Friday, September 15, 2006

Goodbye WOXY


Two years ago, my favorite radio station, WOXY, went off the airwaves and became an internet-only radio station. The station, formerly 97.7 on the dial in the Cincinnati/Oxford Ohio area, was a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter Pop radio stations that we are all familiar with. Especially today, when just about every radio-listening area has a few of the Clear Channel template stations running. For example, the MIX format that plays a variety of music. I counted about 30 of those stations throughout the United States.

WOXY was The Future of Rock and Roll.
I can at least take solace in the fact that the radio station is immortalized in the Academy Award-winning movie, Rainman when Dustin Hoffman's character kept repeating the station's slogan:
"97X Bam! The Future of Rock N Roll".

I hope the future of rock-n-roll is not going the way of corporate-controlled franchises and that every city will not have completely homogenized radiowaves. Already every main street in every city looks the same, with Outback Steakhouses, Applebees, and McDonalds on every corner. I hope that music does not become homogenized.

I'm listening to the last few hours of WOXY's life. And, just as I’m typing this, one of my favorite songs, Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely,” is playing. I don’t know if I’ll ever hear this on a radio station again. How ironic.


http://www.woxy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOXY_(internet_radio)

1 comment:

Teena in Toronto said...

I hate it when this happens!