WSCR-AM midday host Dan McNeil returned to the airwaves today after a six-week absence for undisclosed "health and wellness" reasons. McNeil, to his credit, didn't dance around the subject and addressed it immediately after the strains of the Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" faded away and his mic went hot. more ›

Dahl's onetime stable mate at the Loop AM 1000, Kevin Matthews, will debut his first podcast on Dahl's podcast network Friday. more ›

Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute epic song "Alice's Restaurant" will be played on WXRT at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. today. more ›

First Macy's puts up its Great Christmas tree. Now 93.9 Lite FM is launching its annual all-holiday format at 5 p.m. more ›

If you're a fan of what they're doing - and a lot of us here at Chicagoist tune in regularly - consider making a pause for the cause and helping them out. more ›

While we were out enjoying a lazy Sunday, former Tribune Co. chairman Randy Michaels launched his latest assault on local media with the signing on of WWWN, FM News 101.1 FM. more ›

Q101 DJs took to Twitter Tuesday after news that the station would switch to an all-news format in 45 days was reported by Robert Feder. more ›

Two days after outing himself as the author of the MayorEmanuel twitter feed, Dan Sinker will be coming face to face with the man he emulated/parodied/"made fun with" this afternoon. more ›

A couple months ago, there was a dust up when Chicago Reader's web editor Whet Moser became justifiably irate after he discovered The Huffington Post had republished a Reader Critic's Choice piece in its entirety. Now we're talking about a mammoth website lifting content again, but this time with different players -- MSNBC, Chicago public radio station WBEZ, and the middleman, NBC Chicago. more ›

Since Chicago radio icon Jonathan Brandmeier has been conducting a late night television "experiment" the past couple of weekends, we thought we would take a look back at his first dip into TV waters, the nationally syndicated . more ›

"They were saying, 'Well, do a couple of weeks, a farewell.'" Dahl said. "I said, 'It's not a farewell. You guys are taking me off the air. I'm not retiring.' ... "I still have 2 1/2 years left on my deal so, quite frankly, I'm not letting them out of it."

When those of us on the Flashback Beat aren't gazing back wistfully at days gone by, we're thinking to ourselves, "Man, radio when we were kids was kickass." See also: The awesomeness that was WLUP AM 1000, Steve Dahl, and Kevin Matthews to name just a few. To be honest, only one thing defined that era of Chicago radio other than the Loop for us - and that was the Blaze. Home of Steve Seaver, Major Tom, and the first radio home of one Eric "Mancow" Muller. It was also where we learned to love bands like Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, and other various lesser hair-metal 'bangers like Warrant, Faster Pussycat, and Savatage. more ›