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A CHIRP Call to Action: Donation Lines are Open!

By Karl Klockars in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 24, 2010 8:40PM

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Times have been tough for independent radio of late, be it terrestrial or online. Los Angeles' Indie 103.1 was yanked off the air in early 2009 and replaced with Spanish radio, and continues to soldier on in a online-only capacity. The legendary WOXY, one of the first set of call letters to grab hold of the "alternative/modern rock" format in Cincinnati all the way back in '82, has recently called it quits do to economic reasons. Broadcasting online from Austin after a recent relocation, they fought their way through this years SXSW festival, and then pulled all of its live programming after a funding deal failed to develop. While the venerable station isn't quite dead yet, the prospects aren't looking good.

Chicago's own independent radio project CHIRP (whom we spoke with on a recent entry to the Chicagoist Podcast Series, you may recall) is currently in the process of padding its coffers to prevent going the way of the WOXY. In just a couple weeks, the 8th annual CHIRP Record Fair will open its doors at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union hall on west Washington, featuring vendors like Bloodshot Records, Manovinyl, Rax-o-Wax and Second Hand Tunes offering up records, crafts and artwork for two days.

In advance of that event, however, CHIRP has opened up the donation lines a la WBEZ for an online fundraiser to keep the lights on and the indie/local tunes spinning. They've set up a donations page and much like the public radio model, you have the option of donating set amounts to recieve bitchin' merchandise like t-shirts and coffee cups, but the bicycle messenger bag is sure to be the must-have fashion item for spring amongst the indie movers and shakers among us. In any case, since it's harder to proselytize when you're at the whims of the interwebz, we're passing the link and helping pass the hat. Why are we pushing this now? Because after this year's Record Fest, all that sweet merch will be gone and done for - so consider this your call to action.