Thursday, January 15, 2009

L.A.'s Best Radio Station Is Dead

...at least on the radio. Indie 103.1 is apparently off the airwaves but can be streamed online at their official website.

Pants. Definitely pants.

6 comments:

Neeebs (The Original) said...

Are you kidding?

I loved that New Station.

They played such a great eclectic mix of music. It was preset # 5 in my car.

I'm bummed.

Back to CDs and AM Radio for Neeebs.

Steve Sax said...

Neeebs, you DO have (at least) four other presets.

Steve Sax said...

LA Observed link.

MR.F said...

Noooooooooooo.

Rob said...

The reason given on their website is an f'n cop-out. They blame the new, more accurate Arbitron ratings for their demise? I'm sorry, that's crap. The unfortunate fact is that their ratings weren't as good as they hoped. Their job is to get an audience. Sadly, they failed.

Honestly, my feeling is that the Feds ought to open up far more frequencies to FM broadcast, and especially micropower FM in urban areas (currently, you have to be in BFE to get a license for the latter). Under that scenario,

1) radio properties are a lot cheaper because there are more of them, and
2) more niche programming can exist.

Because the current cartel uses RFI spacing requirements as a bludgeon to keep out competitors, this won't happen because of (1) at least.

Rob said...

I should also add that this online streaming thing will probably last a few months until nobody cares anymore, or they run out of money. There are, AFAIK, two exemptions in federal law for paying streaming royalties to music rights companies:

1) If you are a public radio station.
2) If you are a private radio station and do so in conjunction with your on-air operations.

Head-banger KNAC.com moved online after they got chased off the air some years ago, but I seem to recall another station I used to listen to frequently switched to streaming-only, and eventually vanished.