WOXY vs. $9.95/month - Steel Cage Death Match

To most, this is old news, reported first by Big Matt, but I just wanted to put in my two cents. WOXY is now offering a premium pay service for $9.95/month. You get a CD-quality broadcast stream, TBA incentives, exclusive music news and blog access, and early download privileges for the Lounge Act sessions. Um, yeah, you can also have over 150 channels through the satellite radio provider of your choice for 2-3 dollars more per month. This is clearly a desperate attempt for WOXY to stay afloat. The station claims that:

"Unfortunately, at the moment, advertisers just don't know what to think about us. Are we a website or a radio station? Is our audience local or (inter)national? How do we track who's listening? Everyone is intrigued by what we're doing, but advertisers are not quite ready to throw enough ad dollars our way to make it work."

I think that this a poor excuse. Your sales team is the group that doesn't know what to think, or apparently how to sell. The business model is out there, it's just that those who are in charge of WOXY haven't a clue how it works. It isn't hard to gather tracking/demographic information - there are services out there for just this purpose. I'm not trying to wag my finger at anyone - the station got really lucky after they went off the air when they received a general grant from, and I quote, "two anonymous angel investors" who gave them the capital to start up again as an internet-only station. I can only assume that there was little planning for the future and now they have to start charging.

Now, The Bright Side: they are still going to offer a low-quality stream free of charge. Personally, I can't afford to spend ten dollars a month extra on something I've had for free over the last year. Things like gas, beer, food, and comic books are much higher on my survival list. I will continue to listen to WOXY and I will donate now that they have an applicable link.

I just hope this ends well. KEXP is always my second in command, so at least I have a back-up. More as this develops...

SORRY - I don't know why my fonts are all effed up.