Following on last week’s review of Boston’s stalwart independent alt rock station WFNX, we have some more unfortunate news. Columbus, Ohio’s WWCD, which has been broadcasting with a modern rock format under the CD101 moniker since August of 1990, appears to be nearing the end of the line.  RadioInsight.com reports Christian-focused Salem Media purchased two domain names that mirror CD101’s current frequency, 102.5 FM:

Ryan Moran, Operations Manager of Salem’s Christian Talk 880 WRFD registered 1025TheFish.com and FMTalk1025.com on behalf of Salem Media of Ohio, the licensee of WRFD. The former would seem to indicate Salem’s Christian AC brand, the latter a Conservative Talk mix using the usual array of Salem’s in-house syndication and other syndicated hosts not currently cleared in the market.

After a sale of the original 101.1 FM frequency to Ohio State University in 2010, CD101 has been broadcasting at 102.5.  However original CD101 owners Fun With Radio, LLC are leasing the 102.5 frequency from Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting Services, so any decisions about the sale of said frequency may be out of the hands of those with CD101’s best interests.  CD101 has always skewed closer to the college/indie-rock side of the alternative spectrum, and the demise of the CD101 brand would be another huge blow to Ohio’s terrestrial modern rock fans. Although it saw a brief return on an HD2 signal in 2007, WOXY’s groundbreaking modern rock format left the airwaves in 2004, and their webstream has been dark since 2010.  If the domain name deal is what it appears to be – a sale of the frequency and a format switch – would CD101’s brand try to continue online, as we’re currently seeing with another heritage alternative station, Chicago’s Q101?

UPDATE: CD101′s Director of Marketing & Promotions, Nate Ellis, posted the following on the Columbus Underground Message Board earlier today:

But WFNX is still standing nearly 30 years later, remaining the only radio holding of Phoenix Media, publishers of the alt-weekly Boston Phoenix newspaper. Signing on with a new wave format in 1982, WFNX, then known as Y102, was purchased by Phoenix a year later. But nearly 30 years later, does the fact that WFNX remain “independently owned” mean anything? It’s a phrase that’s tossed around a fair amount on radio station liners and slogans, especially in the alternative genre, but I have a hard time believing the majority of modern rock listeners really care who owns the station. Take, for example, the outpouring of support and publicity for Chicago’s Q101, which was purchased by Merlin Media and has since flipped to an all-news format: Q101 was formally owned by Emmis Communications, which reportedly had a year-end revenue of $240 million in 2010. Emmis isn’t as large as a Clear Channel or Cumulus, to be sure, but it’s not exactly a mom and pop operation, either.

WFNX rarely relies on the “independent” moniker in their positioning; you’re much more likely to hear (and see, on WFNX.com) “Alternative Boston” as their go-to slogan. Although it’s easy to make the argument that “alternative” radio is no longer “alternative,” I believe listeners, both those that point to the modern rock top 10 when asked to identify their favorite songs, and those that are willing to dig a little deeper for the “next new thing” still identify with the alternative moniker. It’s much like the phrase “country/western;” while the industry shied away from the term decades ago, you still hear listeners classifying country music and radio with “western” tacked on at the end.

San Diego’s 91x (XTRA / 91.1 FM) shares a close link to WFNX; both stations embraced the burgeoning alternative format in the early 80’s, and although 91x was under Clear Channel for six years (1999-2005), today it’s one of three San Diego signals owned by Local Media of America. Commercially, 91x commands higher ratings than WFNX, although 91x’s playlist skews much closer to the modern rock charts than WFNX’s. (I’ll take a closer look at 91x in a future installment, as its history of broadcasting from Tijuana is worth a column and in of itself).

So what makes WFNX stand out from the rest of the indie commercial alternative stations out there? It’s the music, stupid. I’m in the camp that programming, especially to a modern rock audience, should be done at a market level. A VP in Atlanta might tell a Program Director in Detroit to shy away from lower-charting White Stripes cuts. I couldn’t disagree more. A station needs to sound like its hometown. Credit Music Director Paul Driscoll with including a steady amount of local artists like Dropkick Murphys and Passion Pit onto the station; indeed, a track from recent Dropkick Murphys album currently remains a Top 20 track on WFNX, while the band doesn’t appear at all on a playlist search on Greater Media-owned competitor Radio 92.9 (WBOS / 92.9 FM). A scan of WFNX’s Top 40 most played songs shows a strong emphasis on up-and-coming artists like Grouplove, Frank Turner (a UK artist still fairly unknown in the US), and Sleeper Agent. You won’t find the comeback single from Bush, currently in the Top 5 on the modern rock charts, in hot rotation.

