WKQX
alternative rock radio station in Chicago
WKQX (101.1 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, featuring an alternative rock format known as "Q101". Owned by Cumulus Media, the station serves the Chicago metropolitan area. WKQX's studios are located in the NBC Tower, while the station transmits from atop the John Hancock Center. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKQX broadcasts over two HD Radio channels.
WKQX is best known for carrying an alternative rock format that, from 1992 until 2011 and since 2022, has used the "Q101" brand. A sale of the station to Merlin Media in August 2011 saw outgoing owner Emmis Communications sell the "Q101 Chicago" name, intellectual property and all underlying trademarks for a unrelated internet radio station bearing the same name, while WKQX itself flipped to all-news radio under Merlin Media as WWWN, then to adult contemporary as WIQI. Reverting to alternative under a long-term local marketing agreement by Cumulus Media in 2014, the station branded instead under the restored WKQX call sign until Cumulus reacquired the Q101 trademarks on May 3, 2022. A former NBC Radio owned-and-operated station, WKQX's studios were located in the Merchandise Mart from the station's 1948 launch to 2016; the station relocated to the NBC Tower, the current home of onetime sister station WMAQ-TV, on August 4, 2016.
WKQX-HD2 airs a classic rock format branded as "The Loop" that was previously heard on the former WLUP (97.9 FM), now WCKL.
History
The NBC years
NBC, which had an owned-and-operated station in Chicago since 1931 with WMAQ (670 AM), signed on WMAQ-FM on October 13, 1948, from studios in the Merchandise Mart. Its transmitter was located atop the Civic Opera Building, where it broadcast with an ERP of 24,000 watts. In its early years, WMAQ-FM generally operated as an outright simulcast of WMAQ.
The station began airing a classical music format afternoons and evenings in 1966, though it continued to simulcast WMAQ during mornings and early afternoons.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “WKQX” is alternative rock radio station in Chicago. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through WKQX, alternative and rock, not as a finished interpretation.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7950871. VIAF identifies the subject as 61152079187407112919. The Library of Congress control number is no2018027431. Authority coordinates are 41.899, -87.623. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992, 2011, 2022 and 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “WKQX” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.