Anytime this week sounds incredibly likely, to be honest.
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WKQX to Begin Using the Q101 Branding Again
- Thread starter Marcos_C
- Start date
The domain forwards to the WKQX website on my iPhone. It doesn't do anything elsewhere.
The Facebook Page is still named "Q101" but the username is now W272DQChicago
The Twitter page was named "K-Rock" for awhile but now seems to be deleted
The Instagram page was named "K-Rock" for awhile as well.
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The whole K-Rock and rebranding the social media accounts as the AM is just weird.
I’m assuming the Facebook for WKQX will be kept and will just change names to Q101 instead of Cumulus getting access to the Q101 online one.
I’m wondering if there will be some kind of stunt to lead up to the change or if too much has gotten out about it to where it’s just going to be a midnight rebrand or something.
There’s several dates they could use if they don’t just go ahead with it at any given time. Some of them are significant.
May 3rd: The morning show is having a special event (Ahoy) and a concert with Weezer
May 6th (Friday): This is the 10 year anniversary of Q87.7’s launch. The current WKQX is basically Q87.7.
July 14th (Thursday): Two anniversaries here. The original Q101 format change to Alternative in 1992. That would be a 30 year anniversary. It’s also the 11th Anniversary that they signed off the branding and went with just music for awhile until the new format’s stunting and launch took place.
May 3rd: The morning show is having a special event (Ahoy) and a concert with Weezer
May 6th (Friday): This is the 10 year anniversary of Q87.7’s launch. The current WKQX is basically Q87.7.
July 14th (Thursday): Two anniversaries here. The original Q101 format change to Alternative in 1992. That would be a 30 year anniversary. It’s also the 11th Anniversary that they signed off the branding and went with just music for awhile until the new format’s stunting and launch took place.
Q101 is officially back. Jeremy called it!
The playlist (from the little I listened) reminds me a lot of X 98.5 in Greenville, SC the last time I checked them out except Q is playing more 90s.
Half of the music being crap is a Q101 trademark to be completely honest.
The music is standard, safe Alternative. Nothing really unusual about it. It's much more gold-based and like I said safe than say their sister station Alt 92.3 in New Orleans. It's quite similar to their other sister 96.9 The Fox in Oshkosh. Not quite as New-music friendly as 95X in Syracuse but they are similar. Big difference is Chicago is a PPM Market, the others are not. So they have to keep it PPM Friendly. They play a little more Alice In Chains, Puddle Of Mudd, Staind and 3 Doors Down, etc than the average Alternative station, likely to keep potential Rock 95.5 listeners happy. Nothing that has not been played before on the format, but not part of the average playlist these days. I hope they keep The History Of Alternative on Sundays. Excellent show.
I tend to agree, especially if we're speaking, say, 2003 onward. (During most of the 90's and very early 00's, it was a darn good station. I also enjoyed the nu metal lean the final year or two before the FM News debacle.)
Those aren't the artists I'm complaining about.
The artists I *am* complaining about include Machine Gun Kelly, Gayle, AJR, and the other pop music crap the station plays.
The listener base for “alternative rock” has fragmented a ton since the heyday of the early 90s. With how much rock has marginalized and evolved away from the 90s sounds, especially since 2016, it’s like an archetypical oldies station playing literally anything from the 1950s to 1989. (This is nothing new, threads about “why is KROQ or WNYL doing poorly” usually result in the same answer.)
Q101 long-term going to a purely gold-based alternative format might be the best option. At least it’s possible now with the name. For how much Q101 struggled during the 2000s, the nostalgia factor seems to be winning out here.
Q101 long-term going to a purely gold-based alternative format might be the best option. At least it’s possible now with the name. For how much Q101 struggled during the 2000s, the nostalgia factor seems to be winning out here.
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AOR listeners in 1983 hated the sounds of new wave artists for much the same reason, they clashed with music they knew and expected to hear. But at the same time, new wave became the bulk of new rock product, and that begat classic rock (or stations like WMMS incorporating new wave and CHR… or WPLJ flipping outright to CHR).
If you exclude artists like those aforementioned ones from a playlist, then like I said, you might as well just go full-bore classic alternative. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
It was a straight ahead Alternative Rock station in the 90s, but not hard edged enough for certain people. Rock 103.5 listeners would call it "Queer 101"
WTMX started going at them from the opposite direction when they went Modern AC. Some of their core artists were regulars on WTMX. They basically tried to take as many Rock 103.5 listeners as possible when that station fizzled.
In 2001, WZZN decided to go after them after doing 80s and Hot AC. They went with straight ahead Alternative. They frequently ran liners poking at Q101 "This is Alternative (Song Clip), This Is Not (Song clip of an Active song Q101 would be playing)" That didn't work out, so they tried to program it like a CHR. Playing mostly current Alternative and repeating songs every hour over and over. That didn't work, so they went with Active Rock which eventually put an end to The Zone. Q101 had just recently shifted to the "Everything Alternative" a few months before The Zone flipped. Took about 3 years to shift out of it and back to the harder edged hybrid.
The audiences don't mix that well. Finding middle ground is not easy in that regard.
WTMX started going at them from the opposite direction when they went Modern AC. Some of their core artists were regulars on WTMX. They basically tried to take as many Rock 103.5 listeners as possible when that station fizzled.
