0%

WONC 89.1FM


Pure Rock FM89: The Radio Voice of North Central College


Featured Posts


Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Steve Slagle

by Tyler Schmitz   For the final Scenes from the Saxophone Section for the 2025 fall semester, Steve Slagle was up for this Sunday’s setlist. Slagle’s biggest influences were those of Latin jazz, as that’s where his professional career started. Two of his earliest gigs were working for Machito’s Afro-Cuban

Featured

Netflix Makes Money Moves on Warner Bros

by Jesse Hudgins In October of 2025, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) had become open to selling the company after interest from certain parties, specifically Paramount owner David Ellison. WBD turned down the offer from Paramount as well as a subsequent return offer when Paramount joined with

Featured

Stranger Things 5: Will the Finale Disappoint?

by Victoria Camarda   Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5 was released on November 26, 2025, and it’s just the beginning of the big three-part finale of the popular show on Netflix. The horror series is written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer and was first released in 2016.

Featured

Make a Donation to Toys For Tots

Now through December 13, we’re working with the Naperville Park District’s Park Police to collect donations for Toys for Tots! We invite you to contribute new, unwrapped toys for the 2025 DuPage County Toys for Tots program, hosted by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. In 2024, the Naperville Park District

Featured

NCC Students: Join WONC Today

If you’re a student at North Central College, you NEED to join WONC! Whether you’re interested in a career in radio broadcasting or you just want to have some fun, there’s something for everyone here. Our staff is comprised of students with all kinds of majors, not just Journalism and

Featured

You Need to Stop Cheating Your Spotify Wrapped

by Mia Stachura   As displayed by the flood of Instagram Stories and TikTok Live discussions, Spotify has officially dropped its annual gift to all its listeners, paid membership or not. This gift, officially known as “Spotify Wrapped,” is a cutesy collection of our yearly music habits presented to us

Featured

Mariachi In Mainstream Pop Music

by Isabelle Arroyo   The room fills with the sound of trumpets, violins, and the guitarron when all of a sudden you hear “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. This unexpected combination of music occurred during their most recent tour across Mexico where they were joined by mariachi to

Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Von Freeman

by Tyler Schmitz   Von Freeman was this week’s featured player for the Scenes from the Saxophone Section, and he’s one of many jazz musicians to be part of a war effort. That’s right, Freeman was old enough to enlist into World War II, but this was more of an

Featured

The Best Day of My Life: Seeing Pierce the Veil Live

by Itzel Nunez   As a big music lover, going to concerts is one of the best experiences. Instead of saving up to go on vacation or buy myself something expensive, I would much rather buy concert tickets and get to hear my favorite musicians live. This year was the

Featured

Music Tells a Story

by Holly Salazar Ramirez   The beauty of music is that there’s no right or wrong way to interpret a song. Music has become one of the most impactful forms of storytelling, so powerful that it can surpass language barriers and cultural differences. It evokes emotions using vivid words and

Music


Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Steve Slagle

by Tyler Schmitz   For the final Scenes from the Saxophone Section for the 2025 fall semester, Steve Slagle was up for this Sunday’s setlist. Slagle’s biggest influences were those of Latin jazz, as that’s where his professional career started. Two of his earliest gigs were working for Machito’s Afro-Cuban

Featured

You Need to Stop Cheating Your Spotify Wrapped

by Mia Stachura   As displayed by the flood of Instagram Stories and TikTok Live discussions, Spotify has officially dropped its annual gift to all its listeners, paid membership or not. This gift, officially known as “Spotify Wrapped,” is a cutesy collection of our yearly music habits presented to us

Featured

Mariachi In Mainstream Pop Music

by Isabelle Arroyo   The room fills with the sound of trumpets, violins, and the guitarron when all of a sudden you hear “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. This unexpected combination of music occurred during their most recent tour across Mexico where they were joined by mariachi to

Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Von Freeman

by Tyler Schmitz   Von Freeman was this week’s featured player for the Scenes from the Saxophone Section, and he’s one of many jazz musicians to be part of a war effort. That’s right, Freeman was old enough to enlist into World War II, but this was more of an

Featured

The Best Day of My Life: Seeing Pierce the Veil Live

by Itzel Nunez   As a big music lover, going to concerts is one of the best experiences. Instead of saving up to go on vacation or buy myself something expensive, I would much rather buy concert tickets and get to hear my favorite musicians live. This year was the

Featured

Music Tells a Story

by Holly Salazar Ramirez   The beauty of music is that there’s no right or wrong way to interpret a song. Music has become one of the most impactful forms of storytelling, so powerful that it can surpass language barriers and cultural differences. It evokes emotions using vivid words and

Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Allen Eager

by Tyler Schmitz   For this week’s edition of Sunday Standards, I was in a bit of a bebop mood. So for the Scenes From the Saxophone Section, I decided to spotlight a hard bop specialist, Allen Eager. Now, Eager was a bit of a prodigy, I mean the guy

