Monday, February 14, 2011

[the end. . . for now]


Soundscape/94.9 listeners,

I am sure many of you in the Buffalo area have by now heard about WTF 94.9's demise and the tragic circumstances that led to it. For The Soundscape listeners around the country and abroad who don't know, a tragedy has occurred that has made it impossible for the station to continue.

As far as The Soundscape itself, while the show has a significant listenership online and I could conceivably carry on with the show as an independent podcast, something about that doesn't feel right.  

I regret having to disband pretty much the only forum for local experimental culture, but, after a lot of thought, I have decided to concentrate my energies on building a new station or some kind of media outlet. I feel that this is what circumstances demand at the present time. 

I have no idea how long this will take or what form it will eventually take on, but I assure you no one in the 94.9 crew has any intention of letting it end like this. It would be one thing if this was an FCC issue, but its not, despite what some (including myself) originally assumed. 

Therefore, I am promising you that underground radio will return to Buffalo in the near future. 

The station had been steadily growing in listenership and support over the course of its 2-year existence and it is the opinion of most if not all of those involved in the station that we can not turn our backs and walk away from this (despite a fair amount of temptation to do so after what happened). Plans are already being discussed and we have every intention of building something bigger and better and more beneficial to the community.

Furthermore, we welcome any suggestions, help, or support that the community has to offer. A new space is definitely required, while a new influx of man(and woman)power might go along way, too. So get in touch! Reach out to us to if you want to get involved so that we can get this station back up and running.

As far as The Soundscape goes, I have to say that its 7-month run on 94.9 was a lot of fun. I heard a ton of crazy shit during that time and it made all the work totally worth it. I started the show simply because I wished there was a Buffalo-based experimental music show and I was curious to see if there would be any type of response to that type of program. 

I have to say the response was absolutely mind-blowing. Those of you that sent me your music, I can honestly say I had never heard of any of you and I had no idea what a thriving, if somewhat disconnected, experimental music community we have in the Buffalo region. 

That is why I promise that the Soundscape will return in order to provide you guys a collective forum to present you're radically, twisted, sonic experimentation. And thank you to all the national and international artists and labels who sent me music. It was a real pleasure to see so many people stumble onto The Soudscape. My proudest achievement with the Soundscape is that the show earned regular listeners on every fucking continent, which I still can barley believe. Think about that.  If you were a Buffalo-based artists who sent me music, I guarantee you that your music was heard in every corner of the world. 

I promise The Soundscape will be back so that we can continue projecting our crazy Rust Belt audio insanity onto the rest of the unsuspecting world. 

So adieu....for now. And stay tuned, because we will keep you updated with our plans. After all, we are doing it for you and we will need your help to pull it off. So until then, be safe, don't listen to too much corporate FM, and don't you ever fucking forget about WTF 94.9. 

Peace,

Needles Numark   

 

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