WONC 89.1FM

Pure Rock FM89: The Radio Voice of North Central College

Featured Posts

The Bears Are Showing Promise in 2024

by Dalton Mont Through their first five regular season games, the Chicago Bears have shown to be significantly improved from last year with a record of 3-2, and they don’t look like they’re slowing down. The Bears are a young team, starting two rookies on offense including quarterback Caleb

Featured

Orlando Shines at Meiley-Swallow Hall

by Lola Furbee North Central College Theatre Department opened up their 2024-2025 season with the play Orlando. Staged in the theater at Meiley-Swallow Hall and directed by Jeremy Ohringer, this play was adapted by Sarah Ruhl and based on the novel by Virginia Woolf. The story follows the gusty

Featured

NXT Live: A New Season Begins with Questions

by Jayden Lawrence Attending the NXT season premiere on the CW was a vibe. The show was packed with action, story, and some significant surprises, but it raised several questions about the direction of the brand. As NXT continues to balance its role as WWE’s “developmental” show with its ability

Featured

Until the Next Adventure: Ricciardo Exits F1

by Morgan Piontek Many have come and gone in the world of Formula 1, but the sport doesn’t come across many drivers like Daniel Ricciardo. In fact, it never does. Ever since his entrance into the sport in 2011, and more recently with the Netflix docuseries Drive To Survive,

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Ronaldo Continues to Remind Us of His Greatness

by Hayden Krzyzanowski When you think of soccer players, the first couple that usually come to your mind are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and usually whoever is making the headlines at the time. It used to be Neymar, but now it’s split between Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. Messi and

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NCC Students: Join WONC Today

If you’re a student at North Central College, you NEED to join WONC! Whether you’re interesting 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

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Try Our Exclusive Coffee Roasts

Need a pick-me-up? We have our own coffee roasts! We worked with the North Central College Coffee Lab to create two delicious roasts to pair with our music. You’ll also support WONC with your purchase and help us continue to play the best music on your radio! To keep you

Music

Featured Local Artist

Featured Local Artist: Sweetie

Our featured Local Artist for August is Sweetie, a Chicago-based lipstick-punk band with a femme fatale ferocity and a French attitude, thanks to frontwoman Birdy Vee, who blends her francophone background with her fervor for punk and drag. Voted first runner-up for Best Punk Band in the Chicago Reader’s Best

Music

Riot Fest 2024: Welcome to Riotland

by Jesse Hudgins Well, it’s finally here. Riot Fest, or should I say RiotLand, has been revealed to the world with a new venue and lineup. On June 11, Riot Fest took to their social medias to reveal they’ll no longer operate out of Douglass Park and will move to

Featured Local Artist

Featured Local Artist: Selenoplexia

Our Featured Local Artist for June is Selenoplexia, a four-piece from Chicago that formed in 2021. Last October, Vocal Distortion welcomed Selenoplexia on FM89 to discuss their full-length album Exalt and Despair, an outstanding debut that skillfully explores all spectrums of extreme music through otherworldly atmosphere, heartrending lyricism, and pummeling

Music

Cultural Fusion: The Evolution of Rap Rock

by Josh Stevens Rap rock is a music genre that took rap and rock to create a new, exciting listening experience. Rap uses lyrics and rhythmic flow, combining that with rock music’s energy and instrumentals to create a sound that’s powerful and new that people weren’t used to. Rap rock

Music

The Beach Boys Today!: A Shift in Sound and Style

by Ashly Rico The Beach Boys are most famously known for their catchy, fun songs about surfing, girls in bikinis, and for their revolutionary 11th studio album Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds has been hailed as one of the greatest and most influential albums of not only the 60s, but

Featured Local Artist

Featured Local Artist: Space Age Zeros

Our Featured Local Artist for May is Space Age Zeros, a Chicago area power pop/pop punk hybrid that formed in the spring of 2022. Made up on five scene veterans who all have history together in sharing the stage with each other’s bands, the band’s initial mission was to blend

Music

Olivia Rodrigo Rocks the Boat

by Jade Reynoso At 21-years-old, Olivia Rodrigo has made an explosive transition from pop balladeer to punk rocker with her sophomore album, GUTS, released last September. The singer-songwriter’s new sound has won over established rock artists but may face skepticism from traditionalist fans. Shedding Her Disney Image Rodrigo’s

Music

Lollapalooza Through the Years

by Mia Sciabica Summer in Chicago will have you going to nonstop events. From live shows and festivals to the beautiful Lake Michigan, there’s something for everyone to enjoy in the windy city. Arguably, though, the biggest event of the summer is Lollapalooza, and it has been since 1991.

