bye, woxy

well, it just ended. and now the place i thought music would never cease to come from is silent. it is pretty sad and disheartening, just listening to the silence. i'm almost afraid to hit stop; like something might still be coming up. i guess not though. granted, i have enough music saved up to last a lifetime, but what's the fun in that? i'm going to miss not only the music, but the DJs too. i felt like i knew them. i'm not sure what to do now (not in life, mind you. i'm not THAT melodramatic. but rather for music. i dont know yet.)

it's safe to say i owe them the gratitude and credit for the past 2 year's worth of bringing new music into my life. i'd say 90% of everything in that time period has come from them. (plus, they gave me tickets to Bonnaroo.) it was without a doubt the greatest, most progressive, and most true to the music radio station i've ever had the priviledge of listening too. thank you, guys.

i recorded the entire day's stream from the station. if anybody wants it i've got it where i can burn it mp3 style in chronological order. just let me know.

i thought this was a great synopsis of the radio station, WOXY.com... (taken from insidepulse.com)

The pop culture media trifecta (Radio, TV, Internet) allows imagination only in the world given by Radio. This is why when radio stations die, it's diehard listeners cry and mourn. This doesn't happen with television. While people will lament the losses of certain programs, nobody really stops their watch when networks go under. It's pretty impossible to love a network, but a radio station, well, that can become part of the family.

This week, I was hit with the blunt foreclosure of WOXY, an independent radio station that's been under operation for more than twenty years. I've been an avid listener for the last four years. To me, WOXY was the pulse of music. I trusted the taste of their four DJ's more than any other person or organization. They are, quite simply, wholly responsible for my current taste and attitude for music.

WOXY did three things that kept me listening. First, they were abrasively independent. After 97X¬-the Cincinnati radio station that WOXY inhabited-was bought out by a syndicate, they went web-only so they wouldn't have to buckle under corporate pressure. I have a t-shirt from WOXY that reads "Corporate Radio Sucks" and I wear it proudly. It was this attitude that gave me the crimson to write about music in the first place.

Secondly, they were constantly introducing me to something new. Listening to WOXY is akin to walking into an indie record shop and being curious about what's on the speakers every single time. From Ryan Adams to The Ass Ponys to TV On The Radio to Tom Waits and The Jesus & Mary Chain, WOXY always had something interesting. Their add rate was ten times higher than any corporate station. While local stations add a half dozen songs a week to the roster, WOXY would add several dozen albums. You know how some stations will say "And here's the brand new Red Hot Chili Peppers track", even though the album came out six months ago? WOXY never does that. They'll put out three or four songs off an album and play them all in the same week, so listeners never get sick of singles.

Lastly, I trusted the DJ's. Mike, Shiv, Bryan and Barb are absolutely the most honest DJ's I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. If they don't like a song, they'll say so. If they really dig something, they'll sing its praises. Listening to WOXY feels like being given your older brother's record collection with an appended map for the road. It's raw, real, and oh yeah, commercial free, too.

Do yourself a favor and head on over to www.woxy.com right now and listen for a while. They will be shutting down for good on September 15th, so that two weeks will offer you a glimpse of what radio really can be like. Browse their studio acts, where you can stream essentially live and unplugged concerts from Editors, Forget Cassettes, Gomez, Murder By Death, Neko Case, The Crimea, Fiery Furnaces, The Kills, and a ton more. Browse their lists of top songs and records from years' past. You simply won't find a better collective taste in modern rock. Click on WOXY Vintage, a classic/retro station that won't make you cringe for once, because they don't play "Black Betty" every three hours.

Also, if you happen to have a few million dollars around, save them. You'll be saving all of us, too. I don't think people realize what will happen when consistently good independent radio finally dies. For your own good, listen to the final broadcast on September 15th and cry with the rest of us. At the very least, give yourself one evening to be joined with a great community by the one medium that can really get the job done.

that about sums it up.