Boston.com launches 1st online radio with DJs

The station was known as WFNX until its frequency was sold to media giant Clear Channel earlier this year. The Boston Globe snapped up most of its popular, live local disc jockeys and created RadioBDC, which for the past several weeks has been streaming similar programming from Boston.com, the Globe's current events and entertainment news site.

"A lot of people around the country are going to be looking to this experiment or this venture to see how it does and to see if it can be applied in their market in their particular circumstances," Boston University mass communication professor John Carroll said.

Launched in 1983, Boston's WFNX was one of the first U.S. stations to exclusively broadcast alternative rock. It was the first to play Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and its album "Nevermind" in its entirety on air, pushing the band onto the national scene.

Fans like Andrea Berman, who listened to the station 24/7, were devastated when it announced it would go silent July 20. She started an "Occupy WFNX" Facebook page, Twitter account and blog and was ecstatic when Boston.com later announced the launch of RadioBDC with WFNX DJs.

"It's more than just a brand; it's more than just the name," she said. "It's the DJs; they're the heart and soul of a station."

Lisa Desisto, general manager of Boston.com and chief advertising officer for the Globe, owned by The New York Times Co., said she's been taking calls from other newspapers asking how and why she launched RadioBDC, which takes its name from the initials of Boston.com. But she said the station would be hard to duplicate elsewhere for the reason Berman articulated: the DJs.

Phoenix Media/Communications Group's MCC Broadcasting Inc. let most of the WFNX staff go when it sold its 101.7 broadcast license to Clear Channel's Capstar Radio Operating Company this summer for $14.5 million. People tuning in now hear a hits station called The Harbor.

"Despite its celebrated history, its cutting edge programming, its tradition of breaking new music, its ardent fans among listeners and advertisers, for some time it has been difficult to sustain the station — especially since the start of the Great Recession," Phoenix Media Publisher Stephen Mindich wrote in a memo to its weekly alternative newspaper, The Boston Phoenix.

More and more independent stations are disappearing because advertisers want a bigger platform for their ads, Carroll said. Web streaming is a cheaper alternative.