters. By giving marinas a direct line to their patrons and promoting emerging artists, Dock Side Live Radio strengthens the entire coastal community.
Providing a dedicated soundtrack for the water will become even more valuable as the boating industry grows. Platforms that prioritize authentic storytelling and community integration offer unmatched value to both listeners and marine brands. Dock Side Live Radio leads this space, ensuring that the best days on the water always have the perfect playlist.
To learn more visit https://docksidelive.com/