Most commercial stations are forced to base their playlists on the most popular songs nationwide, which recently has seen a resurgence in heritage artists like the aforementioned Bush, Jane’s Addiction, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. What makes WFNX unique is the lack of corporate control over the playlists; the station has the luxury of creating an accessible mix of familiar tracks (U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Foo Fighters’ “Everlong”) blended with newer songs. It’s the closest commercial terrestrial example to Sirius/XM’s Alt Nation, a station that routinely takes chances on songs terrestrial outlets are slower to add. And like Alt Nation, WFNX never strays too far into straight up rock (Five Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold, and Papa Roach, for example).

A rumor last November had Entercom buying the 101.7 frequency from Phoenix Media as a way to simulcast AM sports-talk WEEI on the FM dial. While Entercom eventually bumped their adult hits “Mike-FM” format off the dial in favor of the WEEI simulcast, effectively negating any need to purchase the 101.7 frequency, one has to wonder what’s next for WFNX. If, in fact, Phoenix was shopping around the frequency, it’d be a huge loss for the Boston radio market, and commercial modern rock radio overall. From 1999 until August 2011, WFNX was simulcast on Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s WPHX (92.1 FM), a frequency Phoenix sold in May of this year. Could the WFNX brand continue on the web or as an HD format, like Washington DC’s WHFS has been trying with varied success since their demise in 2005? Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, as WFNX continues to take chances on artists, songs, and new ideas – something increasingly rare on commercial alternative stations.

I–along with many other online radio fans–was surprised to learn this morning that online indie rock station WOXY abruptly shut down its live stream this morning. The only explanation was a short blurb on their website blaming “current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding” for the closure. The situation was all the more surprising given the station’s intensive participation in SXSW just last week.

WOXY website's farewell message

Pop Candy received some information directly from WOXY music director Matt Shiv who said the staff knew there were financial troubles, but maintained operations last week at SXSW because “a deal was ‘in motion’ to continue funding.” The staff only received notice of the closure from owner Future Sounds on Monday and were given no opportunity to say goodbye to listeners.

WOXY has certainly had a bumpy ride going from being a commercial FM station in Oxford, OH, going online-only in 2004, being bought by lala.com in 2006, and then being being sold to Future Sounds and moving operations to Austin last year. As I wrote last month, WOXY was one of my favorite commercial broadcast stations and I continued to be an online listener.

Unfortunately the closure of WOXY only reminds me that online streaming radio is not necessarily an inexpensive enterprise. By comparison traditional broadcast has higher fixed costs. A station must have a real brick-and-mortar studio and a transmitter with tower, and must maintain these technical operations in accordance with federal laws and regulations. Without even accounting for staffing, and depending on location, these base costs easily start at the low six figures annually.

Streaming stations don’t require much in the way of a physical studio–though certainly some of the best ones, like WOXY, have them. They also don’t require transmitters and the power to run them, nor compliance with FCC rules. But while free of these liabilities, streaming stations do have other significant costs to bare.

First, streaming music stations must pay royalties for the right to play music online, which scale up in cost as listenership increases. Second, and most significantly, streaming stations have to buy bandwidth to deliver their streams. And here’s where popularity can become a double-edged sword. Unlike broadcast, each additional listener requires additional bandwidth, which in turn costs more money. If your listenership grows, so does your bandwidth bill.

On the one hand streaming online has been such a boon for small niche stations because it can be relatively inexpensive to reach a small number of simultaneous listeners. For instance, the streaming radio host Live365 charges $112 a month for a plan that accommodates up to 25 simultaneous listeners using a stereo 128 kbps stream (not including any royalty charges). While 25 listeners doesn’t sound like a lot, remember that listeners tune in and out of online radio, and so a station with only that many listeners at any given time may still have an entire listenership of hundreds or thousands.

But when you scale up to broadcast-level audiences the costs also scale up. Back in WOXY’s old home broadcast market of Cincinnati even the lowest rated stations have an average simultaneous audience of about 7000 people. Using Live365′s published rates as a guide, it would cost $26,000 a month to reach this many simultaneous internet listeners. Now, I’m certain that a station with that many listeners can negotiate a better deal, but even extrapolating from a smaller, lower-cost company’s published rates would set the cost at $13,300. That’s a big difference from $26k, however it demonstrates that reaching the same number of listeners online as a small, low-rated broadcast station in large radio market will run at least $10,000 a month.

