If you are a fan of independent music and internet radio, then you are just as sad as I am to here about the recent decision by the folks at WOXY.com[wiki] to pull the plug.
This is the moment all of us hoped would never come. After plugging away at this for the past two years, it’s become pretty clear that operating woxy.com as a stand-alone Internet “radio station” is not going to cut it. Our operating costs are higher than you might think, and the revenue we were able to generate from advertising isn’t close to supporting what we’re doing. Even membership revenue wasn’t enough to get us there. When your business doesn’t make money, you eventually go out of business.
With this in mind, we’ve been looking for either a significant partner – someone with a larger plan into which woxy.com could be plugged – or an outright buyer. That search hasn’t been fruitful. We’re still willing to entertain offers and explore possibilities (email bryan@woxy.com), but our time is short. We thought it was time to share our situation with you … to give you a heads-up. […]
Barring something exceptional happening in the next two weeks, we will silence our broadcasts on Friday, September 15th.
Sometimes no matter how hard you try and how special the thing you do, it simply isn’t enough to beat the odds. It’s the cold reality of business that not even we could escape. When September 15th comes, we’ll meet it proudly with heads held high and celebrate the past two years of woxy.com and the spirit of 97X. For those lucky enough to have been part of it, The Future of Rock and Roll will forever be in our minds and hearts. [woxy]
Heartbreaking. I nearly cried the day I found out that the radio station that used to be 97.7FM, WOXY, was sold off to some radio group and dismantled, only to become some variety hits station(aka crap). It was the, “97X! Bam! The future of rock and roll.” Real DJs playing real music. Totally awesome stuff that I would listen to via their online streams.
The beauty of the operation is that even though the broadcast portion of the station was sold, the programming was retained. A dream would be for WOXY.com to make a return to the world of radio somewhere. It’s some of the best, new music that you won’t hear anywhere else, not to mention nearly all of it being independent artists.
I’m hoping for a last minute hero to help them out, but until then, I’ll miss WOXY.com a lot.
*a-hem*