No more WOXY?

When I bought my first home computer, one of the things I was most excited about was listening to radio from other cities. Over a decade ago, there weren't any personal radio sites like last.fm, Pandora, and Lala, but terrestrial radio stations just getting wind of possibility of expanding their audiences streamed their programming online, and for me it was like candy. At the time, my city had one really great independent station whose daily programming was an amalgam of country, bluegrass, blues, soul and rock; one "commercial-alternative" station that I'd long outgrown; and one college station whose signal was so weak I had to move my cheap boombox from room to room on the offhand chance I might pick it up. I needed WOXY. It was sort of the bridge to all those stations, but modern and cool without pretense. And it rocked. (When my dial-up connection allowed it, that is.)

I haven't listened to WOXY in a while, but I was dismayed to read this message posted on their website's front page this morning:

"WOXY Listeners, Fans and Friends...

Due to current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding for WOXY's operations, we've been forced to suspend our live broadcasts as of March 23rd. We're continuing to explore options to keep The Future of Rock and Roll alive."

This isn't the first time WOXY has been forced to close. Says Rachel Bailey of Paste Magazine:

"The announcement comes six years after the station (then WOXY-FM) was saved from shutting it’s door by anonymous investors."

WOXY was saved once and maybe will again, but until then it's a sad day for online music fans.

Related:
Shocking shutdown: WOXY goes off the air (Pop Candy)
The End of WOXY.com (Flux-Rad)