There’s now one less online outlet for independent artists and for people to discover them. Whole Wheat Radio, which exposed lots of people to lots of fine independent music through its website and webcast for eight years, is history. Jim Kloss, its founder and director, called it quits on Oct. 20.

“Whole Wheat Radio – the original, one-of-a-kind and real Whole Wheat Radio – is now closed. Permanently,” wrote Kloss in a “Letter of Resignation” that he posted to Whole Wheat Radio’s 3,200+-member Facebook fan page. “With it go my sincere hopes and efforts to make a small, positive difference in the lives of independent musicians. With it go thousands of hours of musical and creative joy – along with a hundred or two of utter bewilderment and frustration.”

Kloss acknowledged that it is “beyond my written ability to communicate the thousands… millions… of colorful threads I daily wove into the fabric” that was Whole Wheat Radio. He cited his favorite writer and philosopher Kahlil Gibran’s phrase – “Work is love made visible” – to summarize the experience.

“My work here is now over,” wrote Kloss. “I no longer love this job. I no longer love my bosses, my customers, my associates, my office, my reason for sitting down daily at the computer and volunteering another hour, or two, or twelve, and weaving in a few more rows of fabric.”

Kloss noted that the creation of an unofficial Whole Wheat Radio Facebook group that purportedly targeted various Whole Wheat Radio listeners and artists and forced them to subscribe to it — in violation of both privacy and the intent of everything Whole Wheat Radio stood for – was the last straw for him. “My back, and heart, broke months ago,” he wrote in his Letter of Resignation.:

“Finally, I realize I am, as of this moment, now free of this job. My life is mine again. I feel a huge sense of relief. It’s over. Thank goodness!,” he continued. “Because now, Nature willing, I can use all the lessons learned behind the door I just closed, to slowly pry open completely new doors…”