No, wise guy, WFNX has not already been off the air for a couple years. But the alternative rock icon will be signing off after Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich sold his baby to radio behemoth Clear Channel and all but four of the station’s employees have been given their walking papers. The sale is pending FCC approval and the skeleton crew will keep the music going and events that are already planned will still take place until then.
The Boston Herald reports the sale is part of an ongoing makeover at the Phoenix Media/Communications Group, which has been ensconced in the Fenway for nearly half a century. Just two weeks ago, the company sold El Planeta, the Spanish language newspaper it purchased four years ago, back to its original owner. Mindich is also eyeing a move to either Brighton or the Seaport district.
Like its parent, The Phoenix, ‘FNX is a dying breed: An independent station trying to tread water in a shark-infested pool. Mindich started the station in 1983, broadcasting out of a Lynn studio as an alternative to that other alternative, WBCN. It now joins the Rock of Boston on the memory dial.
Like ‘BCN in its heyday, ‘FNX found its audience in the advertising nirvana of 18- to 34-year-old males. It was at the cutting edge of the music world, featuring groups such as Nirvana, Green Day and Pearl Jam long before they became popular on the national scene.
The station made as much noise off the air as on, mostly through concerts. The most memorable, and one that even Mindich proudly cited in his memo to Phoenix Media staffers announcing the sale, was a 1994 free Green Day concert at the Hatch Shell to welcome college students back for the beginning of the school year. While organizers planned for 20,000 people, an estimated 100,000 jammed the Esplanade and a riot broke out when the band’s set was cut short because of safety concerns.
The problem for WFNX, as it was for WBCN, is those 18- to 34-year-old males became 40-, 50- and 60-something males and the current crop of rock listeners don’t have the same tastes in music or the allegiance to the station. While there’s some speculation that Clear Channel will replace the current format with country and western, there’s a better chance you’ll soon hear yakkers, many of them from the current stable of Clear Channel’s conservative lineup.
When CBS unceremoniously killed WBCN, it was to make room down the dial for 98.5 The Sports Hub, which is the most formidable challenger yet to bigfoot WEEI. Part of the newcomer’s success is a strong and clear FM signal, something other wannabees did not have. That move forced WEEI to take over 93.7 FM as its flagship signal. When Howie Carr was ready to jump to WTKK-FM, he cited in large part WRKO’s weak AM signal.
Clear Channel has 400 million reasons to move its conservative talk lineup to 101.7 FM: That is the reported value of Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated contract with the company. Clear Channel, which has more than 850 stations around the country, has tried making a go of it on WXKS-AM (1200) but has not gotten a foothold in the lucrative Boston market. It owns JAM’N 94.5 and KISS 108 but those two stations are not hemorrhaging money so look for the company to use the signal for talk. (Mindich, by the way, is retaining the call letters, so there will be no confusion there.)
But all that is for another day. For now, it’s time to mourn another passage of some of our misspent youth. Perhaps it’s fitting to hum a few bars of “Good Riddance (Time of your life)” by Green Day:
So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind,
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial,
For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
–JACK SULLIVAN
BEACON HILL
The Senate releases its $32.3 billion budget plan, which includes increases in education spending and local aid, cuts in social service programs, and no new taxes. Sen. Robert Hedlund will try using the budget to ban cash withdrawals for EBT recipients.
The Globe editorial page takes Gov. Deval Patrick to task for vetoing a measure that would require thorough background checks on all employees of the new state gambling commission.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Robert Covelle, the embattled director of the Medford Housing Authority, under fire for charges of favoritism in contracting and hiring, will resign, bowing to pressure from Gov. Deval Patrick and city leaders.
State officials begin their review of Lynn’s $923,000 snow removal tab during a winter with almost no snow.
Springfield will receive an additional $300,000 to deal with tornado recovery projects.
Lawrence officials condemn a boarding house with more than 100 code violations and overrun by drug dealers.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Minority babies are in the majority, according to new US Census data.
Hope Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin never wanted to come back to the US to visit after renouncing his US citizenship to avoid taxes because it looks like two senators are going to work overtime to make sure he never can.
More Kennedy family grief.
John Edwards doesn’t testify in his own defense.
ELECTION 2012
A ruling earlier this week by a federal Appeals Court could force political nonprofits that run television ads, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the super PACs that have sprung up in the wake of the Citizens United decision, to disclose their secret donors.
The new CBS News/New York Times poll that shows Mitt Romney and President Obama in a virtual tie is telling — and meaningless at the same time, says Keller@Large. The New York Times publishes the details of a super PAC strategy paper outlining a potential September attack on Obama. The memo — written for Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade — suggested attacking Obama through Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and proposed hiring “extremely literate conservative African-American” spokesman to make the case that Obama had misrepresented himself as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”
Elizabeth Warren’s critique of Wall Street’s ways makes eminent sense — and is largely ignored by those in power, including the president who appears in one of Warren’s Senate campaign ads, writes Joan Vennochi. The Herald lands a copy of Pow Wow Chow, a cookbook from 1984 in which Warren lists herself as Cherokee.
Polls released by the Tierney and Tisei camps each show a wildly different state of the race in the North Shore’s Sixth Congressional District, the Gloucester Times reports.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Curt Schilling, whose politics tilt heavily toward the free-market oriented right, went back to Rhode Island state officials with hat in hand, seeking more government help for his video game company 38 Studios.
The Worcester Business Journal takes an in-depth look at the business climate in the state’s second largest city.
Roxbury residents and business leaders have little sympathy for the Boston public school employees who will need parking once the Ferdinand redevelopment project is completed since there never was much parking in the area to begin with.
A New Bedford company has received a patent for building a better basketball backboard that creates a more consistent bounce on missed shots, especially from beyond the three-point arc. Or maybe players should just take better shots.
JPMorgan’s disastrous bet — losses now stand at $3 billion — has the White House rethinking its light-touch approach to the Volcker rule.
HEALTH CARE
Boston University researchers have found that roadside bombs in war zones can cause the same brain damage in soldiers — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — that has been found in the brains of football and hockey players and boxers after they die.
Jordan Hospital in Plymouth is seeking to cut millions of dollars from its budget because of reduced reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers.
The Salem News argues in favor of Governor Patrick’s approach to health care cost containment, and against the new bureaucracy the Legislature would create.
WBUR looks at the dangers of synthetic marijuana.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The Gloucester Times looks at the inner workings of NOAA’s Northeast regional office and finds many of the top positions are filled with temporary placeholders.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
No good deed goes unpunished: A Marshfield man is under arrest after police found three bags of heroin after he invited them into his garage to get out of the rain.
Federal dollars are being spent to look into why a jury foreman walked off with unattended cases of soft drinks belonging to an aide of US Rep. Richard Neal.
The Lowell Sun questions how effective judges’ warnings to jurors not to discuss trials on social media really are, but agrees that something must be done to prevent mistrials for this reason.
Former State Police investigator Tom Foley recalls the night when Whitey Bulger fled, and Catherine Greig cursed Foley out and slammed a door in his face.