Featured

The Soundtrack That Saved Cyberpunk 2077

by Steven Carnana   Cyberpunk is a series that goes back all the way to the early 1990s, taking place in a dark, futuristic kind of world where corporations hold the power, created by Mike Pondsmith in 1988.  Most recently, CD Projekt Red picked up the intellectual property and released

Featured

Billie Eilish: From a Music Funk to a Grammy

by Sandra Pascual   Billie Eilish was born in LA and her brother, Finneas, has produced her albums and songs. Billie and her brother grew up around music and were constantly creating art through music. Billie gained popularity in 2015 when she and Finneas released the song “Ocean Eyes” on

Featured

Scenes from the Saxophone Section: Charlie Rouse

by Tyler Schmitz   This week’s Sunday Standards had me put together a setlist of varied pieces from a player that really knew his way around the scene. Charlie Rouse, a tenor player from D.C., is probably most known for his tenure with Thelonious Monk. Other than playing with the

WONC Sports


Featured

An Ode to Medieval Cage Fighting

By Paloma Mena   Saturday, October 25, marked a shift in my relationship with sports. Never in my life had I cheered so loudly, nor been so invested, as when I was watching two people in knight’s armor battle for glory in a cage fight. If you’re confused, I was,

Morgan Piontek

The Championship 4 is set for the NASCAR Cup Series

by Morgan Piontek   The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series finale is upon us with a champion set to be crowned in Phoenix this Sunday, November 2nd. With the current playoff format, four drivers will be racing for a championship, while the rest of the field will be racing for their

Featured

Chicago Bears Hope to Continue Their Hot Streak

by Anthony Licata   The Chicago Bears have gotten off to a hot start in the new season. They’re 4-2 and hope to continue their hot streak this week against the Baltimore Ravens. This will be a test for the Bears to prove to the league that they have a

Featured

What We’ve Seen and What to Expect from the Blackhawks Gen-Z Stars

by Cassie Schneider As of October 19, the Chicago Blackhawks are entering their 7th game of the 2025-2026 season. During the preseason, they played quite sloppy, winning only two of six games. There’s always the excuse of “having young talent,” or it being “a building year,” but how long can

Featured

Sainz’s First “Smooth Operation” in Williams F1

by Morgan Piontek   The Williams Formula One team started the 2025 season with excitement as they welcomed a new driver into their team: Carlos Sainz. After spending four years with Ferrari, it shocked the F1 world on February 1, 2024 with the announcement that Lewis Hamilton would join Ferrari

Specialty Shows


Jesse Hudgins

Joker: Folie A Deux Trailer Finally Debuts

by Jesse Hudgins After years of anticipation and speculation on whether the movie would even be happening, the sequel to the 2019 movie Joker has gotten its first trailer. Dropping on April 9, the trailer gives us our first look at what to expect from what’s said to be a

Jesse Hudgins

The Crow Needs to Be Left Alone

by Jesse Hudgins This year, we’ll be getting a new adaptation of The Crow, the first in 19 years. It’ll star Bill Skarsgard as Eric Draven (The Crow) as he takes revenge on the group that killed him and his fiancé Shelly, played by FKA Twigs. This is a project that

Alternage

Contemplative Pop Punk: Neck Deep at The Salt Shed

by Chloe Kallberg After four months across the pond and on the road, Neck Deep’s second American tour came to a close in Chicago on February 25. Tucked into a tiny and expensive parking spot, my friends and I emptied our pockets, flashed our tickets, and permeated the Salt Shed

Jesse Hudgins

The Time Has Come for Sony to Sell Spider-Man

by Jesse Hudgins   For nearly 25 years, Sony has owned the rights to Spider-Man and the characters connected to him. In that time, we’ve had 11 films using the Spider-Man characters under the Sony banner, nine live-action and two animated, with the latest being Madame Web with Kraven the

Alternage

2024 Music Predictions

by Jesse Hudgins and Chloe Kallberg Alternage is approaching its third birthday, which means we’ve been closely following release schedules of our favorite punk, pop punk, emo, and alternative genres since we began college. Meshed with our own personal wish lists, here are three predictions we have for what’s in

Jesse Hudgins

FX Deserves Their Flowers

Over the years there have been TV channels that have reigned supreme as those with the best original content. Whether it be AMC with Breaking Bad and Walking Dead or HBO with Game of Thrones and The Sopranos, each channel had their time at the top. There’s been one channel,

Alternage

Alternage Retrospective: Milo Goes to College

“I want to be stereotyped; I want to be classified.” These are lyrics that can apply to any generation of music listener. They were written by California punks Descendents and were released on the 1982 album Milo Goes to College. Descendents are a California punk band that formed in 1977

Crossroads

The Crossroads Artist Highlight: Bryan Martin

by Sam Corbett The Crossroads is one of the newest shows on FM89, meaning a whole new batch of genres, artists, and songs. Outlaw country rock, southern rock, shadow country, and delta blues are just some of the genres that the show will highlight. While I’m excited to bring new

Jordan Mark

Pop Stop: Have We Lost Our Minds?

by Jordan Mark A pop show on a rock station. The same station that’s dedicated itself to keeping the rock spirit alive and running for decades. The station that prides itself on playing the classics to the cutting edge. FM89 is that sanction to keep you moving in the world,

Crossroads

The Crossroads: Embrace Your Inner Outlaw

by Sam Corbett We all have an inner outlaw. The voice in your head and in your heart that wants to strut around town with a swagger. That feeling that you don’t always have to listen to others; that you can blaze your own trail. A badass vibe that always

Reviews


Featured

Stranger Things 5: Will the Finale Disappoint?

by Victoria Camarda   Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5 was released on November 26, 2025, and it’s just the beginning of the big three-part finale of the popular show on Netflix. The horror series is written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer and was first released in 2016.

