Chicago Radio: Rock Fans Are In For A Shock

WLUP 97.9 FM “The Loop,” is being sold Educational Media Foundation for $21.5 million and will switch formats Saturday to Christian music.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the purchase agreement was struck last month and filed Monday with the Federal Communications Commission.

Cumulus Media, which has been operating the station under an LMA agreement with seller Merlin Media, has announced the rock will stop today as the company ends operations.

EMF's K-LOVE adult contemporary Christian music format is heard on more than 600 stations nationwide.

“We’re really excited about being able to get into the Chicagoland area,” Mike Novak, president and CEO of California-based Educational Media Foundation, said Tuesday. “We’re hopeful that we have some sort of impact on the people of Chicago and that we can provide a positive and encouraging atmosphere in these days of uncertainty.”

The foundation is taking over WLUP's programming through an LMA agreement prior to receiving FCC approval and closing on the station purchase, Novak said.

WLUP was launched in 1977, and the station quickly became the nexus of rock music and irreverent radio in Chicago.

A part of the culture in a city where young listeners in black Loop T-shirts became an army of rockers, the station launched the career of Chicago radio icon Steve Dahl.

Steve Dahl

“If you grew up in Chicago in the late ’70s, ’80s or ’90s, The Loop was your radio station,” Dahl said Tuesday. “We were all in our 20s back when we started it … and the music and the community helped an entire generation of Chicagoans define who they are today.”

WLUP had been shopping the station since bankrupt Cumulus Media opted out of a deal last month to buy The Loop and WKQX-FM 101.1 for $50 million.

Randy Michaels, the former Tribune Co. CEO who heads Merlin Media, said last month he would explore “all the available options,” including finding a new buyer for the stations.

WKQX was not included in the station sale to EMF, according to the FCC filing

Starting with one station in 1982, the nonprofit Educational Media Foundation has grown into a Christian broadcasting force with two networks and more than 900 stations across the U.S. Its contemporary Christian music formats include K-LOVE and Air1.

The K-LOVE format is currently heard on WJKL-94.3 FM in west suburban Glendale Heights. That station is also owned by the foundation.

Novak, 68, was a veteran radio programmer with stints at Top 40 stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego before joining the fledgling Christian broadcaster in 1998.

The station will keep the WLUP call letters, but the longtime nickname, “The Loop,” will probably be shelved, Novak said.

Partnering with Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, Michaels formed Merlin Media in 2011, buying WKQX and WLUP in Chicago, and WRXP-FM in New York, from Emmis Communications Corp. for about $198 million in cash and equity.

Mancow Muller

Atlanta-based Cumulus has been operating WLUP and WKQX since January 2014 under a local marketing agreement with Merlin that included an option to transfer ownership of the stations.

WLUP is ranked 15th in the latest Nielsen survey for Chicago with a 2.9 share.

Dahl, who currently hosts afternoons on WLS 890 AM said the end of rock at WLUP marks a bygone era in radio industry.

Most recently The Loop has been home for Erich Mancow Muller. Muller, whose contract was nullified in the Cumulus bankruptcy filing, told Chicago Media Watcher Robert Feder: “Well, I love Christian music and wish them all the best. The Loop lasted 41 years. I had hoped we’d be on to celebrate her 50th. Lots of great folks will be without a job and that’s very sad.”