Farewell and thank you, NU107.5

Last Sunday night, outside the NU107.5 radio station during its last hours on air:



14 years ago, two of my guy friends introduced NU107.5 to me. I became an instant convert (from RT to NU. well, from RX and/or RT to NU) and I've been listening to the station since then.

I must admit, though, that lately I've been listening to 88.3 more. It must be one of the million consequences of getting old - my ears are not accustomed to Greyhoundz-Slapshock-ish music anymore.

While driving to work this morning, I unearthed my old iPod and realized that 90% of the songs I downloaded, I first heard on NU. At a time when our household was still Internet-free, NU was my only source of the latest rock/alternative songs. During my emo phase, whenever I'd feel down, I'd set the radio frequency to NU, turn up the volume, and try to drown all my (now seemingly shallow) issues in music. I know my parents/older siblings probably rolled their eyes at me whenever I'd change the car radio station to 107.5, but I still did anyway and poked fun at the generation gap made apparent by their failure to appreciate the kind of music I listened to.

Thanks to NU, I was exposed to great bands like DMB, Silverchair, Live and a lot of OPM bands like Wolfgang and Razorback at an early age. NU fostered my obsession for Jakob Dylan and the rest of the Wallflowers (but mostly, Jakob Dylan. Hehe) when I was 14. Had it not been for NU, I would've listened to Take That and Boyzone for most of my high school life. I would not have attended all the gigs I did (including one of the Rock Awards) if I hadn't been listening to it. While others had Chico and Delamar to accompany their morning trips to school, I had Zach and Joey in the Morning during my late high school/early college life. Cliche as it may sound, it was not just a radio station - it was a lifestyle. I'd like to believe that it made me a more interesting and probably slightly cooler person (dissenters welcome hehe).

I never thought NU would close down, at least not this early. I feel like I went through a premature breakup. I feel like the angsty teenager in me died. This morning, I listened to some of the loud songs I didn't bother listening to anymore for the past few years (like Incubus' New Skin). I suddenly found myself asking, what now? at nothing in particular. Change, even drastic ones, is inevitable, but it still leaves me shocked and unable to move on sometimes. And speaking of change, I said several goodbyes to other things aside from NU also the past weekend, but that's another story.

As Modest Mouse put it:

Bad news comes don't you worry even when it lands.
Good news will work its way to all them plans.
We both got fired on exactly the same day.
Well we'll float on good news is on the way.

And we'll all float on, ok.

- Float On







More pics here.