Scrolled past 95.5 and heard "I Wanna Be Sedated." Sounds like iHeart finally pulled the plug on this one; Chicago is not a two-country-station town. Right now they're playing random songs with lame KQX-style bits in between. Now they're playing "Strange Fruit." If you like weird format-transition programming, might want to check in this weekend.

I'll probably go back on self-imposed hiatus, just had to make sure to make note of this since something actually happened in Chicago media today.

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Bobby Bones fails. This official?

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Seems like it, though I'm still waiting for Feder to stop babbling about NEWS NATION for one second. They played a message that said they've migrated the country to the HD-2 signal/stream. I'm guessing that means Bobby Bones in the morning and automation the rest of the day. Syndicated morning fare is a dicey proposition in Chicago, but they had to carry it so they could tell national advertisers they were in the market. Station had been circling the drain for years now, but once the pandemic wreaked havoc on morning drive, I'm sure it was only a matter of time.

If I had to guess what they're gonna do with it, I would say modern alternative. Q101 has been running promos on facebook that they're starting some "history of alternative" sub-format outside of the morning show, leaning heavily on "Once in a Lifetime," which makes me think Cumulus got some intel that iHeart is going to duke it out with them. Also, they've out-fellow-kidsed Q101's imaging, a feat I thought impossible, really has to be heard to be believed.

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Brilliant. What is News Nation supposed to be? A challenger to Fox News? I've only seen the promos, and that our guy Joe who WGN hyped for a year went over there.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

The idea is to counter-program the Cable News Big 3's 3x3 hours of opinion/analysis with a hard national newscast. It's a noble concept, but I think what it's going to end up being is a garbage plate of local news stories from around the country. They're making a big deal out of how neutral they're going to be, hiring "rhetorical experts" to pore over every word of copy to make sure it's not biased one way or the other, but who polices the police? It sounds like old-fashioned ballyhoo to me, the "a movie so scary, nurses are on call outside every theater to revive people who pass out" but for news nerds.

I think it will be a magnificent failure that makes the entire city of Chicago look bad to NY/DC snobs.

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The news everyone claims to want but no one watches.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Feder:

The prayers of Chicago’s hard-rock radio fans have been answered.

Two and a half years after the untimely demise of WLUP 97.9-FM, the iconic classic-rock station known as The Loop, the music of Metallica and Mötley Crüe is in the air again.

As of 5 p.m. today, iHeartMedia pulled the plug on the failed country music format of WEBG 95.5-FM and renamed the station “Rock 95 Five.” The rebranding followed six hours of stunting, starting with R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It.”

Targeting primarily male listeners between 25 and 54, the new format will feature such artists as Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Linkin Park, AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Def Leppard and Foo Fighters, in addition to Metallica and Mötley Crüe.

No word yet on personalities for the station, which will air without hosts for several weeks. Management declined to comment on the status of Big 95.5’s on-air staff, including Lisa Dent, Brooke Taylor and Lance Houston, who also served as program director.


Matt Scarano

“I am thrilled to bring rock music back to Chicago,” said Matt Scarano, president of iHeartMedia Chicago. “These songs haven’t been played on the air for years. I am looking forward to hearing the soundtrack of our lives on ‘Rock 95 Five.’”

The decision to go with a retro rock format was based in part by research showing listeners’ fondness for nostalgia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even the station’s logo was designed to evoke rock radio’s past. Fans may recall that 95.5 had been the frequency of former rocker WMET from 1976 to 1986.

Rock listenership has been up for grabs here since 2018 when Merlin Media sold The Loop to Educational Media Foundation, which flipped the station to its K-Love contemporary Christian music format under the call letters WCKL.

Today’s moves sets up iHeartMedia to compete in the rock realm with Entercom WXRT 93.1-FM, Hubbard Radio WDRV 97.1-FM, and Cumulus Media WLS 94.7-FM and WKQX 101.1.

“Our goal with ‘Rock 95 Five’ is to provide the music Chicagoland has been missing, a key soundtrack for a large lifestyle group,” said James Howard, regional senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia Chicago. “Our purpose is to be a driving force and a companion in the lives of millions of rock music fans for years to come.”

Howard is expected to double as program director of “Rock 95 Five” at least for the time being.

Except for a momentary blip when it first signed on in 2015, Big 95.5 has been an embarrassing disappointment for iHeartMedia and a perennial also-ran to WUSN 99.5-FM, the Entercom country station that had a 33-year head start in the format.

In the latest Nielsen Audio survey, Big 95.5 ranked 21st overall with a 2.1 percent share and a cumulative weekly audience of 573,900. US99 was 20th with a 2.3 share and a 735,600 weekly cume.

Well, I'm always wrong.

Sounds a lot like the old 103.9 The Fox out of Crystal Lake, or what WIIL Rock was like when I was in high school: classic-to-modern rock, harder-edged, what '70s they did play was only the most shopworn stuff. (Now WIIL Rock is all just modern hrnga-drnga sludge.) Right now they're playing "Bohemian Rhapsody." My prayers have been answered, yes.

