“Dancing Tony” Susco, the irrepressible booker and de facto general manager at Downtown Jersey City’s FM Bar & Lounge, loves to broadcast live on the internet to promote upcoming shows and share what’s on his mind. But Tuesday evening, Susco looked into his phone and broke some sad news: FM will be closing its doors at the end of January.

“I don’t think anyone’s too shocked, it’s been a hard journey to make FM work,” Susco said in an interview Wednesday. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s worked, it’s not that it’s broken. We’ve had nights where it’s been packed to the gills. We have a show tonight that’s going to be packed. But there’s just been nights where we’re just not as busy. And it’s been hard getting everything to come together.”

Susco self-deprecatingly admits he’s “not the most organized person in show business,” but he still managed to book shows, make posters, manage the staff, and often wound up barbacking and working in the kitchen during shows as well.

“I guess I’ve been the unofficial de facto GM but I’m also the porter, too,” he joked. “I really think promotion has been the hardest thing. How do you get the word out? We’re all stuck in this media world we live in and it makes it very hard. I’m more than proud to fall on my sword over this, but it’s almost impossible when you don’t have a well-oiled machine behind you.”

The fate of the space at 340 Third St. is as yet undetermined, but the final show at FM will be held on Jan. 31.

While Susco served as the face of FM, the business is actually co-owned by seven partners.

“That made consensus difficult,” Susco said. “Even if things were going great, the place might have been sold anyway because there are quite a few people involved and people want different things. But it’s a great venue space, it’s a nice stage. Sure it has its drawbacks, but overall I’m happy that I saw a lot of great shows and I’m proud that I got to be a part of it.”

FM opened in May 2017 as a retro-themed restaurant, but the format didn’t catch on. It reopened not long after in its current incarnation as a live music venue with food. Local bands -- who for decades had lacked a real venue with a stage, lighting, and good sound in Jersey City -- immediately embraced the club.

“We’re going to have a great final two months,” Susco said. “Since word has gotten out that FM is closing, every band has reached out to me and asked ‘How about one more show?’ and I’m going to try and do as much of that as possible.”

In the short time Susco was able to book the venue, FM became a staple not just for local indie bands and singer-songwriters, but for hip hop, DJ dance nights, and comedy.

With the demise of the original Maxwell’s in Hoboken and DIY spaces like the Funhouse, FM also became the only all-ages venue in the area.

“From the get-go I was told everything had to be strictly 21-plus,” Susco noted. “Then one time I asked one of the two then-GMs if someone could bring their kid to a show, and I found that as long as we were serving food, we could do 18-and-over shows. Obviously you don’t make as much money from all-ages shows, but I wanted the place to have that accessibility.”

FM also became home to Lillian Bustle’s hugely popular JCBurlesque revues, which inspired City Hall to revise an archaic law that almost halted the shows in early 2019.

“Our whole company will miss it terribly,” Bustle said. “It’s baffling. Our city sure isn’t lacking for people, and there’s enough talent here to light up every bar and stage every night of the week. Live entertainment is electrifying, and I think some people don’t know what they’re missing. Hopefully this next decade will bring around a renaissance for audiences and venues alike.”

No one remembers exactly when Anthony Vito Susco became “Dancing Tony,” but his impact on local music has been so meaningful that he was officially named Jersey City’s “Commissioner of Fun” by Mayor Fulop and the City Council in 2018. Since the demise of Uncle Joe’s, Jersey City’s last real rock club in 2005, Susco has been finding stages for musicians at dive bars, restaurants, art galleries, food festivals, and street fairs around town.

In addition to his duties at FM, Susco continues his long-time gigs booking the summer’s free Groove On Grove concert series at Grove Street Plaza, as well as the fund-raising concerts that help maintain the Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery. (This year’s Ghost of Uncle Joe’s Halloween benefit brought in over $30,000 to cover operating costs and improvements at the cemetery.)

“I really wanted FM to work, but now I’m back to where I started, a man without a venue,” Susco said.

But don’t worry, Tony plans to keep Jersey City dancing for a long time to come.