Chicago Radio: Farewell To 'The Loop'

Chicagoans who have their clock radios set to WLUP-FM 97.9 may be in for a rude awakening today as songs like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” give way to “Jesus I Believe” by Big Daddy Weave, the top song this week on WCKL 97.9 K-LOVE, the station’s new Christian pop format.

The Chicago Tribune reports hitting the snooze button won’t bring Styx, Van Halen or Led Zeppelin back to “The Loop,” which has ended a 40-year-run as an iconic classic rock station. On Tuesday, owner Merlin Media announced it is selling WLUP to Educational Media Foundation, a California-based religious broadcaster, for $21.5 million.

The Loop provided the long-running soundtrack for a generation of Chicagoans. Its swan song represents the end of an era as traditional radio struggles to stay relevant — and in some cases solvent — in the face of digital competition.

Nearly a dozen Chicago radio stations are run by owners in or on the brink of bankruptcy as listeners and ad dollars migrate to streaming platforms like Pandora and Spotify.

“Radio’s product offering and business model is under attack,” said Larry Miller, a radio veteran and director of the Steinhardt Music Business Program at New York University. “It is facing very stiff competition from (digital services) that didn’t exist a decade ago.”

Miller wrote a recent report painting a bleak picture of radio’s future as the car dashboard — once the exclusive province of AM and FM stations — taps into a world of digital platforms.

Traditional radio, he said, is in danger of becoming irrelevant to a new generation of listeners.

“Listenership is declining and aging, a little bit every year,” Miller said. “Younger people are discovering and consuming music in other places.”



Nostalgia for The Loop was in full force Friday, as Dahl, who currently hosts afternoon drive on WLS 89 AM, simulcast his show on The Loop for a farewell broadcast. Meanwhile, the station had a run on black Loop T-shirts, selling 3,000 online at $20 a pop by Friday afternoon, said Marv Nyren, market manager for Cumulus Chicago.

The final hour of music (with no jocks) on The Loop consisted of many songs including the final one making light of the programming replacing it. According to RadioInsight, the final hour of WLUP-FM consisted of:

• Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
• Europe – The Final Countdown
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird
• REM – It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
• Metallica – For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Rush – Limelight
• Mötley Crüe – Shout At The Devil
• Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast
• AC/DC – Highway To Hell

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