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Lin Brehmer

Lin Brehmer

Monday – Friday: 5:30-10am
Host: Lin’s Bin

  • A Short History Of The Protest Song [Playlist] The NATO summit is attracting a diverse group of protestors to the Chicago area. While there may be a general consensus concerning what exactly the focus of the protest is, it would be safe to generalize by saying the protestors are against bad things and they are in favor of really good things. My early [...]
  • Lin’s Bin: Mom Lin Brehmer Lin reminds us why the love from a mother can never be replaced.
Mary Dixon

Mary Dixon

Monday-Friday: 6:00am-9:00am
Morning News

  • Doctor Who, Mister Blue Sky, And Just A Bit Of The ELO So I’m talking to my fellow Whovian, Jon Langford, about the next season of “Doctor Who,” because that’s what grownups do at the office. It leads to a discussion of the merits of the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, compared to the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, who I think we can all agree is the Proper [...]
  • No Excuses – Again – On Election Day (Thought I’d share this post from 2010. Today, Illinois voters help shape the GOP presidential primary, elect a state Supreme Court justice,  and decide a host of other  issues. Turnout is projected to be very light — less than 30%. Here’s a little something to jog our consciences. -md)  Here it is, Election Day. You [...]
Terri Hemmert

Terri Hemmert

Monday – Friday: 10am-1pm
Host: Breakfast with the Beatles

  • Playlist: Breakfast With The Beatles 5/20/2012 (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) All you need is love… and Chicago’s longest running and most popular Beatles show! Terri Hemmert, named “Chicago’s #1 Beatles Fan and foremost authority on the Fab Four.
  • Playlist: Breakfast With The Beatles 5/13/2012 (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) All you need is love… and Chicago’s longest running and most popular Beatles show! Terri Hemmert, named “Chicago’s #1 Beatles Fan and foremost authority on the Fab Four.
Frank E. Lee

Frank E. Lee

Monday – Friday: 1-5pm
Host: Vinyl Frontier, Sunday Night Concert

  • The Needle And The Damage Done It’s another XRT 4-D Flashback Weekend beginning this Friday as we explore the 70′s in all their lurid glory. Nothing but vinyl, cassettes, reel to reel and the occasional 8-track back then. Here’s how it changed back in the 80′s:
  • POTUS Comes Out It was the first time a President of the United States has made such a declaration, but it came only after a long and twisty path marked with detours, reversals, and numerous obstacles. Although it seems clear that some day it will be the law of the land, there is still a long way to go. Whatever your particular views [...]
Jason Thomas

Jason Thomas

Monday – Friday: 5-9pm
Host: XRT’s Eleventh Hour

  • New Song From The Afghan Whigs – See and Don’t See [Free Download] Greg Dulli and The Afghan Whigs are all set for a summer tour that includes a stop right here in Chicago at Lollapalooza.  The band hasn’t played live in 13 years and hasn’t released an album since 1998.  A free download has just popped up on their website (embedded below), a song originally recorded in [...]
  • Prius Route to Rock, Vol. 7: Joe Pug, Davila 666, Bonnie Raitt Seven installments already?  Damn.  That was fast.  Again, every Wednesday I post a few shows/events for the coming weekend that I’m excited about.  Stuff that I’ll most likely be attending and hopefully you’ll feel like doing the same.  This week it’s Chicago’s own Joe Pug, Puerto Rican garage rockers Davila 666 and the legendary Bonnie [...]
Tom Marker

Tom Marker

Monday, Tuesday: 4-9pm / Wednesday – Friday: 9pm-12am
Host: Blues Breakers

  • Marker’s Weekend Live Blues Pick This weekend our live blues pick isn’t for just one show on one night, it’s for a two day event. Part One on Friday evening, Part Two on Saturday evening. It’s not a performance we’re picking, though there will be a performance each night.  It’s a symposium that looks to be very interesting, well planned [...]
  • Blues Breakers Playlist, Bonnie Raitt As Guest, 5-14-12 Last night on Blues Breakers our Artist of the Week was Bonnie Raitt as a guest on other people’s songs. Catch Ms. Raitt in XRT Shows this Saturday (sold out) and Sunday at The Chicago Theater. Bonnie has always been supportive of the blues by sharing her spotlight with blues artists. We found a bunch [...]
Marty Lennartz

