THEY EAT THEIR OWN -NYC’s WDRE 92.7- Industry - Island Park, LI - Large Tee (LS)

Description

Up for sale today is:
WDRE 92.7 - THEY EAT THEIR OWN at Club Industry, in Island Park, Long Island  -
January 17, 1991
Long Sleeve Tee
- thick cotton
Size: LARGE
Arm pit to arm pit: 20”
Collar to bottom of shirt: 31”
Long Sleeves (shoulder seam to end of cuff): 26”
Unused - Never Worn/Never Washed
We recommend that you compare the measurements listed, to the dimensions of a shirt you like the fit of, to determine if ours
is suitable for you. All measurements are taken with your garment, face down, flat on a table.
Your item will be delivered in the condition shown— Utilize our snapshots to make your determination of this t-shirt’s fitness as this is the one, you’ll receive. Please keep in mind that you are buying a vintage collectible.
We ship every business day with USPS Priority Mail, with INSURANCE, including a delivery confirmation number which you will receive. Your order will be mailed within 3 business days of your payment.
All sales are Final - No Returns  - Contact us with any questions prior to purchase.
About the shirt, and the event
:
I recall, back in 1990, when our go-to, alternative radio station, 92.7 WLIR-FM (later, WDRE), played a song from this group called ‘They Eat Their Own’ [T.E.T.O.]. The song was "Like A Drug".
This station, at the time, was New York City area’s tried and true place, to hear the latest cutting edge/’college-radio-style’ sounds, and on this day, they premiered, what I thought was, an instant hit.
During this same period, Long Island’s WLIR-FM, was undergoing some growing pains (if you were a former listener, you know what I mean). There were lawsuits involving ownership, etc. And, as a result of court decision, a company named Jarad Broadcasting, took control of the station’s broadcast license (frequency 92.7), taking ownership by the end of 1980s. Their permanent license did not include the station’s ‘call’ letters, so the new licensee had to operate with the call letters WDRE, while the other company, Phoenix Media, brought the WLIR call letters to an AM radio station in upstate New York (why, we’ll never know).
Anyhow, Phoenix Media also took WLIR’s "Dare To Be Different" slogan, as their intellectual property, so the newly named WDRE's moniker became "New Music First". WLIR’s "Screamer of the Week" attribute became, "Shriek of the Week", but WDRE remained committed to ‘new music,’ as they introduced new bands into the next decade, such as Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, and our friends, TETO.
Anyhow, back to They Eat Their Own. I became fascinated by TETO’s songs, ultimately buying their album, and was totally impressed with the whole record. The lead singer, Laura B., had a really fine alternative rock voice, the rest of the band was very talented, and had a very ‘original sound’.
Yes, there was a time, when all kinds of punky, indie pop, was finally getting some attention and almost any new album, was worth checking out. But I picked this one up and it turned out to be one of my more glorious finds.
So, as their self-titled, debut album, received lots of airplay, not only on New York radio, but throughout the country, TETO went ‘out on the road’, in support of their new record, in January of 1991. We couldn’t wait for them to come to Long Island, NY, where we lived at the time.
Sure enough, WDRE-FM’s deejays announced that TETO was coming to our ‘hood! on, January 17th (of 1991). Where? At club INDUSTRY, in Island Park (the club was once called Paradise—it was ‘on the water’ and they had an outside deck plus a volleyball net).
Next, the WDRE air staff announced that the first 50 audience members that showed up, would receive a commemorative t-shirt, produced, just for this small club performance, occasion. You would have ‘line up’ early, in order to get a shirt.
Now, if you were fortunate to go backstage, and meet the band (as we did), then you might have an opportunity, to receive the far more limited, ‘Band & Roadie only ’long-sleeve version, which you see here. This was the only time TETO played here—and neither shirt was created to be sold, and was of an extremely limited print run.
By mid-1991, WDRE’s station changed its moniker again, this time to: "The Cutting Edge of Rock". The upsurge in popularity of grunge and alternative rock, in the early 1990s, led to a period of instability. The synthpop-based music, on which much of the station's playlist was based, was now ‘out of fashion’. Alternative rock artists that formerly were played, almost exclusively, on WDRE were now being heard on many rock and pop music stations.
I don't know what happened, but I guess TETO didn't sell enough records and eventually disbanded. They Eat Their Own were truly artistic and creative, and they wrote songs that were intelligent, opiniated, informative, and personal. And they had a cool alternative rock guitar sound.
Best songs from that debut recording—that I liked, were “Like A Drug”, “Too Many Guns”, “Better Now”, "No Right To Kill", and "Why Don't You Disagree". Of course, the rest of the cuts were as good as well, and I thought this group was getting ready to come onto the new music scene, with the promise of making more music and getting proper respect. Yet, just a year or two later, when ‘alternative’ became more conventional, indie acts (like TETO) got flattened over by ‘Grunge’, and possibly got lost in the shuffle.