I was an intern at Q101 twice. I idolized Steve Fisher and Tim Virgin. I was jealous of Brian the Whipping Boy. Brooke Hunter is responsible for me being a “Stephen” and not “Steve.” James Van Osdol shattered my illusions of what “commercial radio was all about.” Bill Leff once played NBA Pinball with me for a good four hours while Wendy airchecked my demo. Nancy Berkowitz hired me and I have no idea what she is doing now. Zoltar once smiled at a joke I made. Grant taught me a few good jokes and Joey Swanson let me come back to hang out when I had no reason to be there anymore.

I remember the 17th Floor and the luxury furniture business next door. I remember
The Electronic Trip as much as The Industrial Zone. I remember smoking in the stairwell even though I didn’t smoke. The TGIFridays. 

Chuck Hillier once made me record a song montage for his daughter’s graduation. Bill Gamble was a decade ahead of the curve with “The Unreal World.” Alex Luke cared more about interns than any other PD I can remember while Alex Quigley kept getting a raw deal. Mike Bratton taught me how to move the knobs and then Sludge taught me how to be a voice and beatmatch and finally Ned taught me how to think.  Alan taught me that you can make it in your hometown and Christine who I once lost out on a gig to is so good and genuine that I couldn’t even be mad at her.

That station has shaped my life without ever working there.

It was my personal ideal of what being successful in radio is, however misguided that was at the time. It was THE station as far as 17 year old Stephen Kallao was concerned. I had the jock postcards thumbtacked to the wall of the student newspaper office. My friend Matt and I photoshopped new versions of the ubiquitous logo (the one that managed to stay the same for 18 years) and I remember the day Mancow went on…and then when the Rock went off (and other stations were simulcasting interviews with staffers) and finally when I realized that Q101 wasn’t really Q101 anymore…

At one point, I really wanted to work there, my own personal windmill to tilt at. Somewhere along the way, probably when I lost out on middays, I moved on to other things. Stopped applying for jobs that I’d be a good candidate for. The abandonment of childhood goal is mostly eventual (no, you aren’t going to be in the major leagues, son.) but I always felt, “Well, hey. Someday I’ll actually apply for a job there again. I’ll probably get it.” 

And then one day it’s gone. I’ll miss it. But the parts I miss are already gone (or leaving soon) and what I’m struck by the most is non-radio people missing it. Giving a damn because that was what they HAD to listen to for modern rock. Was it dysfunctional? Certainly. Were there moments that stood above that dysfunction? Absolutely. 

In 20 years a radio station that was born in 2010 will die and no one will care because no one will be invested as a group. Q101 isn’t the first example of a station of tapping our childhood through the radio medium, but it will probably be one of the last. That’s what saddens me the most. 

For a while it meant everything. Now it’s just a fading memory.

So long, WKQX, Chicago’s New Rock Alternative, Q101.

(that would be drone legal ID)