Marty Lennartz

Monday, Tuesday: 9pm-Midnight
Host: The Big Beat

  • Playlist: The Big Beat 5/14/2012 The Big Beat is Chicago Radio’s premiere program for modern sounds from artists both domestic and abroad. Hosted by XRT’s Marty Lennartz, tune in each week to hear “what’s next” in Chicago’s Finest Rock.
  • Playlist: The Big Beat 5/7/2012 The Big Beat is Chicago Radio’s premiere program for modern sounds from artists both domestic and abroad. Hosted by XRT’s Marty Lennartz, tune in each week to hear “what’s next” in Chicago’s Finest Rock.
Lin’s Bin

Lin’s Bin podcasts

Mondays and Fridays at 7:15 am and 6:15 pm

  • Lin’s Bin: Mom Lin Brehmer Lin reminds us why the love from a mother can never be replaced.
  • Lin’s Bin: Yoga Lin Brehmer Guru Lin gives a quick lesson on the fundamentals of Lin Yoga
The Big Beat

The Big Beat

Monday Nights at 10pm

  • Playlist: The Big Beat 5/14/2012 The Big Beat is Chicago Radio’s premiere program for modern sounds from artists both domestic and abroad. Hosted by XRT’s Marty Lennartz, tune in each week to hear “what’s next” in Chicago’s Finest Rock.
  • Playlist: The Big Beat 5/7/2012 The Big Beat is Chicago Radio’s premiere program for modern sounds from artists both domestic and abroad. Hosted by XRT’s Marty Lennartz, tune in each week to hear “what’s next” in Chicago’s Finest Rock.
Blues Breakers

Blues Breakers

Monday nights at 9pm

  • Marker’s Weekend Live Blues Pick This weekend our live blues pick isn’t for just one show on one night, it’s for a two day event. Part One on Friday evening, Part Two on Saturday evening. It’s not a performance we’re picking, though there will be a performance each night.  It’s a symposium that looks to be very interesting, well planned [...]
  • Blues Breakers Playlist, Bonnie Raitt As Guest, 5-14-12 Last night on Blues Breakers our Artist of the Week was Bonnie Raitt as a guest on other people’s songs. Catch Ms. Raitt in XRT Shows this Saturday (sold out) and Sunday at The Chicago Theater. Bonnie has always been supportive of the blues by sharing her spotlight with blues artists. We found a bunch [...]
Going to the Show with a Regular Guy

Going to the Show with a Regular Guy podcasts

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:45 am and 6:15 pm

  • The Regular Guy Reviews The Avengers Nick Fury is director of S.H.I.E.L.D, an international peace keeping agency. The agency is a who’s who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When global security is threatened by Loki and his cohorts, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to [...]
  • 4D Flashback: The Regular Guy Reviews Flashdance As part of an XRT 4D Flashback Weekend devoted to the 1980s, The Regular Guy reviews the very influential 1983 film, Flashdance. Chicago’s very own Jennifer Beals stars as a Pittsburgh woman struggling to get by on two jobs, one as a welder and the other an exotic dancer, who ultimately just wants to get [...]
The Eclectic Company

The Eclectic Company podcasts

Tuesday Nights at 10pm

  • Playlist: The Eclectic Company 2/21/12 Fat Tuesday show hosted by Nicholas Tremulis with special guest Terri Hemmert!
  • Playlist: The Eclectic Company 1/24/2012 In the last year White Mystery, the red headed sister brother team of Miss Alex White and Francis Scott Key White, have been ubiquitous on the Chicago music scene bashing out their explosive brand of low-fi garage rock. Now they can list XRT to their ever expanding resume. Last night they were guest DJ’s on [...]
New Music Thursday

New Music Thursday

Every Thursday

  • The Hives Jam Out In The Studio For New “Go Right Ahead” Video [Watch] Considering the Hives were one of the most eccentric, theatrical, and energetic shows at last month’s Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, the Swedish band went incredibly docile and lo-fi with the new video for their first single, “Go Right Ahead,” off forthcoming album Lex Hives. Set in a sparse studio, the video is essentially [...]
  • Passion Pit Return With “Take A Walk” [First Listen] It’s been a couple years since XRT listeners’ ears were captured by the sound of electropoppers, Passion Pit. Back in ’09 they exploded with the debut album, Manners and a headlining slot at the FREE 4th of July Concert at Taste of Chicago. This summer they return for a summer weekend in Chicago on the [...]
New Noise at Nine

