While my previous post was to honor the memory of the recently departed WOXY.com, this post is to spread the rumor that it may soon return from the dead a second time.

On Tuesday, someone by the name of Bill Nguyen posted this message on the WOXY message board:

"Hey folks, we'd like to save woxy. You can learn more about us at lala.com, but we're very well funded and humbled by the great work the people here have done. Please tell the fab four at woxy to contact us."

Of course, that post alone is no reason for one to get their hopes up. But since then, Mr. Nguyen has posted at least a dozen other messages, including this one, which lays out a very detailed and ambitious plan for the station. Apparently he has been in touch with the station's operators, and is even planning to fly in and hold an open forum to meet with them and fans in Cincinnati this Monday. He has said he wants to get the station back on air ASAP (as in a week from now) and make it totally free once again.

I, like many others, am not quite sure what to make of this. It is all very odd that this whole thing started as a post on a message board just a few days ago. It's like it's too good to be true. So I guess I'd put myself in the camp of the "cautiously optimistic" at the moment. I'm very anxious to see if this gathering on Monday night in Cincy takes place, and what comes out of it.

As for Mr. Nguyen, he is apparently the founder of lala.com, which is a website for people to get together and swap CDs (yes, actual CDs) by mail. Sounds strange, especially in this era of downloadable music, but apparently it is growing in popularity.

So for now, I guess we shall just wait and see what becomes of this. If it turns out like it sounds, this would be quite an amazing development for ol' WOXY.

UPDATE: (9/26) - It now appears to be official that WOXY will be back on the air by (possibly) next week! Read here for the details. Hooray for reincarnation and strangers with lots of money!

I was very saddened this past Friday to hear the final broadcast of WOXY, my favorite radio station for nearly the past 10 years.

I was first introduced to WOXY when I started college at Miami University down in the quiet little town of Oxford, Ohio. Since 1983, the small little station played the best in modern rock, and boasted that it had the largest collection of modern rock music in the world. The station was literally the soundtrack to my college years at Miami. I always had the radio on around my dorm, and most of the stores and places around campus played the station. If I had to guess, I would say the number of hours I've spent listening to WOXY is easily in the thousands, even in this era of MP3s and iPods.

But in 2004, the station went off the air after the owners sold the frequency, only to re-emerge months later as an internet-only station thanks to some optimistic investors. It had broadcast online for years and was widely regarded as one of the most popular internet stations in the world, so it seemed like a logical progression. Things were looking good until earlier this year when they had to start offering the broadcast on a subscriber basis. Failing to make enough revenue to cover their expenses, they announced on August 31st that they would be going off the air on Sept.15th, a little over 2 years into their online-only existence.

So last Friday afternoon, I tuned in after getting home from work, just in time to hear the last hour they were broadcasting, just as I had done 2 years earlier when they went off the airwaves the first time around. It was sad, though not as much so as the first sign-off back in 2004. I had thought at that time, like many others, that we were hearing the last of WOXY. So when they came back a few months later, it was like gravy. Two years of gravy. It was good, but it never had quite the same feel as the old days. Hearing the ads for Jungle Jim's and getting the weather forecast from the good old "party patio" were just a few of the silly little things I missed from the old broadcasting days.

After a lot of goodbyes and thank yous, they played three final songs before going silent: "Acquiesce" by Oasis, "Fight The Power", by Public Enemy, and the final track, MC5's song "Kick Out The Jams". A pretty good representation of the diversity of music you could once hear on WOXY. The station, which touted itself as "the future of rock n' roll", has now found itself a piece of the past. But it will long be remembered by myself and many others, whether they be from Oxford, Cincinnati, NYC, or Europe. WOXY was a classic.

- For more on the history of WOXY, check out their Wikipedia article.
- If you missed the last days, go here to download WOXY recordings.

Tonight we went up to the local movie theatre and watched the new movie "The Last Kiss". The movie is based on an Italian movie from a few years ago, that no one has heard of (self included). The basic premise is the almost 30 year old main character, played by Zach Braff, is in a seemingly perfect long-term relationship. But all is not perfect as he sees his life rolling out before him just as he had always thought it would, realizing that there were no more surprises to be had in life.

So what does he do? He goes out and finds a little excitement, in the form of another women. Meanwhile, the other characters in the movie (his friends and family) are having their own messy relationships that are falling apart in various manners. It's a little bit like watching assorted trainwrecks, though there is not much attachment to the characters since we just get brief snippets of their world.

