I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy – WOXY Off the Air

Just days after SXSW ended in Austin, the radio station that aired a lot of the bands who got their start at that music festival signed off. WOXY was generally regarded as the first commercially viable alternative station, and the first “X” on the air. Its origins started, in all places, Oxford, Ohio—home of the Miami University (Ohio). “The Future of Rock N Roll” signed on 97.7 FM in September 1983, the first song being U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.

The station would go on to great success, commercially and critically. The station got a shout out in Rain Man, and received multiple national media awards. It was one of the first commercial stations to play a Seattle based band named Nirvana.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that WOXY woud be one of the first stations to branch out on the internet. The live stream launched in 1998. The website got hits from around the world and, and message boards quickly grew making WOXY.com the first online music community.

When the owners of the station, Doug and Linda Balogh, decided to retire and sell the station, they refused to sell the music collection and the station image to the new owners. Instead WOXY.com would continue to broadcast with the current staff running the operation.

Like most online only radio stations, WOXY.com struggled to stay on the air. It briefly signed off, only to be resurrected by Lala.com in 2006. The station was sold again last year when Future Sounds Inc. purchased it from Lala. The station moved operations later that year to Austin, TX, which has now become the capital of independent music.

At 9:13 CDT, WOXY ceased operation. It was 27. Hopefully someone will step in and revive the station, but the future doesn’t look good.

As for me, I will always remember a job interview I had at WOXY. Obviously, I didn’t get the job, but I got to meet the owners, and had the chance to snoop around the station. The studio was an awe inspiring Valhalla of music. Even in 2000 (while other radio stations were installing automated computer systems with mp3s of songs), WOXY had a turntable and a huge collection of vinyl stacked on shelves. On that day, I learned that the station had almost 10,000 songs in active rotation. WOXY was the inspiration for Erik Randal’s “The Plan” in my book Radio Radio. I continued to listen to that station. It’s where I first became acquainted with Black 47 (which “Funky Ceili” on Anthology 6 references my tour of 97X), the Decembrists, and the Fratellis.