Ira Glass, long the heart-throb of geeky NPR fans, has been on a tear lately. Perhaps he's tired of that squeaky clean "This American Life" image and is eager to take it down a couple notches now that he's safely ensconced within the amber of being a bona fide cultural cornerstone. Whatever the reason, we're thoroughly enjoying his recent willingness to play against type with revealing results. more ›

Ira Glass appears on this week's WTF podcast with Marc Maron that was recently taped live at The Bell House in Brooklyn. Glass admitted feeling a bit weird about being in the room since just a few days before the taping Glass also appeared on the same stage for The Drunk Show during Eugene Mirman's Comedy Festival. According to Glass: more ›

Our Senior Editor for Arts & Entertainment, that's Tankboy to you and Jim Kopeny to his third grade teacher, will be appearing on The Music Vox on Vocalo.org and 89.5FM tonight. He'll be participating in a local roundtable discussion of the week's music headlines with fellow music nerds experts Richard Giraldi of LoudLoopPress and Jacob Daneman of Pitch Perfect PR. We tried to get the topics out of Jim but he wouldn't spill a single hint other than to say that "there was a good chance of an argument breaking out between the guests on musical selections with an average duration of 45 seconds or less." Whatever that means. more ›

Ten years ago, "Can you listen to 'Dust in the Wind?' " was a question no one asked. But Clear Channel decided to answer it anyway. 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 ›

Tomorrow marks Q101's last day as the alternative rock station we once loved but grew to hate before Randy Michaels’ Merlin Media changes that spot on the dial into an all talk format. In an unusual move when it comes to format changes, the current roster of DJs are being allowed one last day to say their farewells. We know a number of the on-air crew and we're sad a bunch of decent folks are losing their jobs. At the same time we're not sorry to see Q101's wheezing take on alt-rock take a final bow. more ›

If you haven't been introduced to the genius interview stylings of comedian Marc Maron's WTF podcast, you are missing out on one of the best things the Internet has to offer right now. His primary subjects are comedians both famous and infamous, and Maron has a knack for pulling information out of them that one would never expect. Instead of long and boring dissertations on "what makes comedy comedy," Maron instead opts to act as a combination of psychiatrist and subject, often pulling intensely information from his subjects and then using it to make an emotional connection or leap of his own. Through all of this Maron manages the nigh impossible and keeps the conversation between he and his guest (or guests, as often happens during his live WTF tapings) 100% entertaining. Riveting, even! more ›

In the nearly four years since the launch of Vocalo, the station has struggled to gain a foothold among Chicago listeners. The combination radio and blog experimental broadcast project relied heavily on user-generated content, though its blog has arguably been the more successful of the two entities, snagging writers like Jim DeRogatis, Steve Dolinsky and formerly Robert Feder. Today, its parent organization Chicago Public Media (formerly Chicago Public Radio) announced that it will be relaunching the young station this spring. more ›

Mayor-elect Emanuel and Dan Sinker, author of the "@MayorEmanuel" twitter feed, finally had their face-to-face yesterday on WLS-AM's afternoon drive show with Roe Conn and Richard Roeper. In the process, Emanuel made good on his promise to donate $5,000 to the charity of Sinker's choice, Young Chicago Authors. Causes matched Emanuel's donation, while Conn and Roeper each contributed $1,000 each. Not a bad day for one of Sinker's favored charities. more ›

Chicago lost one of its greatest champions of jazz music and a radio stalwart last year with the passing of former WBEZ host Dick Buckley. At times we wondered what would happen of Buckley's extensive record collection. Sun-Times chronicler of the offbeat Dave Hoekstra informs us that Buckley's record collection is being auctioned off by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers (1338 W. Lake St.) at 5 p.m. today. Fellow crate diggers can inspect the collection, which has been divided into 92 lots, from now until then. more ›

