A second shoe dropped the following day, when the Boston Herald speculated that Clear Channel could be preparing to move WXKS-AM, a talk station that features the likes of partisan mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Jay Severin, to the 101.7 FM frequency. Seeing a political thread that extended from Clear Channel’s parent company Bain Capital to the partisan content represented by the aforementioned programming (during an election season no less) was unsettling to say the least. However the real blow is the economic hardships this will present to the Boston music community. While it may not seem like much, a decent paying music gig might provide a few extra bucks to someone struggling to make ends meet with their dayjob. WFNX was generous in the exposure they offered to local musicians, with two hours each Sunday night devoted entirely to Boston’s music scene on Boston Accents, and even finding a few minutes in precious programming time to occasionally work in an artist during peak listening hours. They helped foster and launch the careers of rising Boston talent throughout their 29 years of broadcasting. And this exposure gave artists the opportunity to promote paying shows, which in turn served as promotion for the bars and venues at which they’d be performing. More important, the radio station provided jobs to the program directors, production staff and, of course, the DJs.

In this age of Spotify, Pandora and a seemingly endless menu of on-demand streams of digital media, the humanizing element of the in-studio radio host is still meaningful. While on-demand is immediately satisfying, it is also coldly masturbatory. At the end, you realize you are still there alone with your tastes and preferences, and have discovered nothing. Shuffling your collection or allowing algorithms to guide your journey is hardly random. Radio is communal and left to chance. (Okay, perhaps that last part is an illusion. But it’s a damn good one). And that local voice behind the mic reminds you that you are part of something slightly bigger. Not so big that your are insignificant, or that you don’t have a say. Big in the sense that you belong. So as the medium evolves, moves from hi-fi to WiFi, and continues to expand its menu of offerings, we encourage you to make local broadcasts part of your media diet and be part of where you are. Belong.