One Less Reason To Own a Radio

Indie 103.1 is Going Off the Air - LA Times

To be replaced by yet another Spanish-language station.

Everytime I get close to ditching my XM subscription, something like this happens. Public radio is now officially the only thing worth listening to in LA OTA radio.

Comments

[josh]

WHAT?!? F'ing LA media.

And just as FM94/9 has started playing entire albums uncut in the evenings. I was beginning to have hope for Southern California radio sense spreading into the rest of the country.

F'ing LA media.

[*ali.]

Ok, that sucks.

[Snyder]

Reminds me of a memory from my early post-DC period.

I was down in Waldorf Md. visiting a buddy of mine for a hunting trip. Had the alarm clock set to go off at 0330 to DC101. Had kind of been looking forward to DC101 because at that time, even good alternative radio (much less indie) was tough to find here in 'cuse.

Alas it was Jan. 1 (i think 2003?) -- which unbeknownst to me was the first day that DC101 became Salvadoran Fiesta 101. When it went off in the a.m. it sounded like Mexico was invading.

Boo.

Satellite radio is better than terrestrial anyway. "Save Broadcast" PSAs make me laugh.

[josh]

@Snyder and Spuhler:

What satellite stations do you tend to listen to? The few moments when I get satellite radio in my rental cars make me realize that there's a lot of good and bad. Any you'd particularly recommend?

[Robert]

Ali - I know! No more Jonsey's Jukebox makes me sad.

Synder - I remember hearing about that (though I think it was 99.1 WHFS).

Josh - rant in 3...2...1...

Since the merger, I've looked up the cancellation phone number twice. I'm an XM guy, and in the merger the company basically decided to go, in most cases, with the XM brands but the Sirius programmers. So what was XMU is now Sirius XMU (and it went from a bunch of interesting bands I've never heard of to Radiohead and Vampire Weekend, which I can get on KROQ). The Verge got moved out of the alternative block of channels and up to the French-Canadian ones (it plays all Canadian indie rock) and, by the way, they fired my favorite DJ, Kelowna. And the old school hip-hop channel became "Shade 45," a poor imitation, though the Sirius old school channel just came back online on Thursday, I think.

Channels I listen to: The Verge (Canadian indie), NHL games, BBC Radio 1, probably Backspin (new old school hip-hop channel), Chill (like Big Sonic Chill, but not as good). I also will shoot through the 20-30 channel range (mostly pop stations) when I'm in the mood.

Oh, and Sirius XM stock is at 14 cents and more than one analyst thinks the company doesn't survive 2009.

[Snyder]

XM: Start @ 12 (outlaw country) and punch the search button. I agree with Spuhler's commentary about the XM/Sirius merger. ONly good thing about it is the addition of Jason Ellis on ch. 52. I DO NOT repeat DO NOT like talk radio of any kind, as a rule, but Ellis is coming to be an exception. He likes (and talks about) boobies, carbon fiber, fistfights, and big trucks; is funny in an enraged kind of way; and has sidekicks who actually speak in complete sentences. What's not to like?

Spuhler's right, it was 99.1. Suffice to say it was dark, cold, Mexicanny, and angry all the same.