It’s been nearly a year now since the much-anticipated launch of CHIRP Radio. The non-profit, volunteer-run radio station has been broadcasting a wide-ranging selection of music with an independent and local focus online year round between 6 a.m. and 3 a.m. since January 17, 2010. And to celebrate their year-long success, CHIRP Radio will host a handful of local music events later this month. more ›

If there is anything we love here at the Chicagoist offices, certainly at the top of our list is anything we can get our grubby little hands on for free. Yes, we admit, we are lucky that we have access to some great stuff, but whenever we get the chance we want to share the love by sending any free schwag our readers' way, we are more then happy to do so. Yesterday, while this Chicagoista finally got the opportunity to clear away the cobwebs atop a pile of press releases while sipping on the non-alcoholic Chicagoist approved egg nog, we came upon a nice little stocking stuffer for you folks at home. Chicago's own folk-americana musician Joe Pug has released his seven-song-EP, Nation of Heat, as a free download in conjunction with WXRT. more ›

As mentioned yesterday, I had a chance to partake in a pizza summit with legendary radio personality Steve Dahl, where we exchanged lists of 4-5 pizzerias each wanted the other to visit, and then discussed our findings with each other. Dahl gave me his rundown of the pizza joints I selected yesterday. Today, I return the favor. more ›

LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy sits down to talk with Grek Kot and Jim DeRogatis on this week's Sound Opinions. We got an advance listen to the show and while the interview isn't quite as wide-ranging as Murphy's Fresh Air appearance earlier this year, the Chicago rock critics do manage to pull out some heretofore unheard tasty nuggets in their discussion with Murphy. We're pleased to hear Murphy put to rest the notion that LCD Soundsystem is "retiring" since a misquote from early press for This Is Happening been blown completely out of context to turn into one of our biggest pet peeves of misinterpretation this year. however our favorite factoid that gets dropped has to do with Murphy's confusion of Seinfeld and The Garry Shandling Show and the resulting television sitcom writing career that never quite got off the ground due to a lack of motivation and general twenty-something laziness. more ›

Cubs radio broadcaster and former third baseman Ron Santo has died at age 70. Suffering from complications of bladder cancer, Mr. Santo slipped into a coma on Wednesday according to his family, before passing away last night. more ›

Lupe Fiasco fans might want to tune in to Vocalo this afternoon at 3 p.m. He's the special guest on Vocalo's "Music Vox" program with host Jesse Menendez and guest host, the inimitable Richard Steele. more ›

With the city's food media and assorted foochebaggery on pins and needles for next week's release of the Chicago Michelin Guide, the Tribune's "Chicago Live" series at the Chicago Theatre, produced in conjunction with the Second City, will focus on all things food in next week's installment. more ›

The Tribune Co. exodus that started with the departure of CEO Randy Michaels and "Chief Innovation Officer" Lee Abrams continued yesterday with the departure of Kevin Metheny from WGN-AM. Also not letting the door hit him in the ass on the way out is former City Clerk and convicted felon Jim Laski, who came to epitomize Metheny's meddling management style as much as Howard Stern's nickname for Metheny - "Pig Virus." more ›

Last week the White Sox renewed their broadcast deal with WSCR-AM. One of the options in the new deal is that the White Sox plan to launch an HD radio station on 104.3.3 FM. more ›

Conservative talker William Kelly, who's obnoxious questioning of Rahm Emanuel at the Columbus Day Parade led CBS2's Jay Levine to threaten to "deck" him, filed assault charges against Levine a few days after the incident. more ›

Nationally-syndicated conservative radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced Tuesday that she would not be renewing her show's contract, up for renewal at the year's end, following the media blitz surrounding her racist 11 "n-words" in five minutes on-air tirade last week. more ›

With his federal corruption trial slated to start, well, tomorrow (more on that later), ex-governor Rod Blagojevich has had his weekly Sunday radio show pulled from the WLS airwaves for the duration of the trial. Operations Director Drew Hayes said, "Out of respect for the legal process, WLS radio is putting the Rod Blagojevich Show on 'hiatus' effective immediately. After the trial has concluded, we will review the status of the program." But, according to Hayes, that won't stop Blagojevich from making appearances on the "Don Wade & Roma" show, as he did this morning. Well, that's a relief. more ›