New Noise at Nine

Thursdays at 9:00 pm

  • First Listen: Of Monsters And Men, “Little Talks” Here’s a New Music Thursday offering available for you to take home. The alt-folk artisans have set April 3 as the release date for their debut album, My Head is an Animal. “Little Talks” pumps a melody that seems as old as time, propelled by accordions, horns and group shouts, and a hook that just [...]
  • First Listen: Jack White Solo Single, “Love Interruption” [Stream] Jack man is releasing the first taste of his debut album, Blunderbuss, as a 7″ single next Tuesday, February 7. White wrote, “I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had [...]
Friday Feature

Friday Feature

All Day Friday

  • Friday Double Feature: Red Hot Chili Peppers & Bonnie Raitt We’ll be seeing RED as we devote our Friday Feature to the music of two longtime XRT favorites who will each be appearing in sold-out XRT Shows within the next two weeks: Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bonnie Raitt. Don’t miss a single note from one of the great modern rock bands of and one [...]
  • Friday Feature With U2 Just over 30 years ago a young Irish 4-piece named after a U.S. spy plane made its Chicago debut. U2 has pretty much owned this city for the past quarter century, making an indelible mark on this town’s illustrious rock history. Let’s spend a day enjoying our favorite songs, rarities and live tracks.
Saturday Morning Flashback

Saturday Morning Flashback

Saturday mornings at 8:00 am

  • 1969 Saturday Morning Flashback [Playlist] 1969: plenty of rock & roll, soul, folk, and history. The challenge is fitting as much as possible into four hours! Next week: 1992
  • 1989 Saturday Morning Flashback [Playlist] Are you ’80s fans in heaven, or what?! We spent four hours in 1989 this morning, amidst XRT’s 4D Flashback Weekend. My advice: after reviewing the Saturday Morning Flashback playlist, click around to read highlights from our pre-Internet-snail-mail newsletter, view the Listener Poll Archives, and have a chuckle looking at some vintage airstaff photos from [...]
Breakfast with the Beatles

Breakfast with the Beatles podcasts

Sunday Mornings at 8:00am

  • Playlist: Breakfast With The Beatles 5/20/2012 (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) All you need is love… and Chicago’s longest running and most popular Beatles show! Terri Hemmert, named “Chicago’s #1 Beatles Fan and foremost authority on the Fab Four.
  • Professor Moptop: This Boy The Beatles had their fun and poppy side, and they also had their serious side. Hear the Professor discuss “This Boy,” which is one of those serious Beatle tunes. Listen on!
Local Anesthetic

Local Anesthetic podcasts

Sunday Nights at 7:30pm

  • Playlist: Local Anesthetic 5/20/2012 XRT’s weekly overview of the Chicago music scene, primarily focusing on new music and artists but also showcasing Chicago greats of the last 50 years.
  • Maps & Atlases On This Week’s Anesthetic Beware and Be Grateful is so front-ended with great tracks, it’s easy to miss some of the gems that bring up the rear. So to speak. Maps and Atlases‘ second full-length begins with “Old & Gray”, a wistful song of regret about a failed romance. Or is it?
XRT’s Sunday Night Concert

XRT’s Sunday Night Concert

Sunday evenings at 8:00 pm

  • DMB Caravan Live: Sunday Night Concert Special This week, we’ve got a first- run Sunday Night Concert Special recorded “live” last July at the 3rd & final night of Dave Matthews Band’s Caravan, which took place on Chicago’s South Shore at “Lakeside.” DMB closed the festival with a full set each night; Don’t miss this week’s Sunday Night Concert at 7:30pm.
  • Holiday Spirit From Umphrey’s McGee This Sunday Night [Free Download] One of Chicago’s favorite holiday traditions is the music-filled multi-night engagement by Umphrey’s McGee. A departure from their 10 year tradition of performing New Year’s Eve in their hometown, last year they filled the Aragon for two nights over Thanksgiving weekend. The band invited the Chicago Mass Choir out for a few tunes to ensure [...]
Little Steven’s Underground Garage

