Since 1983, the Boston radio station marketed as “true alternative” has rocked the airwaves, but for the last few years it really hasn’t been the alternative to anything — it’s been the only game in town.

And now it’s gone.

Phoenix Media has sold 101.7 FM, the home of WFNX, to radio conglomerate Clear Channel.

Not the station, the frequency.

Phoenix Media, in a statement Wednesday, said the company will retain “the call letters, the archives, interviews, videos, etc.,” meaning that soon, the radio station 101.7 WFNX will cease to exist, and may only live on as an Internet or HD radio station.

The Phoenix, reporting on its own company, says that Clear Channel may have plans to turn 101.7 into either a country or a Spanish language station.

Bolstering that argument, the Boston Business Journal is reporting that longtime radio personalities Julie Kramer and Henry Santoro were laid off today.

The move will leave Boston without an alternative radio station and with only one option for FM rock music. WAAF (97.7 and 107.3) attracts a “harder” audience and does not share much of an audience with the indie-heavy FNX crowd.

Blast interviewed Santoro in 2009 in a lengthy a profile of the Sandbox morning show, which shut down just four months later.

Boston.com reported Wednesday afternoon that 15 other WFNX employees were laid off. The station, which started the week with 21 employees — 9 full-time and 12 part-time — is left with three full-timers and one part time employee, Boston.com reports, citing Boston Phoenix editor Peter Kadzis.

WFNX has struggled in ratings for years, even after longtime rock competitor WBCN went off the air when CBS Radio launched its 98.5 The Sports Hub sports talk channel and moved a top 40 station to WBCN’s 104.1 dial position.

“Because this is an emotional announcement to make, let me cut right to the chase. This morning I met with the staff of WFNX to announce the pending sale of the station to Clear Channel Communications,” Phoenix Media founder Stephen M. Mindich wrote in a memo to staff. “It was a great run and I will miss the station.”

Mindich cited the economic downturn as a contributing factor in the sale.

“Despite its celebrated history, its cutting edge programming, its tradition of breaking new music, its ardent fans among listeners and advertisers, for some time it has been difficult to sustain the station – especially since the start of the Great Recession,” he wrote.

WFNX will remain on the air during the time it takes to complete the FCC transfer process.

Mindich said that events and concerts like the Best Music Poll (June 13) and the Seaport Six (June 14) will go on as scheduled.

With a sort of mashup of characters, an eclectic mix of sounds, and layered melodies Airborne Toxic Event headlined at the House of Blues on October 13 and sat down with Blast to answer a few questions.

On their Beginnings

Mikel Jollett formed Airborne in 2006. Spurred by personal catastrophic events in his life Jollet turned from writing about music and started to make his own.

“I realized I was composing an album instead of a novel” he told the Los Angeles Times in August of 2007.

He recruited some of his friends: Steven Chen on guitar, Noah Harmon on bass, Daren Taylor on drums, and Anna Bulbrook on viola keyboards and tambourine.

Less than a month later the band played its first show in Echo Park. Jollett had been keeping busy contacting bloggers and getting word out their about the band and their first concert. Jollett sent MP3s to blogs, and the bloggers started writing. “When it came to that first show, they were all there” Chen said. Jollett remembers about 200 showing up, which is impressive for a first show.

October 5 is the anniversary of their first show Chen remembers, “and we completely forgot about it this year” he said. Before that first show Chen had only met Harmon one or two times. “He was still on the fence (about joining the band) at that point” Chen said.

“I’m still on the fence now three years later” Harmon interrupted laughing.

On the Band

“We all bring something different, something new to the mix” Chen said. Before turning to writing Jollett was a freelancer for National Public Radio and the Los Angeles Times and worked on a few novels. Bulbrook is a classically trained violinist and upon joining the band taught herself to play the viola and the keyboard. Harmon holds a jazz degree in upright bass and worked as a music teacher in LA for a few years. Chen was asked to join as a keyboardist, but petitioned to be lead guitarist.

“Anna and her viola bring something different” Harmon agreed. String instruments are rare and few between in rock bands, and when they do appear it’s nine times out of ten a violin.

“It’s a rock and roll viola” Harmon said, “The poor thing never knew what it was getting into.”

“Our goal, whether it be a slower song like “ËœMidnight’ or a more upbeat song like “ËœGasoline’ is to write a good song and strike some chord” Chen said. “That was the whole idea for the album.”