Featured

Chicago Museums You’re Missing Out On

by Ricardy Herard   Though I haven’t been to Chicago for a long time, I believe the museums the city has to offer have gone underappreciated for a long time. While they may not interest everybody, museums can always be a fun and educational way to spend your time, which

Featured

Retro Review: The Commitments

by Emma Herder   I’ve always had an appreciation for film because of my father. He continuously recommends films for me to watch with him or on my own. As I was taking a History of Ireland class, we watched many different films based on the history of Ireland. I

Featured

The Legacy of Dr. Jane Goodall: Famous Last Words

by Emma Svoboda   Dr. Jane Goodall lived a legacy, with more than 60 years of conservationism and activism that inspired many scientists of all ages. Her study of chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania changed the way the behaviors of animals are viewed. She earned many awards for her achievements, she

Featured

Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave: Less Exciting Than I Hoped

by Preston Rizzo   About two weeks ago, Nintendo revealed the newest game in the Fire Emblem franchise. The game is called Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave, and frankly, I’m not too excited about it. I’ve been a fan of the series for about 10 years and played some amount of

Featured

KPop Demon Hunters Hits All the Right Notes

by Bri Eloiza   Unless you’ve been living under a rock, don’t have small children, or don’t have a Netflix account, you’ve most likely heard of a movie called KPop Demon Hunters (a.k.a, the animated movie of the summer, a.a.k.a Netflix’s most streamed movie ever). The story follows a KPop

Featured

Dark Comedy Shines in 2025

by Sierra Knutsen   Horror movies have become increasingly popular over the years with each one attempting to either rebrand themselves as something entirely original or replicate the formula that iconic franchises have delivered audiences over the years in a new way. This year, there’s been a rise in popularity

Featured

They Were More Than Brats: A Review of Brats

by Emma Svoboda   Andrew McCarthy’s 2024 documentary Brats rehashes the mid-1980s grouping of young actors and their work, featuring flashback interviews, current interviews, movie clips, and Andrew McCarthy’s thoughts on all of it. The term was born from the title of a New York Magazine article of an interview

Lola Furbee

Lola’s Showbiz Studies: A “Tiny” Love for Maybe Happy Ending

by Lola Furbee   On March 14th, the original Broadway cast album of the musical Maybe Happy Ending was released. Directed by Michael Arden, this one-act musical tells the simple but breathtaking story of connection, friendship, and love between two robots. With an on-stage cast consisting of only four people

Reviews

R.E.P.O.: Robots, Monsters, and Absolute Anarchy

by Gray Bunch Gravity? No problem. Voice-altering item effects while you hold it? You got it. Do robots that speak look similar to Canadian characters from South Park? Definitely! R.E.P.O. is a horror co-op voice proximity game you can play with 5 friends, or by yourself; no one’s judging here.

Alumni Spotlight


Alumni Spotlight

Brian Iossi

Years at WONC : 2006-2009 In his time at WONC, Brian hosted one of the longer-running specialty shows, Precious Metal, with a number of people. He also spent time hosting Vintage Rock, and called baseball, softball, and basketball games. After graduating from NCC, Brian began a career in teaching and

Alumni Spotlight

Bob King

Years at WONC: 1977-1981 In his time at WONC, Bob wore many hats. He was an on-air DJ, specialty show host, newscaster, and occasional color commentator for sports broadcasts. He also served as the News Director from 1977-1978, and was the Station Manager from 1980-1981. In 1981, he was named

Alumni Spotlight

Greg Williams

Years at WONC: 2017-2021 In his time at WONC, Greg was a force in the WONC Sports Department. Starting as a color commentator for football, he soon took on the role of play-by-play for almost all NCC football games, and covered baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s basketball games.In December

Alumni Spotlight

Megann Horstead

Years at WONC : 2014-2015 During her short stretch at WONC, Megann made the most of her time, hosting various DJ shifts, as well as frequently covering news, sports, and traffic reporting duties. She used her experience at WONC to earn a programming internship at WDCB Public Radio. After graduating

Alumni Spotlight

Lucas Burris

Years at WONC: 2019-2022 Lucas began his time at WONC doing only newscasts and sports, but his involvement in the sports department was quite heavy. He called many baseball and softball games his first year, even earning Best Play-By-Play (Baseball) at the 2020 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards. His sophomore year,

Concert Photos


Play Cover Track Title
Track Authors