Some of our perennially most popular posts are about smooth jazz radio in Chicago (and there’s a lot of different kinds of jazz on Chicago radio). After being bumped around the dial for the last five years, the format has emerged on a new station once again, this time broadcasting from a new translator station […]
As a solid Generation Xer from the college radio cohort I remember quite clearly the alternative rock craze of the 1990s. In the wake of Nirvana’s breakthrough on the top 40, followed by fellow Seattle bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, major labels went on a signing spree looking for any band with a smidge […]
Chicago’s Q101 was one of the first commercial alternative rock stations, and the first one to bring that format to the Chicago radio starting in 1992. The format and Q101 branding went away on July 15, 2011, when Randy Michaels’ Merlin Media took over the station, flipping it to his FM News format, that was […]
Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, of the Beastie Boys passed away from cancer today at the age of 47. Although I knew Yauch had been battling cancer for the last few years, the news still hit me as a shock. I started to think about how my relationship to Yauch and his bandmates’ music […]
Editors’ note: Since the publication of this article the smooth jazz format has returned to the Chicago airwaves. Read this December 31, 2014 update for more details. In a move whose logic I honestly don’t understand, Randy Michael’s Merlin Media has entered into a local marketing agreement with Venture Technologies Group, which owns the low-power […]
Anyone can fill up a playlist with the Raconteurs, Arcade Fire and Cold War Kids. So, how do you differentiate your online station packed full of new alternative and modern rock? You add space. Of course it was Sun Ra who declared that “Space is the Place,” though I don’t think his music is heard […]
When last we heard from Randy Michaels he was exiting the Tribune Tower in Chicago, resigning after news broke that he turned the company’s broadcast division into Animal House. While the architect of Clear Channel’s buy, consolidate and gut approach to broadcasting was busy allegedly throwing poker parties, he shuffled beloved hosts and drove down […]
Before we got married, in the late 90s my wife lived for two years in Dayton, OH. I would drive four hours across Indiana from my Champaign, IL home to see her. I knew that I had exited the radio desert of the Hoosier State when I could just barely tune in WOXY out of […]
