XRT has always beat 101 as the cooler station hands down.
XRT has always had a commitment to new music that Q101 lacked. They have better personalities too overall.
Q101 was still good though and a nice alternative.
My presets in my car are:
(and then other stuff I only go to if all those fail)
For NPR, I actually prefer WNIJ, which is 89.5 out of DeKalb. Mostly because they have blues on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. They also have a more interesting midday lineup. Of course, its really only listenable in the western/northwestern suburbs.
Also, if you’re close enough to IIRC Naperville, there is a decent college rock station on 89.1, WONC. However, I sometimes have trouble picking it up in Elgin.
WBEZ still plays jazz? I thought they got rid of all their jazz programming at least a year ago.
If I’m thinking of the correct station (which I may well not be), they’re back to jazz again.
If you are looking for classic rock - 95.9 in Aurora. As for alternative, the only options are the above mentioned 89.1 and 93.1.
Yeah this is one of my other pre-programmed stations. They seem to have fewer commercial breaks than average, which is also good.
Time to pump up some Rammstein, methinks.
WBEZ is 91.5. I listen to NPR (which is WBEZ in Chicago) every day, and I haven’t heard any jazz yet since they stopped playing it a year or so ago. Used to like that Sunday morning jazz program. Granted, I don’t listen to it 24 hours a day, and I just may be missing the jazz shows, but I don’t see anything on their programming schedule.
Is Eddie and Joe Bo still doing No panties thursday??
Oops did i show my age… Damn i remember when the Big 890 use to play rock and “Animal Stories” with Uncle Lar and little snot nose Tommy…
Just go with Sirius… I gave up on local atlanta radio a while back… it just sucks…
No, they started playing The Hit, as they saw it, off an album, at the exclusion of all the other tracks, twenty-some years ago. And they dumped their GREAT rule that a song could not be played again for three days (IIRC, Norm Winer showed it off to the Daily News) sometime before that. I am sick of pushing that button and hearing the same songs I heard the last time and don’t hardly push it anymore. There can be problems when your DJs have been at the same station for three decades.
ETA: After 30 years, “an oldie, a middie, and the same recent shit” is a “set” with the emphasis on “set.”
And Sirius stations have playlists 30 songs long. It is totally NOT an option. It is shit.
There was a lot of discussion that Q101 would go to a FM-talk format. Not sure if that might still happen, but it could be worse than oldies.
Same here, I stay on BEZ most of the time too.
You got it all wrong. They were still playing a good variety when I was in my 20’s. Oh wait – that was 20 years ago!?
My frustration with XRT (other than the hipster DJ that takes 60 seconds to spit out a tidbit of information) is that they play way too much classic rock. I’ve heard enough Zeppelin for my lifetime. I don’t want to hear the music I have at home.
Eddie and Jobo got stuck on 104.3 which changed from Jack FM to ‘oldies’ (60’s, 70’s, and 80’s). I never liked them and I get a bit of satisfaction that they are stuck talking over the intros to 70’s glurge.
Didn’t you used to be in Texas back when I was remarking on the silliness of people dying in football hijinx? When did you convert to NIU, where we stopped caring about football before I graduated?
NIJ is a good station, but I’m too far east (Lombard) to get it without equipment I don’t care to (pay to) install.
This. I may skip 848, because it doesn’t come on at the correct time and is all sorts of news about Chicago, not the burbs, but much of the rest of the schedule is good. Until late at night. I was bailing my daughter out of jail and there was a program of Polish news in English. Didn’t mind it. Found it interesting.
848 doesn’t always interest me either, but I think Alison Cuddy (the host) is one of the best interviewers in the news.
You’ve gotta be thinking of someone else. I’ve never even had a layover in Texas :).
They claim that Q101 will live on, just on HD2 at 101.1, though I haven’t heard it yet when I check it out. Also online at Q101.com
Huh. Good timing that I just got a HD car radio, then. Thanks for the heads-up!
Yeah, well, he was a guy, too. 
Love the Sunday afternoon Latin music show!