WHFS. RIP

When I was in high school growing up in Baltimore, I believed there had to be more to music than Huey Lewis and Madonna.

My savior was a great radio station, WHFS. I listened to DJ's like Weasel play real alternative music, from bands I had never heard but grew to love anyway. The Replacements, the Smiths, XTC, X, Edie Brickell...Interesting stuff.

I now do the same thing - find new bands - but I do it listening to satellite radio. (My choice is XM, but Sirius is just as good).

Apparently, I'm not the only one: WHFS closed its doors recently, and countless other small niche stations have done so as well. There are being replaced by bigger corporate terrestrial stations that play the same repetitive top 40 crap to the large audiences they expect will be there.

It won't work. In a sense, every listener is a niche listener. And this is why satellite radio - which provides a real choice - can only grow.

So long, HFS. I'm sorry you died, even though in your later years you kinda sucked.

But thanks for being there when I needed you.


- posted by total @ 1/19/2005 06:04:00 AM .