The End of "Everything Alternative"

After the terrestrial demise of WOXY there was something of a vacuum in the "modern rock" category of radio in Cincinnati. In my car I mostly surfed between 7-10 stations just to find songs I liked and avoid songs I didn't like. (Actually, 90% of the time I was listening to 91.7, our NPR station in Cincinnati). "New Rock" 97.3 was pretty reasonable most of the time. One was always guaranteed to hear a Sublime song when one got the hankering for one. It was no WOXY though.

In any case, around Christmastime last year 97.3 went "on shuffle" which was meant to evoke the random mode on an iPod. They added some older music into the mix at this point too, and I began to like the station a lot better. So, excluding "Rover's Morning Glory", 97.3 had become a very decent radio station.

It was not to last however. Last week, I tuned to the station and heard to my surprise "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" by John Michael Montgomery. Apparently an abrupt takeover occured and the station had become WYGY "The Wolf", a Top 40 Country station. Whoa. The next day I checked into the situation and found only this text at the old 97.3 website:

As you may have heard by now,
97.3 WAQZ as of noon today, November 9th, is no more.

Thank you for listening.

We've had fun bringing you Everything Alternative on shuffle.

In show business, when one show closes, another one opens – so we'd like you to know about a new sound that will be shaking up Cincinnati radio: 94.9 The Sound. They'll be playing a wide variety of music from artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers,
My Chemical Romance, Staind, Panic at the Disco, Nirvana,
Green Day – and shuffling in surprises, too.
We hope you'll set a button for 94.9 on FM. Or you can listen online here. I know they'll welcome your input, too.

Again, on behalf of everyone at 97.3 throughout the years,
thanks for listening and thanks for your support.

And there was a link to the 94.9 The Sound website. The Sound has taken the old Mojo 94.9 spot which was vacated in September of this year when it moved up to 100.3FM . So far listening to The Sound has been good. I believe they are playing 9,490 songs straight to kick off the station and I haven't heard a commerical on there yet.

I guess, it all goes to show that the modern terrestrial radio market is a tough battlegroud.

My picks for best radio shows in town aren't actually on any of the above mentioned stations. These are shows that still feature old fashioned DJs that make the radio experience fun and local:
The Jelly Pudding Show - Sunday nights on 92.5FM WOFX
Cuttin' The Grass - Saturday mornings on 88.3FM WAIF
Carribean Express - Sunday afternoons on 88.3FM WAIF
Rockin' & Surfin' - Saturday evening on 88.3FM WAIF

Resources:
http://www.973waqz.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAQZ
http://www.949thesound.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMOJ
http://woxy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOXY
http://www.waif883.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAIF