brian, we never had a chance to meet

Sad news, kids.

Get your WOXY on this weekend because beginning Sept. 15, it will become old school. As in, remember back in the day when you could be turned on to great new bands, catch amazing live performances and generally just feel a bit hipper than usual because you were listening.

WOXY, an indie station in Cincinnati, will initiate radio silence next week unless someone puts up some serious cash to save it. A couple of years ago it moved to a Web-only operation, and I guess it's still not working out. Here'’s more from the station’s Web site ...…


This sucks.

This is the moment all of us hoped would never come. After plugging away at this for the past two years, it's become pretty clear that operating woxy.com as a stand-alone Internet "radio station" is not going to cut it. Our operating costs are higher than you might think, and the revenue we were able to generate from advertising isn't close to supporting what we'’re doing. Even membership revenue wasn't enough to get us there. When your business doesn'’t make money, you eventually go out of business.


On our first pilgrimage to Indio for Coachella, my friends and I embarrassed the hell out of ourselves by calling out "Brian!" to any guy wearing a WOXY shirt. He's one of the WOXY DJs, and we read that he was going to be there. Early on the second morning, we were waiting to meet Kristin in the grassy-knoll parking area, and we all piled in the rental car to enjoy the last moments of air conditioner.

Some guy passed between the cars, and before I even knew what I was doing, I rolled down the window and yelled, "Brian!" To our excitement -- and horror -- he turned around and gave us that "Did we go to high school or something?" look. Turned out, he shared the DJ's name but not his job. He was just a fan from Cincy. Christy shared some hometown love, and we had a good laugh.

Brian, wherever you are, know that you rocked our world.

To help mourn WOXY's passing, go download some the kickin' live sessions from its Lounge Acts series. You can stream live performances and interviews with Pete Yorn, We Are Scientists, Say Hi to Your Mom, Alexi Murdoch, Low, Jem, The Hold Steady and about a gazillion more.