The Loop to Honor Q101 with a 90s Flashback Weekend, Special Guest

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 16, 2011 3:50PM

Much ado was made about Q101 fading away in July; Jim's postmortem on Chicago's Radio Alternative nailed it on the head.

Q101's former competitors-cum-peers at The Loop 97.9 FM are turning back the musical clock — or, in their case, moving the clock forward — to the Alternative Era this weekend. Loop DJ Walter Flakus, who used to be a member of local 90s rockers Stabbing Westward, writes on the station's website:

"I convinced Pete, Pat and Byrd that we should dig into the 90's this weekend! There's been some great rock tunes in the past 20 years. So this weekend, it's the "Sons of Classic Rock." It starts Friday at 5pm. Plus, we've got a special tribute to Q101 planned for Saturday night at 9pm, with a special guest host."

Q101 alum Christine "Electra" Pawlak took to Twitter to let her followers know she would not be the guest host. She also expressed some conflicting emotions about the tribute.

It appears that James van Osdol will be the special guest.

"This Saturday night, I’ll be doing just that. The Loop is focusing on the 90s all weekend, and wanted to address Q101′s demise in some way. They asked me to host three hours of “alty” hits, and share memories about the artists I’ll be playing. If nothing else, it’ll be a curious distraction from Led Zeppelin and Rush for the station.

"Everything’s been prerecorded (taken care of on my lunchbreak today, in fact), but hopefully it will still have that awkward 'live' feel you’ve come to love over the years."

Should be fun.