A few weeks back we reported that online radio powerhouse WOXY was shuttering its studio after coming to the stark realization that advertising revenue and membership was not enough to sustain the station’s operating costs. But now CityBeat is reporting that WOXY may not be dead after all.
On Sept. 19, four days after the station tearfully shut down operations for a second time, a gentleman named Bill Nguyen went on the woxy.com message boards and wrote, “Hey folks, we’d like to save woxy … please tell (station officials) to contact us.” Seemed like a shot in the dark, maybe a prank or, at the very most, overzealous or wishful thinking. But last night, Nguyen (who’s based in California) was in Greater Cincinnati, meeting with station supporters at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport (fans were even posting live in a chat room during the meeting) to tell them the good news — WOXY is back in business.
BAM! This station is a fucking zombie. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t kill it. If you don’t watch yourself, WOXY may eat your brains.
In case you’re wondering, Bill Nguyen is the founder of secondhand CD trading site, la la, in addition to having dipped his entrepreneurial toe in a couple of other lakes and puddles. So now that WOXY is saved, how do they create a successful revenue model that allows them to pay their operating costs AND make a profit?
I guess that’s a question for later, right now we should be celebrating.
- Listen to Celebration by Kool & The Gang
Or surf on over to WOXY and check out some of the awesome Lounge Acts in their archive.
CityBeat is live-blogging this weekend’s MidPoint Music Festival in Over-The-Rhine. MidPoint, which began in 2002, is essentially an industry conference/band showcase designed for unsigned bands. This weekend’s fest features over 300 artists from across the country, plus a few from Canada and northern Europe.
Since I have family stuff to attend to, I’m going to leave it in their capable hands, but here’s a few tracks to get you started.
- Listen to How High Can You Fly from Sohio
- Listen to Bitch Be The World from Philpot
- Listen to Sure Shot from the Kentucky Struts
Apologies for the scarcity of posts lately, the long holiday weekend combined with a recent move and new puppy have been occupying a lot of time.
Anywho, things haven’t been going exactly well in Cincinnati since I moved here over a year ago.
The city, which has been in a freefall since the 2001 riots, is barely hanging on by a pinky and there remains little incentive for anyone to come downtown after work. National chain restaurants are moving out and aren’t being replaced (downtown doesn’t even have a McDonald’s for crying out loud). The Main Street entertainment district continues to empty as bars either shut down for good or head for greener pastures across the river (or, in the case of Alchemize, to Northside). The Reds, up until recently, were in a pennant race yet had to offer half-price tickets and $1 hot dogs to get anybody to come to the game. Meanwhile suburbs like Mason and Westchester are growing like gangbusters. Some locals blame the construction on Fountain Square, but let’s be honest, is lowering a fountain to street level any kind of reason to come downtown?
I‘m psychologically preparing myself for the inaugural Desdemona Festival here in Cincinnati this weekend – a festival which features some pretty fucking good bands in my opinion: Apples In Stereo, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Annie, Mates of State, Enon, The Walkmen, the Fiery Furnaces, Rogue Wave, and We Are Scientists, to name a few.
BUT, there’s always a big butt. When I performed my monthly MySpace check last week, I found the following message in my inbox:
Also… we need everyone to BUY TICKETS NOW. If you haven’t already, PLEASE go to desdemonafestival.com or hit Shake It!/Everybody’s and PURCHASE THEM IMMEDIATELY. With the city failing to show its support for Desdemona, we need an additional 1000 people to show up to break even. THAT MEANS YOU!! With all the bills we have to pay, the earlier you buy tickets the better.
So understandably, I’m worried. I’m not a big MySpacer, but maybe the organizer of the festival, Nick Spencer (owner of Alchemize) assumes all possible attendees are. Tiff with the city or not, it would have been nice to have received an email, after all I bought my tickets online and they know where I am.
Anywho, the inaugural Desdemona festival could also be the last hurrah.
Here are a few tracks from the above to get you excited. So you just can’t hide it. I’m about to bite my arm off and I think I like it.
Listen to:
- We Are Scientists – The Creeper
- Saturday Looks Good To Me – When The Party Ends
- Enon – Sold!
- Annie – Me Plus One
- The Walkmen – Thinking of a Dream I Had
- The Fiery Furnaces – My Dog Was Lost But Now He’s Found
- Rogue Wave – Publish My Love
- Mates of State – La’hov
Since I’ve lived in Southern Ohio for only 10 months, I’ve been holding off on writing about a Cincinnati band. But I can’t resist any longer. I’m no longer a Queen City greenhorne, so on one of my recent trips to Shake It Records, I succumbed and finally picked up a copy of Wussy’s 2005 release Funeral Dress.
Released this past December on the Shake It label, Funeral Dress isn’t an enormous departure from Chuck Cleaver’s other band, the Ass Ponys, it’s still off-kilter roots rock, but just a little less off-kilter. Maybe it’s the addition of drummer Dawn Burman or jack-of-all- intruments Mark Messerly, or maybe it’s splitting the vocal and songwriting duties with newcomer Lisa Walker, but whatever it is, it works just fine.