General Mar 12, 2014 at 4:00 am

New Radio Station XRAY.FM's Uphill Struggle Could Be Worth It (Or Maybe It's Just Doomed to Fail)

Comments

1
I'd be an optimist if the signal range wasn't so goofy. You can hear it at the airport but not In Woodstock? Almost to Gresham but not the inner east side or anywhere in North? Bummer.
2
The greatest triumphs only come from potential failure. If it's easy, it's been done already. Thanks for taking great risk to bring us great content. Okay - I"m done with the cliches! ; )
3
web stream works great, that'll do until more antennas can be placed.. great job guys. This is truely a scenario of David VS. Goliath! A bunch of volunteers vs. clear channel.. I know who I'm rooting for.
4
As a longtime DJ and producer at KEXP in Seattle and someone who's been following XRAY's development from the beginning, I'm quite optimistic about and supportive of their endeavors. As a former contributor to the Portland Mercury, I'm not surprised by the negative undertone's of Skinner's piece, but I am disheartened by its unneccesarily defeatist viewpoint. A balanced look at the variables at play is a valid pursuit, but prematurely predicting their demise doesn't do anyone any good, and some of these potential pitfalls seem quite overstated. KEXP started out at the same wattage and we are thriving. XRAY's birth may have been delayed, but thankfully it was because they were taking their time and making wise decisions.

I also don't see the class D component as the massive stumbling block it is made out to be here; there are many other ways they can potentially extend their terrestrial reach. Additionally, I'm disappointed that there's no mention of Amy Dial's pivotal role as Community Outreach Coordinator. That woman is a force of nature and has done a tremendous job of rallying support and resources for XRAY. Her presence as someone who will be continuously nuturing the station's support base is a massive indicator of probable success in my eyes--and to my ears by proxy. I will be cheering them along the whole fucking way, and I wouldn't underestimate the power of Portland's music community to provide the human wattage that's needed to make these ambitious dreams come true.
5
I'm suprised there is no mention or comparison to KZME?
6
Thank you for the informative update on the development of Xray.fm. The city can always use another progressive outlet, particularly with our former "daily" newspaper being so right wing editorially.

We followed the KPOJ programs and valued what they added to the discussion of injustice and bad policies, from labor struggles to environmental causes to electoral shenanigans. However, we noticed that, with few exceptions, KPOJ pundits steered clear of the Israel-Palestine issue. We hope that this won't be the case with this progressive talk station. One can always follow local news and events related to this issue on www.auphr.com.

If the new revised version of KPOJ hopes to cover foreign policy well, it would have to include discussion of this part of the Middle East.
7
1. See above with the ZERO mention of KZME. What. I can actually hear it at 28 watts, though it's on a 'big stick on the hill.' It's also got a ton of amazing programming and it's really weird that it's not even mentioned in this article. 107.1 FM, or www.kzme.fm.

2. Nancy, KXRY is not a progressive talk station, they play a lot of music as well as center-left talk.
8
Also, a lot of what blew the top off of that Kickstarter was the liberal outrage (shared by many who weren't listeners, on principle) over Bain Capital owned Clear Channel switching KPOJ from "progressive" talk to the third freaking all-sports station in the PDX market (after which its ratings went down the shitter, lolduh). Blue Oregon channeled the outrage and I'm pretty sure providing a place on the dial for the favorite shows of KPOJ listeners was part of a deal that got a lot of work done to MAKE that Kickstarter go viral and get over 250% of what they were asking for.

That's how business and politics works, but I do share some concern with the guy wondering if they haven't overstated their ability to replace KPOJ as an outlet for center-left programming in Portland because the signal strength is so small.

Thinking of everyone, I hope they do work beyond it, and thinking of low-income listeners, it is becoming easier and easier to stream radio from the Internet even without a computer, but you have to have reliable Internet in order to do it. Crappy 3G service such as Sprint may not cut it, either, which is a bit rough.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.