The weekend's episode of Sound Opinions features one of the best in-studio interview and performance we've ever heard on the program. Rivers Cuomo left Weezer behind for this one and entered the studio with Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis to give an astonishingly open interview about his past and the band he leads. He literally takes the listener through his development through the years, from the big bang of the band's debut, to his intention to create Pinkerton under the influence of bands like The Flaming Lips in hopes the "cool kids" would embrace it, to debunking the myth that "Beverly Hills" was written as an attempt to pander to the band's stadium rock-sized audiences. They cover just about every burning question you might have about the band, except for just what the heck he was thinking when he wrote "Love IsThe Answer." What was up with that?! more ›

With sports talk radio among the industry's few bright spots, some think there may room for some competition to ESPN Radio 1000 and The Score 670. Jeff Smulyan, CEO of Emmis Communications and "father" of sports radio, is exploring options to turn one of Emmis' underperforming FM stations into yet another outlet for sports fans. And if Smulyan turns The Loop 97.9 or Q101 into a sports talk outlet, the White Sox might be among their flagship programming. The Sox are currently broadcast their games on The Score, but their current deal expires after the upcoming 2010 season. The Sox make $3 million on their radio rights, but a move to a new FM station could be much more lucrative for the team with the ninth highest radio audience in MLB. White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is close friends with Smulyan, and he could decide to partner with Emmis by taking an ownership stake in the new network. He already owns a piece of Comcast SportsNet, which airs some Sox and Bulls games. if a new sports station does take off, don't expect the Sox to be the only big draw however -- with the recent shake-ups in Chicago radio, a number of big names without current radio homes, like Mike North and Steve Dahl, might eventually find themselves behind the mic before too long. more ›

Michael Damsky, president and general manager of WLS, is our new hero for pulling “Mancow” Muller off the Chicago airwaves in a radio station shake-up. Co-host Pat Cassidy is also out, but he's expected to return to anchor WBBM. We reckon he's probably happy to no longer live under the fear he may be "waterboarded" at any given moment to improve ratings. Robert Feder has the whole story. more ›

In a truly odd turn of fan-fiction, someone has actually imagined what Wait Wait Don't Tell Me would sound like in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It's actually so spot on, we had to read it twice to make sure it wasn't just a parody from a previous episode! more ›

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Community Radio Act, which will open the airwaves to potentially hundreds of new low power FM radio stations across the country. The new legislation sets to repeal constraints put on LPFM Radio by Congress in 2000. Any low power station was to follow the “third adjacent rule,” which stated that there must be three empty clicks of the radio dial between stations. If the act is passed into law, those empty airwaves will now be filled with any number of low power stations, which could be used by local community groups, non-profit organizations and religious groups. more ›

We warned you the final countdown was underway. Well, it's here. As of midnight last night, LITE FM made the switch to Christmas music. Odds you'll hear the below song are still pretty slim, though. more ›

Almost three months since its official launch, we're still reserving judgment on the Tribune's Chicago Now blog network. There's no denying there are quality reads on the site: the Parking Ticket Geek has become particularly notable in the wake of the parking meter privatization, the CTA Tattler is still a go-to for us, our pals at Gapers Block have a page, and there's some good sports coverage. But at 126 blogs and counting, the site still feels unwieldy, making it more difficult to find other potential quality reads. So we were a bit puzzled at the recent announcement that Chicago Now would be starting up it's own radio show on WGN. As it turns out, we're not the only ones. more ›

Bummed Talk Of The Nation and Afropop got booted in the latest reshuffle of the WBEZ schedule? Want to know why there's only 5 episodes of Radiolab listed? Bummed you have to wait until the afternoon to hear Terry Gross spar with guests like Gene Simmons? Acting Program Director Steve Edwards explains all. more ›