At that point a streaming station looks like less of a bargain, even if it is less expensive and complex than operating a broadcast station. But then my argument isn’t that a streaming station is more expensive or more of a hassle than a broadcast station. Rather, I’m pointing out that operating a live streaming music station can still be expensive, with costs getting higher as listenership goes up. One advantage of a broadcast station is that additional listeners don’t cost a thing — the costs of running the station are much more fixed as long as the price of rent, power and such remain relatively constant. Reaching 70,000 listeners costs the same as 7,000, provided that many people live in your listening area. Obviously, in broadcast it’s not economically advantageous to have 25 simultaneous listeners like it is online.

I honestly do not know what WOXY’s revenue model was. I know the station ran ads on its website but I don’t recall hearing ads on its live stream. I think the station had show sponsorships that sounded more like underwriting on public radio. WOXY was also being broadcast on the HD2 channel of Cincinnati public station WXVU, which would have prohibited regular ads being run. (As a side note, one has to guess that the HD channel is now silent, too.)

Given that the station had a studio and staff of six, in addition to bandwidth costs, my conservative guess is that WOXY operations ran at least $300,000 annually, and likely closer to $500,000. That’s a fraction of a top station in a major market, but it’s still not chicken feed, either.

WOXY was often mentioned in the same breath as other indie rock online stations like Seattle’s KEXP, Jersey City’s WFMU or Minneapolis’ The Current. But the difference is that that those other stations are also non-commerical broadcast stations that rely on a listener-supported revenue model to fund operations. So, I will be surprised if we see the resurrection of WOXY, at least in a form that sounds anything like it was. The brand may rise again, but it’s unclear if the funding and revenue is there to bring the spirit back to life.

KOME Sticker

Recently I was tracking some college radio news when I ran across Greg Blouch’s website, “Radio Sticker of the Day.” Immediately I was taken back to my junior high school years when radio station stickers were a hot commodity. My classmate Ricky Kanazawa would spend most of our English class time focused on a stack of bright yellow and black KOME stickers and an exacto knife, carving up new, inspired, psychedelic creations. I’m not sure if Greg has tapped into this aspect of sticker art; but his website is a testament to the most visible radio station branding that there is.

KISR Sticker Courtesty Greg Blouch

I dropped Greg a note to find out what fuels his obsession for radio station stickers and learn more about his website, “Radio Sticker of the Day.”

It turns out that his fascination with stickers began in the 1980s, around the same time that my friends and I were plastering KOME, KSJO, and KMEL stickers (with a picture of a camel on them) all over our notebooks, windows, and Pee-Chee folders.

Over the years he’s accumulated around 12,000 stickers and largely credits the Internet for making it easier for him to contact stations. His site only features pictures of stickers that are in his collection. I love that attention to detail! On to the interview:

WYSO Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer Waits: How did you get started collecting radio stickers and what was your first sticker?

Greg Blouch: When I was 13 years old our family moved from Middleport, New York (in the western part of the state near Niagara Falls/Buffalo) to Celina, Ohio.  I was homesick and wanted to get my hands on something that reminded me of New York.

My favorite radio station had been 107.7 WUWU which was an offbeat, almost freeform, rock station heavy on the new wave music of the time (this was around 1982/1983.)  I wrote to the station and asked for a sticker which I promptly wasted by slapping it on a book cover for school.

WUWU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

My obsession really began after I found a book in the library with station mailing addresses and started sending out self-addressed stamped envelopes with a note asking for decals.

My success rate was only about 50% but it was fun to get an occasional surprise in the mailbox…and it still is.  The Internet and the ability to write to stations instantly has helped the collection grow tremendously.  About 90% of my stickers have been acquired since I  got online in 1997.

Jennifer: How many stickers do you think you have?

Greg: I’ve tried to count them more than once but got bored and gave up.  My guesstimate would be somewhere around 12,000 different stickers.

KMLE Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: How do you find your stickers?

Greg: I subscribe to 100000watts.com, a subscription-only website with updated information on every radio station in the United States and Canada.

I find station websites through the 100000watts database and email every one of them going state-by-state (I’m currently canvassing my own state of Ohio, next is Oklahoma.)

I always offer to send a SASE but usually they just mail them to me.  Every once in a while I’ll venture overseas and email foreign stations but the return rate is much lower.
I also trade stickers with a small group of like-minded hobbyists and am a member and column editor of Decalcomania, which is a newsletter for radio enthusiasts and radio promotional item collectors.

Jennifer: What’s the strangest promotional item that you have from a radio station?

Greg: I received a whoopee cushion from a rock station in California, a fishing lure from KARP in Minnesota and a condom packet from Germany, but the strangest might be a bar of soap from Earlham College’s WECI in Richmond, Indiana.  The station logo is engraved into the bar itself.

