Indie 103.1 FM Goes Online Only to Retain Station's Spirit

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

Ugh, what's happening to radio? There's been a lot of doubt hovering around radio broadcasts for a while, but the truth is, they seem to be just as alive as they ever were, even with the advent of the Internet and streaming services. Many people love driving to work with the radio playing, and others refuse to dial-in to the Internet to listen to a "fake" radio station. Well, it seems one of the best radio stations out there is changing things up, and it doesn't look good on radio as a whole.

Indie 103.1 FM, a popular Los Angeles radio station, has decided that they've had enough with recent changes in the radio industry, and how stations are measured. They're tired of feeling the pressure to play "too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge". Amen to that. Indie 103 is one of the few radio stations I listen to on a regular basis (via streaming, I live nowhere near LA), simply because of that. They play music you wouldn't hear on mainstream radio, and that's why myself, and many others, found ourselves attracted to it.

The station doesn't care about how large an artist is, or what part of the world they're from... it just has to be good music. They'll play mainstream music as well, but again, it has to be good, and I respect that thinking. Luckily for fans though, they're not going away completely, but have rather shifted their broadcast into an online-only format. Hopefully this will be temporary, and the industry can improve enough to revert the stance, but that's unlikely. This is the music industry we're talking about.

Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option - to play the corporate radio game.

Source: Indie 103.1
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[Kougar]

Well, that's part of the allure for an internet radio station. Most tend to play songs you've never or only rarely heard of and always mix it up. And for those people that still want to hear the same old hits, there are stations that play just those as well. I also hear the exact same reasons given for satellite radio.

It's really to bad the music industry is to out of touch and focused on the "low-hanging fruit" to realize there's potential for better.

 

[Rob Williams]

I agree with regards to Internet radio, but that's where Indie 103.1 was a little different. They played good music, no matter how big the name. There's been times when they'd play a track once in a while that I'd think is stupid, but that will happen on any radio station. From time to time, I'd even come to realize what a cool song it is (like Bedouin Soundclash's "The Night Feels My Song", and yes, this wasn't exactly an unknown track back then, but Indie 103.1 is where I first heard it).

There's just something about old-school radio that makes me feel nostalgic. It's not as fun to log into some website and start playing a "radio" station, or sitting in your car and connecting to the Internet to play the same station. The radio seems to be a dying art, and it's not even technology that's really killing it off... it's the radio industry itself.

 

[Kougar]

Oh, I fully agree with ya, don't get me wrong. I'd rather listen to terrestrial radio as I'm cruising along than internet radio. Just that as you said (and I agreed) there really aren't any real radio stations that're that good. It's a shame it had to come to that for Indie 103.1.