As for the name, it was all Jollett’s idea. Taken from Don DeLillo’s novel “ËœWhite Noise’ an airborne toxic event was a term coined by the military to reference a poisonous cloud emitted from a chemical spill.

“I had read the book for three classes and wrote two essays on it” Chen said, “as the title it makes a lot of sense.”

“It doesn’t matter at all what you call yourself” Chen said. “It’s what you do with it.”

On the Tour

“We’re just a new band” Jollett said to the audience, “the world’s coming by us at 100 miles a minute and I don’t think any of us can make heads or tails of it.”

Airborne has played more than 250 shows this year, and the year is far from over. The band members cannot remember the last time they were home for more than a month.

“When I go home I don’t even bother putting things away” Chen laughed. Instead he just lives easily out of a suitcase. Harmon sold his car when he realized it was doing little more than gathering dust.

“Your idea of home becomes a bit skewed” Harmon added, “now home is a tour bus.”

Chen cannot even picture home anymore: “I can’t imagine not being in a new place every night.”

Airborne will take a nice long break around the holiday time and then jet off to the UK and beyond.

It will be their sixth time in UK this year.

“I’ve landed in London as many times as I’ve landed in Los Angeles” Harmon laughed.

For Harmon, the UK is one of their favorite destinations, and they’ve been there six times this year. “But in the UK the fridges don’t work” Chen butted in, “but it’s really ok because they know their fridges don’t work. They’re not trying to convince anyone that the refrigerator works.”

On “Sometime Around Midnight”

The viola starts and the crowd screams at its loudest. Everyone knows what songs coming before one bow stroke is over. It may only be 10:58 by my clock, but for Airborne Toxic Event it’s “Sometime Around Midnight.”

An acoustic version of the song was released as a free Starbucks song of the week, and from there it grew popularity on both iTunes and the music charts.

It’s not that big of a deal when your friends know who you are, when your friends-friends know who you are Chen said. “It’s when your parents friends start to notice, it’s like whoa.”

People relate to the emotions in it, Harmon comments. The record became an instant hit. Not only a top radio and music video track, iTunes also named it the “Number 1 Alternative Song of 2008.”

On Boston and the House of Blues

Now that the Red Sox season is officially over, the gem of Landsdowne has moved across the street to House of Blues. And here the players are musicians and they wear red basketball shorts and converse instead of cleats and baseball tights. “We just played the most intense game of basketball ever” bassist Noah Harmon said, pulling his hair back. “I don’t remember the last time I was so winded.”

Two opening bands, and two hours into the night Airborne finally hits the stage. And they hit it running. For a impressive few minutes they all go a bit crazy and show off their raw talent. No vocals, no lights, just Airborne and their respective instruments. Before you know it the first song has started, and you are transfixed in a daze.

On stage they show undeniable togetherness and energy, even as the set pushes upon two hours. They bounce off each other’s backs, Bulbrook wields her viola, Harmon sporadically strokes a bow on his bass strings, Taylor hacks away with his drum sticks, Jollett spasms, and Chen stands tall and unmoving. But somehow it all works.

One of the most impressive parts of the set was an acoustic set. Jollett sat down on the stage and sang to the audience more personally, Chen went to an upright piano, and Harmon picked up a jazz bass. “I feel like we’re getting to know you now” Jollett told the crowd.

“You were the audience, Boston, and we were the band” Jollett ended after a four song encore. “One day, when your dead you’re one wish is gonna be for this hour and a half back, but thank you for it.”

But Jollett’s words were wrong, as the crowd’s one wish was that the night never ended.

429 Records (part of the Columbia family) announced Tuesday the signing of alternative rockers Everclear to a multi-record contract.

The Oregonian rockers will open the relationship with 429 with the release of “In a Different Light,” a collection of newly interpreted recordings of some of their greatest hits.

“The brainchild of front man Art Alexakis, the album also includes two new Alexakis-penned songs, ‘Here Comes the Darkness’ and ‘At the End of the Day,’” 429 said in a statement.

The record drops October 6 with an album of new songs to follow next spring. Dates will also be announced soon for a tour next year.

