Think all stations sound the same? Not according to our musical experts. We asked our critics and other musically inclined staffers to offer sound opinions on some of Chicago’s musical radio stations. Here are their critical assessments:
WNUR FM 89.3
This feisty little station, based at Northwestern University, has become ground zero for new ideas in improvised music. The programming runs from 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with occasional broadcasts of live concert events. And WNUR’s Web site (www.wnur.org) offers an enormous supply of valuable information on avant-garde artists, new recordings and the like.
— Howard Reich
WDCB FM 90.6
The public radio station at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn deserves a round of applause for broadcasting jazz during daylight hours Monday through Friday, as well as snippets over the weekend. Yet, truth to tell, some of WDCB’s announcers prove less jazz literate than others. And the station sadly has dropped one of its best shows: Dave Freeman’s “All Chicago Jazz,” which had developed a loyal following among Saturday afternoon listeners. Then again, at least WDCB still is airing Bruce Oscar’s indispensable “Saturday Swing Shift,” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., spotlighting top-notch big bands and consistently literate commentary. — H.R.
WBEZ FM 91.5
Chicago’s public radio station has suffered a split personality for years, broadcasting bits and pieces of National Public Radio programming, local news, public affairs shows and jazz after dark. One jazz segment, however, towers over the rest: Dick Buckley’s authoritative broadcasts from noon to 3 p.m. Sundays. The man is a Chicago treasure, drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of information to discuss the music. That he happens to own a glorious set of pipes and knows how to entice listeners without lecturing to them only adds to his appeal.
— H.R.
– As host of the morning news-talk magazine “Eight-Forty-Eight,” Steve Edwards brings uncommon intelligence and seasoned reporting skills. On weekends, I love Ira Glass’ melange of stranger-than-fiction stories, “This American Life.” But do we really need to hear it broadcast three times? And while the ‘BEZ-produced news quiz “Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!” has dramatically improved (thanks largely to replacement host Peter Sagal), it still prevents Chicago listeners from hearing Michael Feldman’s talk-game show hybrid “Whad’ya Know?” live. Dick Buckley’s jazz oldies show and Steve Cushing’s “Blues Before Sunrise” remain two of the station’s unsung treasures.
— Lou Carlozo
WXRT FM 93.1
As a listener, I have a love-hate affair with WXRT. It still plays a healthy chunk of new rock music you won’t hear anywhere else, and deejays like Lin Brehmer and Terri Hemmert light up the airwaves with personality and positivity. That said, musical imagination and innovation long ago gave way to stale focus-group formula. From a musical standpoint, ‘XRT is most worth a listen after 8 p.m., when deejay Johnny Mars breaks out of the station’s tightly regimented playlist. Otherwise, take the “WXRT Talking Heads challenge”: Listen with a stopwatch and see how long it takes before you hear a Talking Heads song. On an average day, you’ll only have to wait about 40 minutes.
— L.C.
WLIT 93.9
(also WNND-FM 100.3, WTMX-FM 101.9) Though some consider the term “lite rock” an oxymoron, it’s the basis for the appeal of “The Mix” and its even wimpier sounding competitors, WLIT and WNND. Tunefulness counts, so do understandable (if not necessarily poetic) lyrics. The programming is certain not to disrupt your next wine-and-cheese party, but it’s often too bland.
— Greg Kot
WZZN FM 94.7
The Zone is an oldies station with a difference. A heavy 1980s emphasis combines a large chunk of ‘XRT’s once cutting-edge play list from that decade (Midnight Oil to Talking Heads) with MTV faves like Duran Duran and Madonna.
— G.K.
WBBM FM 96.3
Eminem may dis Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, but all three performers get heavy air time on this frothy, danceable hit machine. This is the sound of shopping-mall America; ignore the vacuous lyrics and airbrushed vocals and revel in the sometimes astonishingly inventive production by the likes of Timbaland and Daft Punk.
— G.K.
WFMT FM 98.7
Now that WFMT is the only classical game in town, it’s vital that the radio home of Network Chicago bear in mind why so many of us have remained so intensely loyal to the station for some 45 years. The “old” WFMT did not talk down to its listeners, did not indulge in tasteless on-air fund drives seemingly every other week, did not have to resort to happy-talk program gimmicks or crossover indulgences to get people to tune in (and boost its Arbitrons a few percentage points). In those days classical music — in all its rich, enthralling variety — really mattered at WFMT, and so did the taste and intelligence of its listenership. To abandon those founding precepts would turn it into yet another of those odious Classical Lite jukeboxes that pass for “serious music” outlets in most U.S. radio markets.
— John von Rhein
– Not long ago WFMT was the envy of even state-run stations in Europe, but now it shows scarcely more discernment than classical pops efforts on college radio. Its Network Chicago additions — spoken commentaries and “features” in a print magazine — make up a collection of frequently self-serving puff pieces, with factoids taken from the Internet; other tired gimmicks such as programming determined by birthdays and anniversaries cannot disguise a narrow “feel-good” repertory of shorter, familiar selections that are excerpted in the mornings, played whole on different afternoons and, if possible, repeated on still other evenings. WFMT once was like no other station in the world; today it lives off that now-diminished reputation. Bring on satellite radio!
— Alan G. Artner
WUSN FM 99.5
Famous for its jazz and other urban genres, this city doesn’t much cotton to country. Chicago’s rhythms are the herky-jerky gyrations of a panic attack, not the resigned clip-clop of meditative melancholy. The latter is the essence of country music. An occasional refuge is “U.S. 99.” It leans way too heavily toward the current crop of country crooners who are really just pop singers in tight jeans (Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and the inexplicably popular Garth Brooks), and not far enough toward treasures such as Emmylou Harris and Clint Black, but when you’re parched, you’ll drink anything.
