https://www.wckg.com/

Serial radio-periphery dude Matt Dubiel really seems to be up to something here. He's had the CKG calls on the 1530 daytimer for a few years, and he's been squatting on the Q101 IP as a web stream ever since the flip in 2011, but now he's putting them together ALSO with the old beloved WBMX IP and simulcasting the daytimer over a backdoor translator at 102.3, which can't make WXLC very happy, because having a low-power station operating in the shadow of a full-power rimshot station is a bad idea and really the sort of thing the FCC ought to be prohibiting.

So there's a station that's not really CKG, which carries programming blocks that are called Q101 (mornings and middays) and WBMX (weekends) while their arguable successors continue on their actual frequencies. And on top of all this he's got Alex Jones so you can learn all about the chemtrails that made Barack Obama a gay prostitute.

I don't really like this on a number of levels. On one hand, I should be championing personal and local radio ownership up against the CBS/Clear Channel/Cumulus behemoths that dominate Chicago radio. But cobbling together a Frankenstein's monster of beloved (or in the case of CKG, occasionally moderately well-liked) local radio brands without the jocks, programmers, and promotions that made them what they were feels kind of cheap and lazy to me. Furthermore, these backdoor translators are popping up like weeds and should be treated accordingly. Just create your own thing, do it right.

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In the era of podcasts, on-demand content, and Internet radio this seems like a very 20th Century issue. Sort of like if the FTC were to address anti-trust complaints regarding a buggy whip manufacturer.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

WBMX is the first station I listened to regularly, back in the mid-70s. They had an interesting playlist because they'd cross over a little bit and play some Doobie Brothers, Hall and Oates, and the like.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal