In the city of Chicago, alternative radio is becoming non existent.  People are not relying on “internet radio” with such websites as Spotify and Pandora.  A few months ago, the local station (WKQX Chicago, 101.1 FM) Q101  was bought out by a talk radio company, 101.1 FM News.

There is an article called R.I.P. Q101…Maybe on chicagonow.com talks about how the CEO/Chairman of Merlin, Randy Michaels  wanted to change the “legendary” alternative radio station into an all out news format.  Tied into this website, there is Robert Feder‘s article about the purchase of this radio station on Timeout Chicago.  It’s titled Q101, Loop deal blows Randy Michaels back into radio business. The beginning of the article states, that the deal was worth between $110-130 million, Ennis Communications announced the sale of WKQX-FM (101.1) and WLUP-FM (97.9) in Chicago and WRXP-FM (101.9) in New York to Merlin Media, an investment group headed by Randy Michaels (the former Tribune Co. CEO).

This deal that Michaels made by selling these local radio stations, pretty much ended the “rock radio waves” for Chicago as a whole.  Many people have to rely on internet radio (Pandora and Spotify), Sirius/XM and streaming music.  The joy of listening to alternative radio at home or in your car has been stripped away.  I feel that the fans and long time listeners should do what they can to try and bring back a form of “alternative radio back, whether Q101 or something brand-spanking-new.  In Fender’s article on Timeout Chicago, Adam (no last name given), who blogged and gave some of his own personal feedback about the article and the situation.

He stated, “While obviously demand for modern rock radio is down, I can’t fathom how the 3rd largest market in the nation can go on without a station playing new rock music. Is Q101 perfect? Of course not, but it’s just a basic need in a city like Chicago. How can advertisers completely give up on a considerable demographic? It’s inane that this is happening. I laughed at yesterday’s post about Randy Michaels, but maybe now we need to attach the cross when he makes a Jesus pose on top of the Mart.”

NoOneKnows added some pretty good insight about this matter, “Wait, didn’t Chicago radio execs kill off dueling all-news stations in 90s? Wait, didn’t Randy nearly kill off the news in newspaper during his FUBAR run at the Trib? With all due respect to the variety on Sirius/XM, there’s no personality to it. Like it or not, Q101 has a history and a personality appreciated by the listeners it has gained in nearly 20 years. Radio is struggling just as the newspaper industry is. The minute you alienate those actually partaking in either of those things, you’ve now lost them forever. Plus, old people can’t find FM on their radios.”

There is even a “like” page on Facebook that allows people to stand behind the radio station (Q101) because I, like many others would like to see it return to the way it used to be.  People want to hear good music at any point of the day, along with an energetic disc jockey (DJ) to uplift all of its listeners.  I can agree with the statements from the article because Michaels wanted to get rid of all-news radio stations in the 1990s and then later sells it, it becomes an all-news radio station by 2011.  It appears that there has been some major change of heart in the 10-15 years or so; this sounds pretty hypocritical if you ask me.  In the big city of Chicago, some people just need a good music station so they may get a good jump-start to their day, or just get them through the day as a whole.