LOS ANGELES(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Los Angeles-based Indie 103 announced that it will cease broadcasting and will only be available as a digital webstream after Jan 15th.
An announcement on the station's website stated: "Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option — to play the corporate radio game."
This would appear to be a reference to the controversial PPM audience measurement device introduced by Arbitron last year. Since its introduction, the device, which is intended to replace the diary system used to record audience listening habits, has been criticized for introducing biases into audience numbers and been the subject of lawsuits by the Attorneys General of New York & New Jersey.
The station has been broadcasting in its current format for 5 years, positioned as KROQ with an alternative skew and a more eclectic playlist. Previous incarnations of the station included several stints as an outlet for dance music in the early 1990s, helping to introduce the genre to a broader audience in the US.
The station reportedly spent the day playing X, the Clash, Buzzcocks, Black Flag, and the Sex Pistols ("Anarchy in the U.K." and Sid Vicious' "My Way" alternating with a pre-recorded announcment about the shutdown. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
