Fresh Listen: The Rock (War) of Chicago

Technically, I took my First Listen to WCHI (Rock 95.5) Chicago when it launched in early September. I checked in again because of Guy Dark, APD of WGFM/WGFE (also Rock 95.5) Traverse City, Mich. About a month in, when WCHI was already staffed up, Dark messaged to suggest a “First Listen”

Rock 95.5 is one of a number of recent station launches perched between Classic and Active Rock, although Chicago signaled that it would be at least somewhat different when the version of “Walk This Way” in its launch hour was Run-D.M.C.’s. Dark found WCHI interesting because “they play no Led Zeppelin, but [do] play some songs from the mid-to-late ‘90s that were Rock and Alternative hits (Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis Morissette) that neither format touches today. Jocks and imaging are great!”

So I took a Fresh Listen to Rock 95.5. Then I kept going, listening to the rest of the market’s rock stations. The last six months have been good for Classic Rock in most markets, including WDRV (The Drive), but they also saw record numbers for Triple-A WXRT, which was profiled here recently, marking a rare instance of a Rock station that wins and breaks new music.

Industry observers had been poised for iHeart’s Country WEBG (Big 95.5) to flip when James Howard joined as Senior VP of programming in January 2019. Big lasted 18 more months, but ultimately, two longstanding takes on local radio won out: “Chicago can’t support two Country stations” and “Chicago is a Rock market.” WCHI is often talked about as the successor to former Classic Rocker WLUP (now a K-Love affiliate), but one also suspects that iHeart may see WCHI as a more mainstream flanker to WXRT, in the same way that its WLIT (Lite FM) went to a less-eclectic version of Soft AC than WRME (Me-TV-FM).

I’ve felt for the last few years that Rock radio is a last bastion of produced, hosted “radio as we know it.” That was a big part of my take on WXRT, but I had that sense listening to Rock 95.5, The Drive, Alternative WKQX, and suburban Active Rock WIIL (95-Will-Rock) as well. Chicago has expectations of its rock stations, so it’s noteworthy that Rock 95.5 staffed up so quickly at a time when other stations are shedding personnel.

Promotionally, the new station was part of a national text-to-win contest known here as “Money to Blow.” But it was also teasing a separate “$50,000 Payout” “crack-the-code” contest. “Ironically,” says one of the stagers, “we’re brought to you both by Dunkin and Jack Daniels.” The tone of the imaging is hard to re-create in print, but one piece for a 95-minute music sweep ends with “it’s what we do … at least right now.”

Musically, the Modern AC titles are a relatively small handful and just part of a mix that spans from “Bohemian Rhapsody” and some late ‘70s corporate rock to early ‘00s, mostly Linkin Park/Three Days Grace-type titles, but also Fall Out Boy. There are definitely some pockets of poppiness — an Active Rock station doesn’t have to play Bruce Springsteen. But there was also Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie” and Drowning Pool, “Bodies.”

(I’d already written the last paragraph when morning host Angi Taylor put contestant Trevor, who had stayed on after the change from Country, on the air. “You guys play everything from Limp Bizkit to Queen and Foreigner,” he told them. Later, listener Scott called and said, “I miss the Loop, but this is better.”)

Here’s WCHI just before 10 a.m. on October 19 during 95 minutes of music with returning market vet Walter Flakus:

• Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”
• Temple of the Dog, “Hunger Strike”
• Guns N’ Roses, “Patience”
• R.E.M., “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”
• Linkin Park, “Breaking the Habit”
• Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing in the Dark”
• Everlast, “What It’s Like”
• Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls”
• Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Pat Benatar, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
• Killers, “Mr. Brightside”
• Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer”
• Godsmack, “Awake”
• Alice in Chains, “No Excuses”

And here’s what was happening in middays at the other market rock outlets:

WKQX 

In the early ‘00s, it was effectively Active Rock (in the same way that many Alternative stations were). The rock edge of the format is still represented here more than in more places, but so is the pop side. WKQX plays Royal Blood and Juice WRLD. It also still has a considerable ‘90s component. Having wrapped up a month-long “History of Alternative” stunt recently, WKQX has now launched both a companion podcast and a Sunday-morning version, and its host, Brian Phillips, was filling in on middays. 

