Kevin Bronson on January 15th, 2009

16

[I have updated this post to include a photograph taken in 2004 by one of my old colleagues, Jonathan Alcorn. And (at 4 p.m.) updating one more time: At the end of the post is a video of the on-air announcement uploaded to YouTube by Yahoo’s Lyndsey Parker. The announcer, by the way, is a sales executive.]

Those who were listening to TK’s morning show on Indie 103.1 in the 9 o’clock hour this morning got to hear to hear some goodbyes, but it is small consolation that the station will be wiped off the Los Angeles radio landscape.

“It’s a drag for the city,” says one of the station’s prominent faces, Mark Sovel, aka Mr. Shovel. He declined to comment further except to say, “People need to know how much we appreciated our listeners the past five years.”

Word is that the online Indie 103.1 being ballyhooed by a corporate spokesperson won’t resemble the old station except for its playlist — which, for all intents and purposes, might as well be somebody’s iPod. Gone will be the cadre of DJs and on-air hosts that gave KDLD-FM its distinct personality, as well as the local club nights the station placed its name on.

Says somebody else close to the situation: “The very act of saying they pulled the station off the air because they didn’t want to to play the corporate radio game is in fact a corporate radio game. Don’t believe that bullsh*t. Indie 103.1 is dead. Any claim to the contrary is corporate radio BS.”

The L.A. Times has an analysis from Chris Morris, the former host of Watusi Radio.

After the jump, an edited version of today’s earlier post:

[10 a.m.]

Indie 103.1 (KDLD-FM) has gone quietly into the night. It will become 103.1 El Gato (details).

A message posted on the station’s website (about 10:45 a.m.) says:

BYE INDIE HELLO DIGITAL INDIE

This is an important message for the Indie 103.1 Radio Audience –

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.

We have decided not to play that game any longer.”  Rather than changing the sound, spirit, and soul of what has made Indie 103.1 great” ”  Indie 103.1 will bid farewell to the terrestrial airwaves and take an alternative course.

This could only be done on the Internet, a place where rules do not apply and where new music thrives; be it grunge, punk, or alternative – simply put, only the best music.

For those of you with a computer at home or at work, log on to www.indie1031.com and listen to the new Indie 103.1 – which is really the old Indie 103.1, not the version of Indie 103.1 we are removing from the broadcast airwaves.

We thank our listeners and advertisers for their support of the greatest radio station ever conceived, and look forward to continuing to deliver the famed Indie 103.1 music and spirit over the Internet to passionate music listeners around the world.

This from an Entravision spokesperson:

“We’ve made the very difficult decision to cease broadcasting Indie 103.1 over the air. Instead, Indie 103.1 can be heard online on the station’s website: www.indie1031.com. A range of factors contributed to this decision, including changes in the radio industry’s methods of measuring listener audiences that make it difficult to continue broadcasting innovative formats like Indie 103.1 in the current marketplace. Moving forward, Entravision will continue to stay focused on our core business of Spanish-language radio, television and digital media.”

A countdown clock [inset] appeared on the station’s website shortly after 10 a.m. The URL in the logo (digitalindie.com) is not yet active.

The station launched a little more than five years with a format closer to college radio, or at least the independent-minded FM stations of the past, than the slick “modern rock” stuff that coats the airwaves these days. Its DJ-focused shows — many of which fell by the wayside in recent months — made for some adventurous listening, with the likes of the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, the Vandals’ Joe Escalante and Janes Addiction’s Dave Navarro among the many to host programs.

Indie also made an indelible impression on the L.A. music scene, with Mark Sovel’s local-music program (and the club shows the station assembled) helping launch the careers of myriad local bands.

It’s a dark day for the FM airwaves in Los Angeles.