1.21.2009

A World Without Indie 103.1

It has been almost a week since the LA based radio station Indie 103.1 went off the air and since I don't want to pay for satellite radio, I'm left with those stations on the dial. Well, it sucks. Even though I thought radio wasn't that great even with Indie 103.1 on the air, I still could listen to a few songs every now and then, before switching to my CDs. In the wake of their demise, I just notice how the major record labels dominate the air waves. This blows because they play the same songs from the same bands or artists over and over again.
So what are we to do? We could head on over to Indie's internet broadcast for some relief. However, they haven't made internet in the cars yet so that is a tough option. Thank you to Entravision for forcing Indie 103.1 off the air (I initially thought Clear Channel owned 103.1, but through further research I found out that they couldn't due to FCC rulings on the consumption of too many radio stations in an area. However, they did contribute to heavy advertsing. There is more indepth information on wikipedia.) I would have never known the crappiness of the current state of radio. Now why the hell would you want to become a perfect clone of KROQ when you already have a strong niche market? Two of the same radio stations will never make it here. So I guess now they turned it into a Spanish language station for the moment. There isn't enough of those...
Now what really sucks about Indie 103.1 being off the air is that it is going to be harder for smaller bands and artists like Klaxons, Santogold, even Interpol to get air play (MGMT got major airplay on Indie 103.1 long before it started catching fire on that other station). Maybe Indie's following is just big enough, that they will follow them online and set precedent to something new. In the meantime, it was nice knowing you Indie 103.1.

Learn about the day Indie 103.1 went off the air by CLICKING HERE.

No comments: