It wasn't ballyhooed in any way, but the game in Buffalo's music scene might have been changed last Thursday at noon when music returned to 107.7 FM in a big way. After being the FM classic rock equivalent of satellite radio and the FM radio home for right wing nutjobs for the last few years, 107.7 is now Alternative Buffalo 107.7, and it's playing all sorts of decent music you had to listen to 91.3 or Toronto radio to catch. It's by no means perfect, but demographics wildly under served by local radio finally (FINALLY!) have a station to call home, and for Buffalo's ever growing and evolving music scene, this could be the game changer we've been waiting for. Or, the one that I've been waiting for because frankly I wrote about it last year.
Yes, bands like Foals, Kings Of Leon, Tame Impala, MGMT, Phoenix, Arcade Fire, Of Monsters And Men, Metric, and Passion Pit (which has a non imagined local connection) now have a home on Buffalo radio that's not 91.3, and it's bloody fantastic. Yeah the new 107.7 isn't perfect with it's penchant for lesser 90's alternative acts and an unfortunate fondness for that painfully boring "Royals" song, but I'm enjoying at least one song in every block, and sometimes I've heard whole blocks of goodness, and in Buffalo that's unheard of.
I know there's going to be some talk about terrestrial radio being old hat and on it's way out, but really that's just hipster talk talking about how hipsters consume music off of the Internet or satellite and not about how most people consume music, which is still largely from sources like local FM radio. And Buffalo radio outside of 91.3 (which does occasionally suck) has sucked forever... clogged up with pap, shite, unadventurous classic rock, and butt metal. But now radio listeners in Buffalo have another choice, one that offers the opportunity for discovery and access to something we all call GOOD MUSIC.
Now, an actual audience might grow around this GOOD MUSIC, and with the pre-existing GOOD MUSIC fans, things might start really happening in our already dynamic music scene. Older folks who want to listen to new music and kids who want to listen to actual adult/college music are going to have a Buffalo station to gravitate to, and the bands they're exposed to might actually play Buffalo now that they exist in our radio market, and that means more shows for music fans to go to and shows for local bands to open for. Buffalo will never be NYC or Toronto, and yes Buffalo does get some great shows (way more than back in the day), but there's always room for more, and hell, everybody should play Buffalo at least once, especially if they've got an audience here.
I'm not saying that 107.7 FM will directly bring elusive acts like Radiohead and Sigur Ros (which I haven't heard on that station...yet) to Buffalo, but the odds definitely improve if those bands are played on Buffalo radio, and that's why 107.7 is something to at least check out and support. With all of this urban energy and talk about "Buffalo 2.0," the arrival of Buffalo's new alternative radio station might be the start of something this area has been starving for.
It's great - just increase the signal strength...I'm in West Seneca with a roof top FM Antenna, and the HD Signal still cuts in and out - this was also a problem when The Lake and WBEN was broadcasting on this frequency.
Radiohead played here in 1995 opening for R.E.M. at memorial auditorium. I'm sure that was enough for them.