I have a few boxes of non-sticker stuff…lots of keychains, magnets, mugs, t-shirts, pens, buttons, mousepads and on and on.

WECI Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: Do you ever visit radio stations?

Greg: Rarely.  I annoy the receptionist at the Dayton Clear Channel cluster every few months and ask for stickers but that’s about it.

Jennifer: Have you ever worked at a radio station?

WWSU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Greg: I did college radio for three years at WWSU which is Wright State University’s station.  While still in college I answered an ad that my future wife saw in the paper looking for air talent for a brand new radio station.  I threw together a tape, got an interview with the PD and somehow got hired.  I was the night jock on WZJX “94-5 XRock” which was Dayton’s first commercial alternative station.  This was 1993/94.

I was on the air about 35 hours a week plus a little bit of production and promotion work as well as being in school full time.  It was a tough schedule to pull off but a great experience where I learned that I like radio but didn’t necessarily like working in radio.

Speaking on the air never came naturally to me but I think I faked my way through it fairly well.  When the ownership group sold the station and flipped it to Oldies it was both a disappointment and a relief that I was no longer in the biz.  I got a steady civil service job and never attempted to get back into radio.

WZJX Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: What do you love about radio?

Greg: So much of my love for radio is music-based and now that I’m on the curmudgeonly cusp of 40 I find it hard to listen to a lot of it.  It’s either songs I’m burned out on or styles that I can’t get into.

I fully admit that my musical tastes are permanently stuck in the 1980s and early 90s.  I do love good sounding production and a DJ who sounds like he’s into what he’s playing and is doing more than reading liners.

Jennifer: What kind of radio do you listen to? (college? commercial? music? talk?)

Greg: As far as terrestrial radio goes, it’s almost all college/non-commercial and sports talk radio these days.  I love college radio because it’s usually music you don’t hear everywhere else, presented by kids who are just being themselves in all their unprofessional glory.  It’s refreshing.
My job allows me to listen to a few hours of podcasts a day.  Most of it comes from WNYC, KCRW, WBEZ and a whole lot of individual NPR shows.

Jennifer: What are you favorite radio stations?

WOXY Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Greg: I could pick up WOXY from Oxford, Ohio when they were on 97.7 FM so I regularly listen to the Internet version.  I like listening to my old stomping grounds of WWSU although, at only 20 watts, it can be a tough catch. 

WYSO from Antioch University in Yellow Springs is a solidly quirky NPR affiliate.  My favorite might be 6 Music which is the BBC’s “alternative” digital radio station.  I especially like Roundtable, where four music geeks meet to hear, discuss and judge new music releases.

Besides the aforementioned WUWU, my favorite station from the past would be Toronto’s CFNY in the 1980s.  A friend would send me tapes of the station which had tons of cool music, about 30% of it (by law!) consisted of mostly-unheard-of-in-the-States Canadian artists.

WFMU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: What can a sticker tell you about a radio station?

Greg: Hmmmm…not much.  I guess the only answer I have is that you can tell it’s a Clear Channel station because they often use the same logos for their stations across the country.  The blandness is kinda sad.  A single generic logo for all their “Kiss” and “Mix” stations…only the frequencies on the stickers are different.

Jennifer: Anything else?

Greg: If anyone out there has any stickers to swap, I’m always looking for a trade.  Email: radiodecals@gmail.com

Thanks to Greg for sharing his radio obsession with me and for turning me on to some more stations. Your sticker is in the mail…

Previous Radio Obsessives:

Garrett Wollman’s Radio Tower Quest

Jose Fritz’s Arcane Radio Trivia

Champaign, IL to Dayton, OH

WOXY logo from its broadcast days

After my wife moved away from Dayton we’d still tune in WOXY’s internet stream to get a different take on alternative rock, even though Champaign has a pretty good radio dial for a small Central Illinois city.

However, in 2004 WOXY’S owners sold their broadcast station–for about 14 times what they paid for it–and went online only. Since then the online WOXY has changed hands and recently announced a move to Austin, TX. But the station successfully soldiers on, continuing to serve up the kind of indie rock unheard on broadcast commercial radio. As a result it’s arguably one of the premiere indie rock stations on the interwebs.

A new short (9 minute) documentary by Zachary Herche explores WOXY’s broadcast to webcast history (via Pop Candy). In it you’ll learn how WOXY gained pre-internet national fame by being prominently featured in a popular 1988 movie starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.

WOXY DOC from Zachary Herche on Vimeo.