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“97X … BAM! … The future of Rock & Roll!”
If Clear Channel and the country’s other radio monoliths are the poison, then Doug and Linda Balogh of Oxford are the antidote. As owners of WOXY (aka 97X, 97.7 FM), they’re among the last of the independent radio station owners in America.
97X’s Alternative Rock sound isn’t pressed out of some corporate suit’s cookie-cutter playlist. The decisions are never formulaic, as Shiv, The Bakerman, Barb, Matt Sledge and other DJs mix it up. From Reggae to classic Blues, from undergrounds to “the future of Rock & Roll” (as the air slogan goes), the station plays to disenfranchised listeners and music fanatics.
The Baloghs bought the station in 1981 as a “sick puppy” in dire need of a turnaround. More than two decades later, as Doug Balogh puts it now, “We’ve proven dreams and determination are powerful allies.” July’s Esquire magazine selected 97X as one of the seven best commercial radio stations in America (out of 13,000) in its “Road Map to Musical America” survey. April’s Rolling Stone says it’s one of the four best in the country. And CityBeat readers chose it as “Cincinnati’s Best Radio Station” in 2003.
The next frontier for this alternative voice? Streaming audio to the world. According to October Arbitron’s,
“97X … BAM! … The future of Rock & Roll!”
If Clear Channel and the country’s other radio monoliths are the poison, then Doug and Linda Balogh of Oxford are the antidote. As owners of WOXY (aka 97X, 97.7 FM), they’re among the last of the independent radio station owners in America.
97X’s Alternative Rock sound isn’t pressed out of some corporate suit’s cookie-cutter playlist. The decisions are never formulaic, as Shiv, The Bakerman, Barb, Matt Sledge and other DJs mix it up. From Reggae to classic Blues, from undergrounds to “the future of Rock & Roll” (as the air slogan goes), the station plays to disenfranchised listeners and music fanatics.
The Baloghs bought the station in 1981 as a “sick puppy” in dire need of a turnaround. More than two decades later, as Doug Balogh puts it now, “We’ve proven dreams and determination are powerful allies.” July’s Esquire magazine selected 97X as one of the seven best commercial radio stations in America (out of 13,000) in its “Road Map to Musical America” survey. April’s Rolling Stone says it’s one of the four best in the country. And CityBeat readers chose it as “Cincinnati’s Best Radio Station” in 2003.
The next frontier for this alternative voice? Streaming audio to the world. According to October Arbitron’s, woxy.com is ranked the 14th most popular Webcast in the nation. The Web site has had 22.6 million hits since January.
Will all this change anything in how the radio monoliths do business, playing their Top 40 plain vanilla pablum as they consolidate and squeeze every last dollar out of their stations? Of course not. That’s soooo Cincinnati.
THAT’S SOOOO CINCINNATI highlights the area’s quirky assets, hidden gems, unique personalities and criminal secrets — and reprises one of the most popular features in CityBeat’s 10-year history.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2003.