Without giving away the entire plot, I will say that it takes a number of familiar turns that one would expect from a Hollywood picture. I can only hope that the original had a little more emotion and unpredictableness than this thing did. The love interest is a dumb college girl that you are left wondering how the main character fell for her. And the other characters in the movie are just one dimensional. I didn't really dislike the movie, but I just did not find it saying anything new or different. Thankfully I caught it on bargain Monday night, where $5 got my ticket and free popcorn. Gotta love that. 

I'm enjoying finally being able to sit still today. I was up before the sun this morning for the River Run Half Marathon out in Berea. It was a 13.1 mile run from Berea to Rocky River via the Metroparks. I managed to get a personal best time of 1:40:45, though the race was tough for me and I was not happy with how it went. I posted a detailed race review here on my running blog. Just goes to show I have a lot of hard work to do these next 7 weeks leading up to the Detroit Marathon.

After a long drive home, I cleaned up, ate some lunch and we headed out the door for the quick drive over to Geagua Lake amusement park. My employer rented the place out today, so it was just open to employees and their families. I had not been there in probably at least 10 years, and it was pretty much an entirely different place than when I had last been. There were a lot of people there it seemed, until you went to get in the line for a ride. I think the longest wait I had was 10 minutes.

The best ride at the park, in my opinion, is X-Flight. It is like no other coaster I have ever rode on, and I have rode more than my share. It's like sitting in a seat, except you're facing backwards. And if that was not enough, when the ride begins, your backwards seat is lowered so that you are laying flat on your back looking up at the sky, going backwards. The ride features many twists and turns, including a number of sections where you're turned over, facing the ground, with only your harness between you and the grass. It's a pretty amazing ride that I would count in my top 3.

I came home and found I missed nothing by not watching the Cleveland Browns game, as it sounded pretty pathetic. I know New Orleans drafted a great player in Reggie Bush, but that just means they were even worse than us last year, yet still beat us this year. Looks like it is going to be yet another long year for the Brownies. Fortuntely, things are looking up for Notre Dame, my college favorite, who pounded Penn State this weekend. Hopefully they can keep it up and get their revenge on Ohio State in January, though I doubt OSU will last until then.

Spent my Saturday doing laundry, eating junk food, playing college football on the Xbox 360, and watching college football on TV. Not bad, except for the laundry part. Living in an apartment without my own washer/dryer sucks. There is one downstairs in our building, but despite there only being 7 other apartments in the building, it seems to constantly be in use. So I usually end up going down the street to the apartment's laundry center, which features four washers and four dryers. Of course the first visit there was only one open washer. So I proceeded to do my laundry, one slow load at a time. At one point, I returned just in time to find my still warm laundry sitting on top of the dryer as I must have missed the buzzer by a minute or so. So I had to start another load in the washer and let one sit for 50 minutes until another dryer was available. Apartment life sucks.

So, in the two weeks I've been away, not too much has gone on. I spent Labor Day weekend in St. Louis visiting my parents new place for the first time. It was nice, and much bigger than I expected. I think they are still getting used to living out there (having been in Ohio the past 32 years), but hopefully they will be happier in their decision to move by the next time I go to visit. I also spent time with other relatives and enjoyed quality time relaxing on the couch, watching really bad TV ("Project Runway", "Bridezillas", "Top Chef"). All in all, it was a nice break from the routine.

On the work front, I got to go to the zoo for a teambuilding exercise which involved a large scavenger hunt. It actually turned out to be more fun that I had expected. There were about 16 groups of 7 or 8 people, and unfortunately my team was not one of the winners. I also failed to win any of the supernice door prizes they gave away just for coming, such as iPod Nanos, Amazon.com gift certificates, portable dvd players, and the grand prize of a premium Xbox 360. Maybe next year.

As far as running, I've been slacking a bit as of late. Not very good considering I'm closing in on the marathon, which is now less than 2 months away. Tomorrow morning I get to roll out of bed early and head out to Berea to participate in the River Run half-marathon. It should be a good measuring stick of where I'm at with my running. I have not run a half-marathon since April 1, so hopefully I will be able to see improvement over that time.

No commenting on current events for me, as I'm pretty fed up with the news as of late. I hate that we now seem to spend almost an entire month building up to the 9/11 anniversary every year. Yes, it was a horrible tragedy, but I do not want to hear the same heartbreaking stories every time I turn on the TV or radio this time of year. Nor do I want to hear every so-called expert saying how we are better or less prepared for the inevitable next attack. Just acknowledge it on the day, and let's move on.