Little Steven’s Underground Garage

Sunday evenings at 9:00 pm

  • Tribute To ‘The Big Man,’ Clarence Clemons This Sunday On The Underground Garage Photo by Getty Images Longtime E Street Band guitarist will pay tribute to his fallen bandmate on this weekend’s edition of Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Van Zandt is in the process of “selecting the right songs” and “coming up with the right words to honor ‘The Big Man.’” Fans can hear the special tribute to [...]
  • Bruce Goes Underground The Boss has always been a little bit stingy with his radio interviews, so an extended session with his buddy and colleague should be fun and informative. Little Steven’s Underground Garage airs Sunday Nights at 9 on XRT. Here’s some Bruce tracks that reference our favorite medium of the mind:
Jazz Transfusion

Jazz Transfusion

Sunday evening at 11:00 pm

Marc Alghini

Marc Alghini

Morning Show Producer, Overnights, Weekends

Bill Artlip

Bill Artlip

Overnights, Weekends

  • New Orleans Is The Best Getaway, Even When You Can’t Get Away Chicago Day and Fat Tuesday celebrated within one week on XRT?! Two of the best cities in the world are featured one after the other. New Orleans you may have heard often on XRT as our sister city. Most of us on the XRT staff have connections to the Crescent City that links our souls. [...]
  • XRT Show With Dawes At Chicago’s Lincoln Hall 11/10/2010 At this point I’m hoping everyone has had the chance to see a show at Lincoln Hall.  I’d also hope you’ve heard the band .  Both have recently celebrated a year since their debut.  Schuba’s extension on Lincoln (just north of Fullerton) has continued their tradition of bands that you should see in a place [...]
Johnny Mars

Johnny Mars

Fridays: 8pm-Midnight, Weekends

  • Chicago’s Finest Rock Presents The Electric Light Brunch Since the early 70′s ELO has been more than just a band. They became a global phenomenon selling more than 50 million records world wide. Today their music is more popular than ever and XRT is proud to celebrate all that is ELO with The Electric Light Brunch Sunday morning at 10am with your host, [...]
  • 2 bits…4bits….8 bits…MONEY! Just when you thought having a vinyl copy,  cassette, CD, and mp3 file, maybe even a bootleg 8-track, of your favorite album was enough: Think again. One of the most successful rock albums of all time, Dark Side of the Moon, gets the Nintendo computer game remake. , a musician and computer scientist who works in [...]
Wendy Rice

Wendy Rice

Saturdays: 8am-Noon
Host: Saturday Morning Flashback

  • 1969 Saturday Morning Flashback [Playlist] 1969: plenty of rock & roll, soul, folk, and history. The challenge is fitting as much as possible into four hours! Next week: 1992
  • 1971 Saturday Morning Flashback [Playlist] In 1971, minimum wage was $1.60 an hour and a new stereo LP cost around $3.50 (8 tracks and cassettes were a dollar more). It was a fertile year for music, with unforgettable recordings from the Stones, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Carole King, Marvin Gaye, The Doors, and, well, 4 hours worth of [...]
Richard Milne

Richard Milne

Sundays 3pm-8pm
Host: Local Anesthetic

  • Playlist: Local Anesthetic 5/20/2012 XRT’s weekly overview of the Chicago music scene, primarily focusing on new music and artists but also showcasing Chicago greats of the last 50 years.
  • Maps & Atlases On This Week’s Anesthetic Beware and Be Grateful is so front-ended with great tracks, it’s easy to miss some of the gems that bring up the rear. So to speak. Maps and Atlases‘ second full-length begins with “Old & Gray”, a wistful song of regret about a failed romance. Or is it?
Ken Sumka

Ken Sumka

Overnights, Weekends

Barry Winograd

Barry Winograd

Sundays: 11pm-1am
Host: Jazz Transfusion

Leslie Witt

Leslie Witt

Saturdays: 5:00-8:00am

  • 50 Years Later And They Still Ain’t Got No Band: The Persuasions At The Old Town School, January 13, 2012 Voices are the only instruments the Persuasions have used in delighting fans of a cappella for fifty years. Who needs instruments, given five masterful singers ranging from basso profundo to tender tenor, infusing rhythm, shouts, texture, tease, rock and soul and then some. Their vocal talents, surprising arrangements and eclectic song list made for a [...]
  • Coldplay Delivers One Heck Of A Set At Lollapalooza It had been a decade since wowed many of us, for the first time, at the Aragon Ballroom in an XRT show that showcased songs from the first two albums and left no doubt that this band was on its way to super-rock-stardom. At Lollapalooza last night, the band and the capacity crowd savored the [...]
Liz Rush

