It's All Stops Here - The End of Y-Rock

Last night I got some sad news, local/indie  music giant Y-Rock will have it's last broadcast this Thursday with a sign off show from long time DJ Y-Rock On XPN founder and Operations Manager, Josh T. Landow airing from 9am-5pm. It feels like the summer of '06 all over again. On August 1,2006 Philadelphia's only alternative rock station Y100 was flipped, another station took over, and we lost our source for alternative and emerging local and indie acts in Philly. The concerts went on, local bands still toured, but, without the support of  Y100 the scene began to fizzle.

I remember frantically email the dj's to see if I'd fallen victim to some sort of joke, could this really be happening? If I can't hear their voices, do they still exist? Who will sponsor the next Dave Matthews Band Show?! I then went to see My Chemical Romance a few days later and had the pleasure of meeting Electra and asked why it is that things ended so abruptly. She said "They're trying to reach a new demographic; Suburban,16-25 yrs old, African Americans." and I shouted "I'm their demographic! Why are they doing this to me?!"

Five days later a ray of hope was found in the form of a bright idea from former program director Jim McGuinn. The idea? To take music from his personal collection and another Y-Rock team members, Jake, and turned it into Y-Rock Philly Local. Shortly there after Y-Rock on XPN was born, some of my favorites returned to the air and I'd never been happier to her Bjork's latest single. That was four years ago.

Now, things have changed, people have moved on and the door is once again closing on something great. I'm sad to see it go, and even more so for those who it helped to discover something new or old. This truly is a testament to music changing lives and I'm happy to have gone to their shows, and met a few great folks in the process. So a big, big, BIG thank you goes out to the dj's of the past and present for every track that broke my heart, got me through, and made me smile. Please support your local radio station, they may not be there forever!

More info can be found here in Jake's own words, in City Paper's orginal cover story Buried Alive (05), and the most current article from CP by Molly Eichel

~Naimah

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