Hot Wax, subtitled The Look and Sound of the Underground, approximates an adult rave on your local cable-access channel. Launched in 2003, it broadcasts 13 episodes a year on Channel 19 and is syndicated in Elmhurst, Orland Park, Los Angeles and Manhattan. The show typically features slice-of-life nightclub footage—Andre Hatchett or DJ Slugo doing their thing plus on-site interviews (John “Bid” Simmons is June’s featured DJ). One episode with M Project gets a bit raunchy: The camera crew just happens upon a Girls Gone Wild Europe event in Logan Square.

Devins lived through both Chicago’s alternative rock era and its house heyday, playing in bands and going to dance joints. For him, the underground house and hip-hop scenes present alternatives to corporate music and antisocial commercial rap. “I wanted to show that in dance music there was tolerance, there was irony, there was a little bit more cleverness in the music,” he explains.

His populist mission fits the cable-access format. “We bring the music to people that ordinarily would not get to hear it.” For now, Hot Wax’s online presence is limited to slightly more than 40 YouTube videos, such as Rabbit on the Moon’s cover of “Let’s Dance” at the Congress. It’s obvious, however, that online and on-demand might be the future for this niche programming.

And yet, the business of nightlife media still demands a print product. Mini-glossy Chicago Scene just celebrated ten years of covering downtown’s singles sizzle with a blow-out at ZED451. “We did the opposite of every other publication,” publisher Ted Widen says. “We started as a website, and after three years many of our clients asked us to do a print pub so they could buy ads in it.”

5 Magazine, on the other hand, is a labor of love—love for Chicago house music. Czarina, the mag’s sole proprietor, grew up in the Philippines listening to disco, but during her college days at Northwestern she got the house bug at raves, frat parties and the Shelter. These days, she delivers her magazine to every house weekly: from the Leo’s Den, the Dating Game and the G Spot all the way up to the Boom Boom Room at Green Dolphin Street. She prints 10,000 copies of the small-format zine, which she started in 2005; the excess goes to record stores around the country. While 5chicago.com bulges with DJ sets, Czarina’s blog, photos from house parties and more, the mag isn’t going away. “It never even crossed my mind to have an online magazine. I still think print media is the way to go,” says Czarina.

The challenge for any one-person media outlet is to hype the right venues—and keep the advertisers happy, too. Hence, Czarina is reluctant to state her party preference. When pressed, she says, “I do have a fondness for the South Side. Everyone there is so friendly, they are so into the music, and they’re older.” Naturally, her micromedia empire gets her the attention of DJs. “Once you have a magazine, no one leaves you the fuck alone. Everyone’s, like, ‘Why am I not on the cover?’ ”

Chicago Scene and 5 Magazine are free in clubs and boutiques throughout the city. Hot Wax TV screens Saturday 28, 4pm on Channel 19.