Songs on “In a Different Light” include:

Learning How To Smile
Santa Monica
I Will Buy You A New Life
Summerland
Everything To Everyone
Wonderful
Here Comes The Darkness
Father Of Mine
Rock Star
Fire Maple Song
At The End Of The Day

NEW YORK — Music fans who miss the glory days of post-punk and “Ëœ80s alternative need look no further than “Midnight of the Century” the debut album from New York quartet Blacklist, which offers a quick fix.

Blast recently spoke with three-quarters of the band (minus guitarist James Minor) as they prepared for the July 28 release of their record.

The Blacklist seed was planted in 2004, when singer Josh Strawn and guitarist Ryan Rayhill, both New York transplants, met each other and shortly thereafter formed a band whose sound emulated the likes of Iron Maiden and Motorhead. The eventually addition of drummer Glenn Maryansky prompted their music to evolve to a “more melodic, atmospheric post-punk” aesthetic, according to Strawn.

Strawn’s soaring, Peter Murphy-esque vocals don’t seem to fit with his softspoken, contemplative offstage persona. A high-minded, politically passionate frontman who says that, if music were not an option, he’d be studying Farsi in pursuit of a journalism career in Iran, Strawn’s resume includes a past stint as a community organizer for ACORN. His list of lyrical inspirations includes figures like George Orwell and astronomer Carl Sagan.

The name Blacklist, originally proposed by Rayhill, is an apt reflection of this mindset.

“It was kind of serendipitous” said Strawn, pointing to the fact that he often draws on the memoirs of political dissidents to flesh out his songs (sample lyric: “We‚ come together‚ in the street like soldiers … we’re gonna burn their flags”). The album title itself is a throwback to Russian revolutionary Victor Serge, whose novel “Midnight In the Century” offered a detailed account of life in the Gulag.

Sonically, “Midnight of the Century” is crafted from accessible metal that occasionally strays into pop territory and, at times, even borders on danceable. From the moment it gets underway with the thumping opener “Still Changes” “Midnight” immediately calls to mind “Ëœ80s alternative powerhouses like Joy Division, The Cult and The Church. But the band members identify more obscure bands like The Sound, The Lucy Show and Asylum Party “" “a lot of stuff that flew under the radar in the “Ëœ80s that should have made it big” according to Maryansky “" as being more influential.

The fact that Blacklist’s sound doesn’t fit easily into one single category (“A lot of people like to put us in the goth hole” Rayhill laments), but instead blurs the divisions between New Wave, metal, pop and glam rock, sits well with the members.

“There’s always been an effort to walk interesting lines between what’s a macho sound and what’s a feminine, makeup-wearing sound” Strawn said. “We’re into all of it. “¦ it’s more about a sonic space than it is about trying to fit into it.”

“Crossing the Rubicon” the latest offering from Swedish synth-pop quintet The Sounds, borrows its name from a phrase meaning “to pass a point of no return.” Historically, it refers to the act of war Julius Caesar committed by crossing the Rubicon River in Northern Italy in 49 B.C.

So it would be perfectly understandable to wonder if the band is exploring new sonic territory on their latest offering, which hits shelves June 2. What’s ironic, though, given this context, is that the strongest moments on “Crossing the Rubicon” “" and there are many “" emerge when the band sticks to the winning formula it honed on 2006′s “Dying to Say This to You” “" danceable guitar riffs and synthesizers on top of upbeat rhythms.

“Crossing the Rubicon” starts on a high note, with the infectious, guitar-heavy first single “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake” and continues with a handful of equally catchy tunes, including the New Wave-y “4 Songs and a Fight” and delightfully bizarre Blondie homage “Beatbox.”

Unfortunately though, the 12-song offering loses some of its steam in‚ its final third, with the later songs failing to reach the extremely high bar set by the first ones. The title track, which sounds like gothic monks singing over an excerpt from a dramatic movie score, marks the middle point, and its placement is jarring to say the least “" especially since it’s book-ended by the accessible “Midnight Sun” and “Underground.”

The Sounds will spend much of the summer on the road, having landed the opening slot on several dates of No Doubt’s reunion tour. Like the headliner, they are anchored by a powerful frontwoman “" sassy singer Maja Ivarsson, whose vocals range from pained to empowered “" backed by male supporting musicians who tend to stay in the background.

Their position on the No Doubt tour, combined with the band’s decision to stream “Crossing the Rubicon” in its entirety nearly a week before its official release date, indicate the band is trying to expand its American fanbase. Their radio-friendly pop is likely to win over some early-arriving audience members.