The Future of Rock and Roll folks are going back to the future.
Former DJs at Oxford’s trendsetting WOXY-FM will gather at the Fairfield Freshman School Performing Arts Center to tell their favorite stories about the alternative rock station which called itself “the future of rock and roll.”
The “Back to the Future of Rock and Roll” reunion on Saturday, June 27, will include lots of audio clips, photos and a panel discussion with longtime program director DJ Steve Baker; DJs Matt “Sledge” Waller, Dave Tellman and Damian Dotterweich; and Jen Dalton, a former 97X intern who now co-hosts WKRC-TV’s Good Morning Cincinnati.
“We were one of the first commercial alternative radio stations in the country,” says Baker, who was hired by WOXY-FM owners Doug and Linda Balogh in 1984. “The Baker Man” managed the station until the Baloghs sold it in 2004.
Popularity for the tiny Oxford station exploded after Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in the Oscar-winning Rain Man movie, filmed in Cincinnati in 1988, was fixated on the station’s catchphrase. He kept repeating: “97X. Bam! The future of rock and roll.”
Rolling Stone took notice, calling 97X “one of the most influential and fiercely independent radio stations in American broadcasting history.” The magazine cited WOXY-FM as one of the “best radio stations” four times from 1990 to 1995. Spin magazine printed a feature story on the station. CityBeat and Cincinnati Magazine also “provided us with a lot of publicity,” Baker says.
The station promoted rock concerts at Bogart’s in Corryville and at Riverbend in Anderson Township, east of Downtown, even though many Cincinnati residents were frustrated they couldn’t get 97X’s over-the-air signal. Baker had to rig a special antenna at Bogart’s and Riverbend to receive a mono signal (not stereo) from the Oxford tower.
“Always the big question was: 'How can we get you? We can’t hear you!' ” says Baker, radio voice of Miami University football and basketball games.
97X staffers noted the irony in Rain Man: The Babbitt brothers (Tom Cruise, Hoffman) were driving their father’s 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible built before cars had FM radios on Columbia Parkway east of downtown Cincinnati, “where they couldn’t get (our signal),” Baker says.
Former DJs Matthew Harris and Bill Douglas and others are expected to attend, Baker says. WOXY’s alumni include Barb Abney, Bryan Jay Miller, Ric “Tile” Cengeri, Rob Ervin, Matt Shiv, Julie “Maxwell” Argonis, “Danny Crash” Reed, Julie “Jae Forman” Clay, Luann “Miss Kitty” Gibbs and Mike Taylor Winstead.
“Ric Cengeri and Dave Tellman were the ones I was a co-producer with,” Dalton says. “I credit them, along with Julie Maxwell, with teaching me how to have fun on the air — and that it's OK to do so. All of them showed me how to think outside the box and be creative when it comes to broadcasting, connecting with audiences and even marketing ideas. Such an amazing place!”
The reunion will “celebrate a beloved piece of Butler County’s cultural history,” says Brian Smith, executive director of the Butler County Historical Society, which organized the event. This is the second “road show” fundraiser, following an evening with Reds announcer Marty Brennaman earlier this year.
“We had this idea of going to places around the county instead of doing all our events here” at the Benninghofen House in downtown Hamilton, says Smith, a former Ross High School history teacher. “We decided to up our game a little, grow more regionally, and try to skew our demographics a little younger.”
WOXY-FM operated as an internet-only station from Cincinnati and Austin, Texas, from 2004 to 2011. Although WOXY.com shut down 15 years ago, a revival of 97X’s “Modern Rock 500” on Inhailer Radio in May 2023 drew “their largest streaming audience ever. People were listening in Asia, Europe and all over the world,” Baker says.
Doors open Saturday at 6:30 p.m. for the 7-9 p.m. program at the Fairfield Freshman School Performing Arts Center, 8790 N. Gilmore Road, Fairfield, 45014.
After the panel discussion, there will be a question-and-answer session. More than 60 audio samples from the station, plus promotional ads, photos and commercials, will be part of Baker’s PowerPoint presentation.
Several items will be available in a silent auction, including “a vintage satin WOXY 97X jacket signed by numerous stations personnel during the 1990s,” the historical society says.
Tickets (with fees) are $22 for members, and $32 for non-members at the Butler County Historical Society website.
VIP ticket holders will attend a pre-show backstage gathering with 97X personalities for a meet-and-greet, photo opportunities and autographs on “any WOXY merch or swag or other alt rock item you provide,” according to the historical society. VIP tickets (with fees) are $62 for members and $52 for non-members.
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