WFNX T-shirt sales spike after news of sale to Clear Channel

Former WFNX news man Henry Santoro posted a picture on Facebook on Wednesday of what’s becoming the most popular T-shirt in town. It’s one of the many vintage-looking ’FNX shirts made by QRST’s, a Somerville company that makes apparel featuring, among other things, logos of old Boston bands such as The Neighborhoods and the Nervous Eaters. For the better part of a decade, QRST’s has been in charge of making shirts for ’FNX. When news broke last week that the station was being sold to Clear Channel and that nearly all of 101.7’s big names would be walking out the door, sales of the rock station shirts went through the roof. QRST’s owner Peter Rinning told us Wednesday that before last week, he sold one or two ’FNX shirts a month. But in the first 24 hours after the news of the Clear Channel sale, he sold 100. And after Santoro posted a link to the last ’FNX shirt ever designed, the number spiked again. “Since Friday, I’ve sold several hundred shirts,” Rinning said. He explained that with his other apparel products, he pays royalties to the defunct Boston bands that have their name on his shirts. He said that he hasn’t been told whether the sale of ’FNX will affect his ability to continue making the tees, but he can’t guarantee that they’ll be on sale forever. (That’s probably his not-so-subtle way of telling you to buy one soon.)