By Caroline Linton
RIDGE--Take a hike, WALK -- there's a new local
radio station in town.
It's Radio X, a Ridge-based community radio station. With a frequency range
that can be heard from the North Shore (at 94.7), the radio station that
began in the basement of Radio X's president now has the ability to reach
one million people in Suffolk County.
Radio X, or WLIX-LP, is run by Pine Barrens
Broadcasting Inc., a
not-for-profit corporation based in Ridge. President and General Manager
Scotty Hart markets the radio station as "radio for the rest of us,"
since
he plays rock music not usually featured on the Top 40 as well as community
public service announcements.
"It's the radio station for the community --
it's not mine, it's not yours,
it's ours," Mr. Hart said.
Since the radio station first plugged into the
airwaves on Aug. 15 from a
room in Mr. Hart's house, it has expanded to include a total of three
frequencies on the radio (94.9 in Hauppauge and 104.5 in Farmingville are
the other two), as well as adding a number of on-air shows.
"The J," hosts "Radio Exposed,"
a live band show that plays unsigned bands
from the area, which airs Friday nights at 10 p.m.; the Hair Hut, which plays
all hair metal bands from the '80s, airs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon; and
Long Island Blues Warehouse with Mark Klein airs on Sunday from 8 p.m. until
midnight.
"We're willing to play other types of
music," Mr. Hart said. The station
also broadcasts the North Shore Youth Council concerts on Friday nights.
This Friday, local bands Lost Boy, My Summer and the Born Losers will all be
airing at 7 p.m.
Aside from the live shows, the station has a play
list of more than 1,300
songs, meaning the radio station could run for a month without repeating a
single song.
"The stuff we're playing nobody else is
playing," Mr. Hart said. "I can honestly
say we're playing the music no one else is touching."
Mr. Hart said the way some radio stations test
music is "not the way we run
radio." Mr. Hart used the band Green Day as an example, saying he would
play
"Jesus Of Suburbia" from the "American Idiot" album, rather
than the much-played
and very popular "Wake Me Up When September Ends."
"I wanted to make a statement that alternative
music doesn't have to be this
negative, spray-paint image ... it's about appreciation of today's rock and
roll,"
Mr. Hart said about the radio station. "These bands are great."
Mr. Hart had a "lifelong dream" of
running his own radio station. A native
Long Islander, he worked for B103, LOVE 96.1 and for Cablevision on
the alternative channel Much Music, which later became Fuse. He said that
while he loved working on Much Music, he was not happy with the direction
Fuse was taking and he decided to pursue his dream of his own radio station.
The FCC authorized the development of the station
in 2000 to "create
opportunities for new voices on the airwaves," and since then Mr. Hart has
been working toward gathering support for the station locally. While it is
still basically a one-man operation, he
has help from volunteers such as
Kyle Reitan, a Miller Place high school sophomore in charge of public service.
Kyle, who goes by the on-air name of Kyle Ryan, is in charge of the public
service announcements from the community.
Kyle, who wants to study journalism in college,
said that when he first heard
about a local radio station, he wanted to get right on board. And, that,
Mr. Hart says, is the main goal of Radio X: to provide a radio station
the whole community can be involved in.
"All the years I've been doing radio, this is
the most exciting thing I've
done in my life because I think we're able take a stale radio market and
turn it around into something positive," Mr. Hart said.
North Shore Sun (Business Section) - February
17, 2006