— Julia Keller
– The Nashville pipeline runs straight through Chicago with this country-music powerhouse. It plays strictly the hits, ignoring legends like Merle Haggard and progressive mavericks like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, while serving up the latest from Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and other pop acts that combine twang with MTV-like appeal.
— G.K.
WKQX FM 101.1
Once one of the nationwide flagships for alternative rock, Q101 has gotten harder and cruder since Nirvana crashed. Trash-talking morning deejay Mancow Muller sets the tone, and both the “humor” and the music leave welts. This is a hard-rock station in everything but name, though some recent blips — the addition of new records by At the Drive-In and Coldplay — suggest some of the programmers are getting tired of head-banging.
— G.K.
WTMX FM 101.9
This station is a guilty pleasure of mine; its sunny mix of rock radio hits has a distinctively ’80s energy to it (though this is not an ’80s music station). One of the best things “The Mix” has going is its “After Five Live” concert series at House of Blues, which has allowed listeners to see excellent up-and-coming national acts such as Sixpence None the Richer (“Kiss Me”) in an intimate setting. The big drawback to “The Mix” is that they’ll gravitate toward some really grating, lowest-common-denominator songs and then play them into the ground.
— L.C.
WKSC FM 103.5
Mix some of B-96’s dancefloor froth with a few token rock acts (3 Doors Down, Creed, Vertical Horizon) and you’ve got the cross-genre hits formula of “Kiss-FM.”
— G.K.
WGCI FM 107.5
Melodic, crunching, party-till-you-drop hip-hop (Mystikal, Ja Rule, Jay-Z) shares space with hometown favorite R. Kelly and other rough-necked R&B smoothies. The ‘GCI crew isn’t very adventurous — they play the hits, and nothing but — but if it’s the sound of Benjamins-busting urban America you want, this is the place to be.
— G.K.
WBEE 1570 AM
Here’s the only Chicago-area outlet that deserves to be called a jazz radio station. The stylistic range of the music that ‘BEE plays is broad, but the station makes no concessions to commercial forms of the music. Unfortunately, WBEE’s signal doesn’t carry much beyond the South Side of Chicago, a tragedy for jazz lovers who live in the Loop or anywhere north of it. Granted, the station recently became available online (at wbeejazzradio.com), but that’s not quite the same as being able to punch a button on the car radio.
— H.R.
WHAT’S ON THE DIAL
AM stations
560 WIND Spanish talk
670 WSCR Sports talk
720 WGN Variety, talk
750 WNDZ Religious talk
780 WBBM News
850 WAIT Adult standards
890 WLS News talk
930 WAUR Religious, talk
1000 WMVP Sports
1030 WNVR Polish
1080 WNWI Ethnic
1110 WMBI Religious
1160 WYLL Christian talk
1200 WLXX Tropical
1220 WKRS News, talk
1240 WSBC Ethnic, LesBiGay
1280 WBIG News, talk
1300 WRDZ Radio Disney
1330 WKTA Ethnic, adult rock
1340 WJOL News, talk
1390 WGCI Gospel
1410 WRMN News, talk
1430 WEEF Ethnic programming
1450 WCEV Ethnic programming
1450 WVON Urban talk
1470 WCFJ Variety, LesBiGay
1490 WPNA Ethnic programming
1500 WAKE Adult standards
1530 WJJG Talk, music
1570 WBEE Jazz, gospel
1580 WKKD CNN Headline News
1590 WONX Ethnic
1600 WCGO Nostalgia
FM stations
88.1 WCRX Columbia College, dance music
88.1 WLTL Variety rock
88.1 WSSD Blues
88.3 WZRD Northeastern Illinois University
88.3 WXAV St. Xavier University
88.5 WHPK University of Chicago, mixed use
88.7 WLUW Loyola University, community use
88.7 WRSE Elmhurst College, mixed use
88.9 WMXM Lake Forest College
89.1 WONC North Central College, progressive rock
89.3 WNUR Northwestern University, mixed use
89.7 WONU Christian contemporary
90.1 WMBI Religious
90.9 WDCB College of DuPage, jazz
91.5 WBEZ News, NPR, jazz
91.9 WJCH Religious
92.3 WYCA Gospel
92.7 WKIE Top 40
93.1 WXRT Progressive rock
93.5 WJTW Soft favorites
93.9 WLIT Soft rock
94.3 WJKL Sports talk
94.7 WZZN ’80s
95.1 WIIL Adult rock
95.5 WNUA Smooth jazz
95.9 WKKD Rock
96.3 WBBM Top 40
97.9 WLUP Rock
98.3 WCCQ Country
98.7 WFMT Classical, fine arts
99.5 WUSN Country
100.3 WNND Adult contemporary
100.7 WBVS Hot hits
101.1 WKQX Alternative rock
101.9 WTMX Adult contemporary
102.3 WXLC Contemporary hits
102.7 WVAZ Adult, urban contemporary
103.1 WXXY Spanish pop
103.5 WKSC Top 40
103.9 WCCH Spanish
104.3 WJMK Oldies
104.7 WCFL Contemporary Christian
105.1 WOJO Mexican regional
105.5 WZSR Adult contemporary
105.9 WCKG Talk
106.7 WYLL Christian talk
107.5 WGCI Urban contemporary
107.9 WLEY Mexican regional
NOTE: Does not include stations undergoing format changes.
— Compiled by Steve Knopper