Liz Rush

  • About Liz Rush Liz Rush started out her radio career working overnights and weekends at WPGU-FM in Champaign, IL. Eventually, that college radio opportunity made way to the greatest internship a girl could ask for— an internship at XRT. In late 2010 she became the newest member of the XRT air staff, happily taking back those late night [...]
Norm Winer

Norm Winer

Program Director

  • What’s So Cool About The Electric Light Orchestra [Playlist] Some cultural phenomena are hard to explain. The resurgence in recent years of artists like Hall & Oates, who were in the prime of their career decades ago, can easily be overanalyzed. Other than an artist’s death, or some other tragedy, it’s hard to predict renewed interest on the part of the public. But nowadays [...]
  • The Anesthetic “Best of 20″ Holiday Spectacular Sure, I can tell you plenty about what to expect on this hour-long special beginning at 7pm this Sunday night (and rebroadcast next Sunday night also at 7pm) but a quick look at 2011 Holiday Spectacular will tell you so much more. I’ll flesh that out with a few more stories and history on how [...]
Zack Nechvatal

Zack Nechvatal

Staff Writer & Webmaster

FREE MP3 Downloads

FREE MP3 Downloads

  • New Song From The Afghan Whigs – See and Don’t See [Free Download] Greg Dulli and The Afghan Whigs are all set for a summer tour that includes a stop right here in Chicago at Lollapalooza.  The band hasn’t played live in 13 years and hasn’t released an album since 1998.  A free download has just popped up on their website (embedded below), a song originally recorded in [...]
  • Professor Moptop: This Boy The Beatles had their fun and poppy side, and they also had their serious side. Hear the Professor discuss “This Boy,” which is one of those serious Beatle tunes. Listen on!
Live at Lollapalooza

Live at Lollapalooza

  • Black Sabbath: “We Have Engaged A Substitute Drummer” Following Bill Ward’s lengthy statement detailing why he won’t be joining Black Sabbath for their upcoming concert performances, Black Sabbath have responded with their own much shorter statement. “We have decided not to make any detailed comment on Bill’s latest statement. There are two sides to every story. We have been working hard at rehearsals [...]
  • Black Sabbath Drummer Bill Ward Won’t Play Reunion Shows Starting with Tony Iommi’s sudden lymphoma diagnosis in January, it’s not been so easy for Black Sabbath’s original members to get the old band back together. And the reunion roadblocks just keep coming. Drummer Bill Ward, who, in February, threatened to back out of the Sabbath reunion unless he was presented with a “signable contract” [...]
Backstage at Bonnaroo

Backstage at Bonnaroo

  • A New ‘Roo — The Official Bonnaroo 2012 Lineup Includes Radiohead, RHCP, The Beach Boys, Phish and… Over 150 bands, 20 comedians and 80,000 of your closest friends will be descending upon the 700 acre farm just outside Manchester, Tenn. for four days of fun and music from June 7-10. Headliners include Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the newly reunited Beach Boys and Bon Iver.
  • Bonnaroo Weekend Video Recap This year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival has come and passed, with 90,000 hot and sweaty individuals participating in the music festival’s tenth anniversary. Its lineup spanned across the entire musical spectrum, from the Grammy-winning alternative rock of , to the progressive metal of , to the rap/hip-hop of , determined to have a little something for [...]
Pitchfork Music Festival

Pitchfork Music Festival

  • More Artists Added To Pitchfork Music Festival 2012 Seven years in, this independently run three-day event has consistently proven to be one of the most welcoming, comfortable, reasonably priced and singular weekends of music around. Two more bands have just been added to this year’s fest — Japandroids will be playing Friday, and Chromatics will perform on Saturday! The Pitchfork Music Festival returns [...]
  • 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival Lineup Announced — Get Your Tickets Here! Last year at Pitchfork we experienced the sweet harmonies of Fleet Foxes and (among other great sets) killer performances from tUnE-yArDs and Thurston Moore. The Pitchfork Music Festival returns to Chicago’s Union Park Friday, July 13 – Sunday, July 15 to celebrate an outstanding range of music from around the globe.