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103.9 was one of the presets in the old Chevy celebrity that was rarely used. Don’t remember it being the fox back in early 90’s.

Not that old. The Fox was its last format before it went evangelical a year or so ago. They had Eddie Volkman and his frosted tips doing mornings. Just bog-standard rawk, wouldn't even go deep into Physical Graffiti like the Loop used to. I think it was a casualty of various mergers and acquisitions that went bad.

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What happened to WNUA 95.fiiiiive?

Went Spanish, couldn't make a dent against more established Spanish stations that actually had Hispanic management (the ones that play that weird Mexican polka stuff), went country. Format and personnel went to 87.7, then disappeared when 87.7 went from WNUA-in-exile to Q101-in-exile. Rick O'Dell tried to do some smooth jazz on WDCB but it didn't take -- no one hates smooth jazz more than people who like actual jazz.

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Where else might one to be able to listen to Pink Floyd and other similar acts?

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97-one FM.... [whisper over the sound of a gentle breeze] the Driiiiiiive

[goes into "Panama" by Van Halen for some reason]

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That’s a shame. Parents used to have it on in the car.

There was a smooth jazz station here in Phoenix. KYOT, 95.5 strangely enough. They killed it 10 or so years ago. Now it’s adult contemporary.

Well, I am that old apparently. Being a western burb kid growing up it was a station that came in and generally that station didn’t pick up air traffic control like WCKG. Usually in that car I was grateful when the radio worked or check engine soon wasn’t on. Both things happening? A cause of celebration.

kinda like me, eh?

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did i ever tell you that you're brilliant? i love the keyfabe going on here but the hidden meaning is.... just lol. FLOL if you will.

amazon finally took me back, so i can make some money. day one went well except... well there i am letting fear porn creep into my head again. i'm back dude, and they know i'm emessah aka sinicalypse and all of the rank and file are so glad to see me back. i didnt know that DCH2 missed me so much.... they're easing me in like my login isnt ready for another day or two but still, man oh man, good on me to make some money and 645-145 is perfect in that i dont have to wake up TOO EARLY and i can still get out at 145 for my debauchery.

and there should hopefully be some debauchery coming up. my dreams routinely get stolen from me and when i do remember them (often in the form of a little nod while i'm pulled over on the side of austin in morton grove, and dont forget that austin texas is the place where smoke.dope.org is coming from and theres an arterial street named austin in morton grove. happy accident/coincidence like when i moved into my grandpa's house @ superbowl 04 they immediately started building a mosque right across the street?

even if i'm not allowed back in that house (muslims currently occupy it like they're trying to show us jews a lesson about occupying a home where incredible art was created back in the day) despite it being the perfect home base for me (other houses within a block's walk for latyrx/del/aphex/ceephax/etc to stay at while they visit morton grove on a "business trip") man me and matisen can go live in the city or another suburb. my buddy justin is out there scouting locations and painting up new places, so i can trust matisen and her keen sense of living spaces to pick out cool spots for us to continue our nonstop party at.

and i even party while i'm at work. by "party" i mena that frame of mind where toy;re.... FEAR PORN!

gotta go CH the pagans are making squeaky noises like YOU GOTTA WASH YOUR HANDS OF EVERYTHING YOU DO! WE'VE TURNED EVERYONE INTO WITCHES AND TJ LOL TJ = TOM JENKINSON = DEC 3RD AT THE METRO.. get your ticket/s CH/CFW cit hr shit typos mean i gotta go i gotta shower so i can get out of here in exactly 24mins and i got shower + shave up next. if you're telepathic or able to watch me like a tv channel (truman show > edtv right? either one works as a metaphor) HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME 2PAC FANS
btW HERES the mix i ACTUALLY played 23mins of (KLF tribute) at that art place on houston in midtown NYC. >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDDoy67JsLo


hasta

# siniwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

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Younger Boomers were unable to relate to Buffalo Springfield and The Lovin Spoonful.

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Oh well would you look at that



Doing "news for people who don't like bias in the news" in a nation that has just become one ever-convulsing exposed raw nerve, on the cable channel that runs "I dunno maybe Matlock reruns or no is that the other one," was a spectacular failure. YA DON'T SAY.

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Strangely I got my car out of the shop, hadn't hit fm2 button2 until today. I thought 95.5 was still country. Aerosmith was on. Maybe country was better.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Big 95.5 was your button 2? Dealership default, I can only assume.

It sounds like they're going less aggro with the new rock station and trying to compete with Q101 after all. For a while there I thought they were gonna play WIIL Rock bands with names like Enrapturing Emily, Symbionarcosis, or Gutterfudge.

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Button two on fm2. Unplugged battery, factory preset.

And then trash.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I had Reader pegged as a Christian rock on every preset kinda guy.

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Well then come hang out with the old me and let's find out.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

the current you is the old you

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Old reader as better 10 years ago.

Inarguably.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Historically you don't get much better than Bach when it comes to Christian music. The stuff they play on the radio is very cookie cutter, but if you do a search for the Cornerstone Festival, Tooth and Nail Records or do a search for Christian bands on wikipedia there are a lot of great Christian rock bands.

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.