RIP, Houston's only decent radio station

In the corporate-playlist wasteland that is Houston radio, 103.7 was the one bright spot. That is, until yesterday:

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, 103.7 KHJK left the Houston airwaves, leaving "Houston's Adult Alternative" without a substitute. Christian alternative format Air 1 Radio has taken its place.

The changeover as a result of Cumulus Media's prepackaged bankruptcy buyout that included KHJK and sports-talk station KFNC (97.5 FM, "The Ticket"). KFNC was bought by GOW Communications and KHJK was bought by Educational Media Foundation, which owns nationwide Contemporary Christian network KLOVE and its Christian alternative-music cousin Air 1.

Good news if you're a fan of Christian contemporary music, I guess. But bad news for me (and, judging by the comments on this 29-95 post about the changeover, a lot of other people as well). I enjoyed 103.7's "adult alternative" format, which had a catalog reaching back to the early 80s and which featured artists that no other local radio station would touch, like Florence and the Machine, Death Cab for Cutie, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Black Keys, Snow Patrol, Wilco, and Grace Potter and the Noctournals, just to name a few.

I understand that 103.7's demise was a simple business decision: the station had a new owner due to the previous owner's bankruptcy and the station's weak signal (there were times when it was hard to pick up inside the loop) limited its appeal to advertisers. But it sucks, nevertheless.

Well, at least I can listen to my iPhone in the car and my satellite radio at home. Mike McGuff has more.