Gary

I've thought that over a lot. I did those type of gigs for years for other people who ran them. Central Jersey Singles and the Nifty Fifties, gotta love those names. They're just not enough people here to support it or who will pay a decent admission fee. As I said , demographics. Donny has the largest active adult population in the state concentrated in his area. In the one develpoment alone where my inlaws lived there's over 1200 homes. And there's lots more all around as in your case with NHs.
The local VFW here gets some Ballroom dancers and Line dancers in on Fri nights and the DJ cateres to them. Its free music for them although the rest of the crowd, including me, is bored to death with the same songs every week. When he plays "Sex On the Beach" I feel like Lou Costello -- slowly I turned, LOL !
I fill in there ocassionally and they will drive you nuts with constant requests for the same songs. You can't be too rude but they totally got me off my pace and I didn't enjoy the night.
The only decent hall I can find is in a firehouse but the least they will let it go for on a weekend is $500. Regular price is $700. And there's no bar which I think is a plus to draw any people.
I'm going to try the newspaper ad thing next.