Here’s WKQX on Monday at 10 a.m. as well:

• AJR, “Bang!”
• Imagine Dragons, “Radioactive”
• Killers, “My Own Soul’s Warning”
• New Radicals, “You Get What You Give”
• Twenty One Pilots, “Level of Concern”
• Lana Del Rey, “Doin’ Time”
• Blink-182, “What’s My Age Again”
• Rezz & Grabbitz, “Someone Else”
• Green Day, “Holiday”
• Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”
• Lumineers, “Ho Hey”
• Cage the Elephant, “Ready to Let Go”
• All-American Rejects, “Gives You Hell”
• Tame Impala, “Is It True”
• Nirvana, “Heart Shaped Box”
• Nine Inch Nails, “The Hand That Feeds”

WDRV (97.1 The Drive)

The Drive goes back to the mid-‘60s for a handful of titles (“Satisfaction,” “All Day And All of the Night”) and goes through the early ‘90s for Tom Petty, Black Crowes, etc. Veteran middayer/music expert Bob Stroud was calling out names of registered listeners to qualify for a $20,000 giveaway. That might not have been a story before but hearing anything other than a national text-to-win contest stands out now. Stroud also read a handful of listener birthdays; some of them tied to the station’s app, which had its own contesting.

WDRV’s “10-at-10” was saluting 1978. Here’s the station just before 11 a.m. (If you’re wondering how Stroud handled the GN’R to Elton segue, he came in a few seconds ahead of the second song to avoid them clashing.) 

• Led Zeppelin, “Dancing Days”
• Dire Straits, “Sultans of Swing”
• Scorpions, “No One Like You”
• Pat Benatar, “Heartbreaker”
• Guns N’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”
• Elton John, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”
• Ozzy Osbourne, “Flying High Again”
• Electric Light Orchestra, “Don’t Bring Me Down”
• Rolling Stones, “She’s a Rainbow”
• Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”

WIIL (95 Will Rock)

North Suburban “95 Will Rock” always had one of my favorite station names. It became Chicago’s Active Rock reporter in the early 2000s after Rock 103.5 left the format. Active Rock in some markets has tilted toward the “Heritage/Mainstream Rock” format of old — more blues/Zeppelin-derived than post-grunge. WIIL has elements of both. It’s still harder and more current than Rock 95.5. 

The feeling that something is going on at a station, especially now, has always been a positive indicator. In PD/middayer John “JP” Perry’s first Monday-morning break, there was a whole weekend of events to recap: a Friday-night remote at a bar/restaurant/baseball field; a Saturday event at a shooting range; a Jeep rally on Sunday. At the Friday event, the station was qualifying listeners for the annual Cabin Fever Giveaway, the destination of which will be announced momentarily. There was also a “text-to-win” contest for listeners who knew morning host Tom Kief’s “favorite ‘F-word.’” (This hour, it was “follow.”)

Here’s 95 Will Rock just before 10 a.m. on Monday, October 19:

• Record Company, “Off the Ground”
• Black Stone Cherry, “White Trash Millionaire”
• Alice in Chains, “Down in a Hole”
• Badflower, “30”
• Crossfade, “Cold”
• Pearl Jam, “Jeremy”
• Five Finger Death Punch, “A Little Bit Off”
• Marilyn Manson, “Deep Six”
• Creed, “My Sacrifice”
• Three Days Grace, “Somebody That I Used to Know”
• Incubus, “Wish You Were Here”
• Papa Roach, “Help”

WLS-FM 

Even though it’s Classic Hits, not Classic Rock, I couldn’t use “the Rock of Chicago” in a headline and not listen to WLS-FM. Besides, there’s a lot of rock in the station’s DNA; WLS-AM had several years in the early ‘80s, competing with WLUP, when it was essentially “AOR with jingles.” Now WLS-FM plays Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, the Bee Gees, et al., but it was also playing “Crazy Train” for a while, in part because WLS-AM played it as a current. Here’s the station on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 10 a.m., with middayer Greg Brown:

• Aerosmith, “Dream On”
• Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer”
• Fleetwood Mac, “Go Your Own Way”
• Blondie, “Call Me”
• Stevie Wonder, “Superstition”
• Billy Joel, “It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me”
• John Lennon, “Imagine”
• Sheryl Crow, “All I Wanna Do”
• Van Halen, “Jump”
• Kool & the Gang, “Celebration”
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “American Girl” (for Petty’s birthday)
• Pat Benatar, “We Belong”
• Survivor, “Eye of the Tiger”
• John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, “You’re the One That I Want”
• Foreigner, “Urgent”
• Michael Jackson, “Thriller”

WXRT

The station was recently profiled, but here’s “Chicago’s Home for Music Lovers” at 10 a.m. on October 20, with station veteran Lin Brehmer during the 90-minute “midday music express.”

• Cure, “Pictures of You”
• Pat Metheny & David Bowie, “This Is Not America”
• Phoenix, “Identical”
• Neil Young, “Cinnamon Girl”
• Counting Crows, “A Murder of One”
• Nathaniel Rateliff & Nightsweats, “S.O.B.”
• Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
• Jackson Browne, “Boulevard”
• Strokes, “Last Nite”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Can’t Stop”
• My Morning Jacket, “Feel You”
• David Gray, “Babylon”
• Head & the Heart, “Missed Connection”
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)”