Hey all...
It's been awhile since the last post here. There's a lot going on personally these days for me. I'm getting married and moved into a new house (with lots of space for all my CDs and vinyl and cats) with a lot of DIY projects that needed to be done before the move. Actually, I'm still working on a lot of that stuff, including building a studio area for Musical Justice in my basement that should allow me to do several things on the station that I have wanted to do for awhile. Whatever other bandwidth I have for the station has gone into keeping the playlists fresh. But today I'm breaking radio silence on the blog to send anyone that reads this to go listen to the last days at WOXY.com.
WOXY was/is the best independent radio station in the world. They've been suffering financial problems since deciding to try to make a go of it as an internet-only station awhile ago. Last week, they announced that September 15th would be the last day barring a miracle with deep pockets. The station's always been a little more special for me, perhaps, because I was one of the people they consulted with for ideas on programming a modern rock station back before they went on the air. At the time, I was an entertainment writer for the Miami (University) Student paper and had written articles on the poor quality of local radio. After buying the station, the new owner Doug Balogh and I talked several times as he gathered ideas from many sources that would ultimately become The Future of Rock and Roll. I graduated in the summer of 1983 and that fall, 97-X was on the air. I watched proudly from afar as it became widely recognized as one of the best independent modern rock stations in the world.
WOXY is one of the few places that really plays new music... first... breaking new records before you hear them anywhere else. In many ways, it was the inspiration for what I do now with Musical Justice. I was always pretty excited when I'd find something that they weren't playing yet and could get it on the air before them like when I brought back import-only Tom Vek and Hard-Fi CDs from my trip to London last summer. Needless to say, it was a competition in my mind only... :)
So, for the rest of this week, go listen to WOXY. Listen to how radio should be done. I can only hope to be a poor man's version of them with my one man operation out of my new basement bunker here in the Dust Bowl.
