As some of you may already know, highly influential Boston alternative radio station WFNX was sold to Clear Channel Entertainment earlier this morning in a highly shocking move that no one saw coming. I for one, thought that maybe the station had another 5 years of life left to it so no one knew when or how soon this move would be coming, so this isn't a total surprise to me. What mark this will leave on the Boston area music scene remains to be seen, but the barren empty void will be felt for years to come.
I have been an avid FNX listener for about 12 years now, and I listened to them more often than I did of their local rival WBCN because I liked their approach for breaking new bands in the local Boston music scene, and their mix of past 80's and 90's era alternative tracks and pairing them with some of the newer, current ones out there. One thing that I loved about the station was all the on-air personalities that worked at the station, everybody from Julie Kramer, Paul Driscoll, Jim Ryan, Henry Santoro, Fletcher from The Sandbox morning show, Adam 12, and countless others who injected their love for music onto the airwaves and kept the loyal and devoted listeners tuning in and wanting more from the personalities that they loved so much. I will be forever grateful to FNX for making me a devoted music fan and I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing this post or doing this blog for that matter if it wasn't for them.
FNX changed my life in the sense that I got introduced to a countless number of bands that I wouldn't have found out about from any other station out there. Numerous bands like The Pixies, The Killers, The Kooks, and Foster The People I heard about first from FNX and got an immediate adrenaline rush anytime any of these bands' songs were played on the radio and also kept me tuning in to hear some of the newer tracks from some of the up and coming Boston area bands that were starting to appear as blips on the radar. When I heard the news today, I felt like part of me died and felt an immediate void that really speaks to heart as to the state of the music business right now. This is a shining example of what happens when a bunch of big-headed suits running a major corporation decide to ruin an independent minded station like FNX, for the only reason being that they have a ton of money and wanted to turn a profit from purchasing a station. It's unknown if FNX will live on in the terrestrial sense online, but today May 16, 2012 was a day that I will not soon forget and has made me realize that you don't know how much you really value and cherish something until it's gone. This is how strongly I feel about WFNX, sort of like the feeling you get when one of your best friends moves away and FNX was like a friend to lean on when times got tough and were always there to lend an open ear. I will always be forever grateful to FNX for introducing me to the world of music as I know it today.
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