‘Net gain

More than a year later, Y100Rocks.com survives with an all volunteer staff

By Danny Adler

Philly EDGE Correspondent

Let’s face it, Y100 wasn’t perfect. There was no J. Mascis and the Fog or Descendents. But for those who hate Aerosmith and would rather go deaf than have to sit through another Led Zeppelin song, Y100, before it was yanked off the air on February 24, 2005, provided an outlet for alternative rock music by playing everything from Stone Temple Pilots and Foo Fighters to Rancid and Bad Religion.

Just over a year ago, when alt-music fans tuned in to find Philly’s only alternative station blaring hip-hop and R&B as The Beat (FM-100.3), Y100 promotional director and DJ Josh T. Landow was busy fighting back by creating Y100Rocks.com, an internet radio station that wants to bring buzzing guitars back to the Delaware Valley.

PE: What is a day in the life of Y100Rocks like? What do you do at the station?

JTL: At Y100 I was the promotions guy, so I was running all of the station’s contests and giveaways, plus our out and about activities. And I was on the air on the weekends. Now at Y100Rocks.com, I do all that stuff, plus I'm much more involved in every aspect of the station's operation from picking music to play, to maintaining the Web site and sending a weekly e-mail newsletter, to selling advertising, to managing a staff of volunteer DJs.

PE: How is Y100Rocks different than the terrestrial stations?

JTL: Y100Rocks.com is an internet radio station, rather than an FM station. Other differences are a direct result of our banishment from the airwaves to the Web. We don't have the same corporate restrictions on what we have to play, so we can be more true to our own tastes than we were before. Out (on the play list) are bands like Nickelback, Creed and 3 Doors Down. In are a lot of cool new bands like Bloc Party, She Wants Revenge and The Arcade Fire, plus more of our old favorites like Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The White Stripes, etc... Also we're an entirely volunteer-based station…we have a staff of people who just love music and want to play it and talk about it.

PE: Do you think that internet and satellite radio will ever be as influential as terrestrial radio?

JTL: Unless FM radio can dig itself out of the hole it's stuck in, then more and more people are going to be abandoning it in favor of more high-tech options. FM radio is still far more accessible than the other options, but that won't always be the case. By 2007 (so they say), Philadelphia will have a Wi-Fi network in which everyone will have access to broadband internet everywhere. When the internet is all over, the playing field will be leveled and a station like ours, run by volunteers on a shoestring budget, will be able to reach an even bigger audience than an FM station that's limited by its signal range.

PE: What do you think of the state of Philly FM radio today?

JTL: Poopy. That would be putting it delicately. I suppose it's fine if you like hip-hop cause there's about five stations you can go to for that… If you're under 40 and you want to hear new/modern/alternative rock, you pretty much have to look elsewhere.

PE: How did you feel when so many people petitioned asking for Y100 to be put back on the radio?

JTL: I was inspired and gratified. The only thing that really kept me going for a while after Y100 went off the air was the enormous outpouring of support that we received from our listeners. I went to the station and did a job that I loved for a long time, but because radio is something that most people tend to take for granted, you don't always get much feedback about the station, unless of course you offend someone... But when the station went off the air and we started Y100Rocks.com, then it all came pouring in… it made it all the more important to me to fight the good fight for(listeners)and their music that was now unavailable on the radio.

PE: If you could start over from day one of your radio career, what would you have done differently?

JTL: I wouldn't have changed a thing. I could say with the foresight of knowing that I was going to lose my job, I would have made a move somewhere else before that could happen, but truth is I wouldn't have. Philadelphia is my home and Y100 was my home. I had the best job in the world and I wouldn't want to have given up a second of it. And now, some people might think I'm crazy to be doing what I'm doing...hell, it even crosses my mind from time to time, but I'm extremely proud of what we're doing at Y100Rocks.com. We're fighting the good fight, so to speak, against big corporate radio that's flexing its muscles to limit what you get to hear.

PE: What is the future of Y100Rocks.com? Where do you want it to go?

JTL: I don't know that I can give a definitive answer. We really take it one day at time. Our hope is that we'll be able to sustain this endeavor until such a time as it will be able to compete (on a larger scale).I think it's safe to say that if someone came to us wanting to put us back on the radio, we'd jump at the opportunity, after all, it's all about distribution.