Radio This Week Back Then #64: April 13-19
This week: classic rock WLUP-FM "the Loop" and modern rock WKQX "Q101" Chicago, hot AC WZAT "102.1 the Sound" Savannah
What was on the radio this week…back then. This is a weekly visit of radio audio from this week in past years for those that enjoy radio history, those working in radio looking for promotional ideas, or stations looking to re-find lost audio of their heritage. If you enjoy these weekly audio rewinds, they take a lot of time to put together, so please do me a favor, subscribe, and share and pass it on. Thank you! A searchable and sortable index of all the audio is located on the Aircheck Index page.
This week:
Chicago | classic rock WLUP-FM “the Loop,” modern rock WKQX “Q101” (2009)
Savannah | hot AC WZAT “102.1 the Sound” (2018)
Somehow through 63 editions, I had not put up any audio from the Chicago radio market. As I was there on a trip this week back in 2009, that is remedied this week. So, now there is at least one aircheck from each of the current top 20 largest markets in the index. Also this week is a first time trip to Savannah with an aircheck from near the end of WZAT’s days.
About The Station
First hitting the airwaves over 80 years ago, the 97.9 signal in Chicago is best known for its decades long run as rocker WLUP “97.9 the Loop.” WLUP had one of the most famous radio promotions of all time in 1979’s Disco Demolition Night, when 50,000 people showed up to a Chicago White Sox baseball game and took to the field where disco records were blown up.
WLUP was sold to K-Love in 2018 —playing AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” as its last song before switching to the K-Love feed — and it now runs the national K-Love feed under the WCKL calls. Former owner Cumulus warehouses the WLUP calls on a station rimshooting the northern fringes of the Minneapolis/St Paul market.
Aircheck
In the 1990s, rock WLUP-FM went through several format shifts. It moved toward a “hot talk” format in 1993. The music came back in 1996, but as a modern AC outlet branded as “Loop 97-9, Chicago's Rock Variety.” It flipped back to rock the following year and then shifted to classic rock in 1998, which it remained until its end in 2018. This aircheck comes from the middle of that classic rock era in 2009.
Audio
Aircheck Log
About The Station
WKQX traces its roots back to 1948 when it signed on as WMAQ-FM, the new FM sister to WMAQ 670. The first run of the WKQX calls on 101.1 ran from 1977-2011, with the “Q101” handle coming in the 1980s during its AC days. It evolved to hot AC and then flipped to modern rock, also under the “Q101” brand, in the summer of 1992. The WKQX calls and modern rock format ended in 2011 when it was sold and flipped to all-news “FM News 101.1,” first under the WWWN calls and then the WIQI calls. The Q101 brand and website domain was separately sold off as well. The WKQX calls were picked up by a LPTV on channel 6 — the audio of which can be also heard at 87.75 on the FM dial — that launched a modern rock format as “Q87-7, Chicago's Underground Alternative.” In 2014, Cumulus took over the operations of WLUP-FM and WIQI in a LMA that converted to a purchase. The modern rock format and the WKQX calls moved from channel 6 back to 101.1, but with the Q101 brand previously sold off in 2011 and unavailable, it just branded as “101 WKQX.” The Q101 intellectual property was reacquired in 2022, and WKQX rebranded back to “Q101” then.
Aircheck
This aircheck comes from 2009 during WKQX’s first run on 101.1, two years before flipping to all-news.
Audio
Aircheck Log
Presently K-Love outlet WKZV, the 102.1 spot on the Savannah dial is best known from the 1980s as the top 40 leader WZAT “Z102.”
About The Station
Aircheck
WZAT’s best known run as CHR ended in the early 1990s when it shifted to rock. In 1998, when Cumulus acquired it to add to its Savannah cluster, it returned to top 40, but never regained the following of its original run. It then got pulled into various national format initiatives Cumulus pushed out — Cumulus converting stations to sports, Cumulus rebranding existing country stations or flipping stations to country under its “Nash” and “Nash Icon” brands. In 2017, it flipped WZAT from “Nash Icon” to hot AC “102.1 the Sound.” This aircheck comes from 2018 during that format run. In the following year, Cumulus sold off WZAT and five other stations in other markets to K-Love.
Audio
Aircheck Log
As always, the logos and other intellectual property belong to the stations. The recordings were made from over the air broadcasts. Similarly, other data (charts, ratings, etc.) belong to their respective owners.