In 2001, WZZN decided to go after them after doing 80s and Hot AC. They went with straight ahead Alternative. They frequently ran liners poking at Q101 "This is Alternative (Song Clip), This Is Not (Song clip of an Active song Q101 would be playing)" That didn't work out, so they tried to program it like a CHR. Playing mostly current Alternative and repeating songs every hour over and over. That didn't work, so they went with Active Rock which eventually put an end to The Zone. Q101 had just recently shifted to the "Everything Alternative" a few months before The Zone flipped. Took about 3 years to shift out of it and back to the harder edged hybrid.
The audiences don't mix that well. Finding middle ground is not easy in that regard.
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Did you and I listen to the same Q101? They spun the hell out of “Stan” by Eminem, “How Bizarre” by OMC, “Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin, a bazillion Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim and Crystal Method songs… they loved playing pop and electronic songs in the late 90’s. Even some hip-hop like A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast, and Arrested Development.
This is baked into Q101’s DNA. It took the KPNT PD to beat it out of the station and that wasn’t until it was too late to save it.
Chicago likes to rock and Q101 historically is good at choosing rockers, but it’s the quirky off-beat stuff that tend to be poor choices. When Q101 had too much of the quirky pop stuff the listeners always fled elsewhere. The same thing is happening now. It doesn’t help that 93XRT and WCHI are playing a lot of classic Q101 product right now.
(Q101 does have a winner in the off-beat vein right now with “Love Brand New” by Bob Moses, from what I understand the song is doing VERY well in the data nationwide).
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You forgot Lo-Fidelity All Stars. 
Just about every alternative station played Fatboy Slim (true, it's an artist I personally cannot stand).
Even some purebred rock stations were dabbling in Lilith Fair material in the mid and late 90s for a year or two.
Some of the selections you identified were generally surrounded with generous helpings of Seattle grunge, post grunge and a bit of nu metal. The station at the moment has skewed too far into the non-rock column. I think you and I are in agreement on that point.
Just about every alternative station played Fatboy Slim (true, it's an artist I personally cannot stand).
Even some purebred rock stations were dabbling in Lilith Fair material in the mid and late 90s for a year or two.
Some of the selections you identified were generally surrounded with generous helpings of Seattle grunge, post grunge and a bit of nu metal. The station at the moment has skewed too far into the non-rock column. I think you and I are in agreement on that point.
The thing with Alternative is that while it’s a potpourri format like Pop/Top 40 it’s core is different. Pop’s core has always been in dance music of some kind, whether it was disco, soul, glam rock, new wave, house, bubblegum, dubstep, trap, you name whatever the current dance trend, Pop has it. Pop stations usually have room for random crossovers to provide changes of pace and prevent monotony, but that’s the core of Pop.You forgot Lo-Fidelity All Stars.
Just about every alternative station played Fatboy Slim (true, it's an artist I personally cannot stand).
Even some purebred rock stations were dabbling in Lilith Fair material in the mid and late 90s for a year or two.
Some of the selections you identified were generally surrounded with generous helpings of Seattle grunge, post grunge and a bit of nu metal. The station at the moment has skewed too far into the non-rock column. I think you and I are in agreement on that point.
Alternative’s core is indie rock music. Much like dance, the idea of indie rock has changed over the years in various ways, but that’s always been the core. Whenever stations stray too far from that, whether it was embracing nu-metal too much in the early 00’s or the quirky alternative pop like now, that’s when their ratings start falling and the format starts looking lost. The format as a whole is paying a steep price for betting that the quirky, avant-garde “alternative pop” sound was the future of the format in 2012, as it gradually chased away their loyal listeners and failed to attract new ones. So right now the format feels lost outside of the rock-leaning stations, who are generally doing pretty well, and Q101 is emblematic of that.
And it’ll be harder to fix Q101 than some other stations. 93XRT is doing very well right now with approximately 75% of their product being classic Q101 tracks or songs Q101 would have played if it had kept existing post-2011. 93XRT also shares a lot of currents with Q101 right now, including that golden “Love Brand New” track I mentioned. They’ve masterfully shifted their playlist and mission to become the new Q101 without completely abandoning their classic rock roots. As for WCHI they have a monopoly over the heavier music that Q101 once played, and they are slowly beginning to introduce currents to their lineup (albeit sporadically in late hours). This makes Q101 increasingly feel like a third wheel with 93XRT and WCHI choking their lanes.
It’s going to be a difficult battle and the nostalgia branding is only going to fix the problem a small amount.
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Found an article from about 6 years ago. WKQX was #2 among Men 18-34 at the time. Played a little more new music, Indie at the time. That said, Walt Flakus was MD at the time. He’s doing the same job at WCHI now. He always seemed to have a good idea of what people in Chicago wanted to hear.
I don’t have the breakdowns but since the pandemic and Rock 95.5 starting to play more of their golds (Including the lighter ones) it has not been as high. It does hold it’s own. The numbers don’t change very much. 6+ anyway. It’s always consisent, stuck at or around a 2.0. They should have a very good idea of who their listeners are by now.
I don’t have the breakdowns but since the pandemic and Rock 95.5 starting to play more of their golds (Including the lighter ones) it has not been as high. It does hold it’s own. The numbers don’t change very much. 6+ anyway. It’s always consisent, stuck at or around a 2.0. They should have a very good idea of who their listeners are by now.
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