Music

Metallica: A Fan’s Reflection

by Erik Batkiewicz The preteen version of myself had no real idea of rock or metal. I was just listening to the Top 40 tracks on the radio back in 2014, but my world would soon be turned upside. My brother, Kyle, who’s 15 years older than me, grew up

Jesse Hudgins

Riot Fest Headliner Predictions

by Jesse Hudgins Festival season is upon us! Coachella just went down, Lollapalooza, Summerfest, and Sonic Temple have had lineup announcements, and Riot Fest typically announces their lineup in May with the single day lineups revealed in mid-June. Still, it’s never too early though to start the predictions for the

WONC Sports

Featured

The Fighting Illini Fastbreak: Transfer Portal and Recruiting Update

by Drew Hackler It’s no secret to anyone following men’s college basketball that the transfer portal has almost completely washed away any sense of loyalty left in the sport. For the majority of the top teams competing at the high major D1 level, the transfer portal has become the

Sports

Recapping the Madness of March: My Personal Experience

by Devin Braden March Madness isn’t just an annual basketball tournament, but a cultural phenomenon. As far as I can tell, there aren’t many other sporting events where people fill out more brackets than they can keep track of and watch four straight days of basketball action over the opening

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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy8aJw1vYHo Dropping on April 9, the trailer gives us our first look at what to expect from what’s said to

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

Fringe Radio

Fringe Radio: Welcome to the Fringe

Can you remember the first time you were truly captivated by music? Where were you? How old were you? What was it that grabbed your attention? For many people, this is a pivotal moment. The beginning of a life-long obsession. From there, you might find yourself listening to whatever you

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,

Reviews

Featured

Orlando Shines at Meiley-Swallow Hall

Featured

NXT Live: A New Season Begins with Questions

Reviews

The Brilliance of Community’s Writing

by Sean McMahon Community was a sitcom that first aired September 17, 2009, and was created by Dan Harmon, who people may recognize as the co-creator of Rick and Morty. The show starts with lawyer Jeff Winger who’s just been fired from his job since the state bar found out

Reviews

Fallout and the State of Video Game to Screen Adaptations

by Cassie Schneider With over 1 million screens in the past month, Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout has been met with great acclaim. The first season (with an already confirmed second season) provided awesome sound effects, great acting, multiple callbacks to the game franchise, and above all, a great group of

Reviews

Exploring Taylor Swift’s Complex Tortured Poets Department

by Emma Wadley Taylor Swift has once again broken records and my heart with her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift loves to surprise fans, and I wasn’t surprised when she dropped a second album at 2:00 am on Friday, April 19, calling it The Tortured Poets

Reviews

Taylor Swift Does it Again with The Tortured Poets Department

by Brooke Schultz Taylor Swift is back with a new era. After having released her albums Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) last year, Taylor announced her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), earlier this year at the 2024 Grammy’s, and it dropped on April 19, just in time for

Reviews

A Rollercoaster of a Time: Lively Reviews for Ride The Cyclone

by N Klepczarek The haunting North Central Theatre Department musical, Ride the Cyclone, enthralled students this semester and gathered significant reviews. After viewing the whimsical production myself, I interviewed three students about their experience visiting Uranium City’s carnival. To set you up with the background on what Ride the Cyclone

Reviews

Maggie Rogers Doesn’t Disappoint With Don’t Forget Me

by Olivia Rosenberg On April 12, Maggie Rogers dropped her latest album, Don’t Forget Me. The 36-minute record is her shortest yet and was written in its entirety in only five days. The album is a balanced blend of indie pop, rock, and folk, with tight production and story-infused

Jayden Lawrence

Sankofa 2024: My Personal Reflection

by Jayden Lawrence Traveling is a beautiful thing. A new backdrop to life tends to relieve the stress that the world brings you, especially with just the right people, and with the right circumstances. Sankofa 2024 brought the opportunity for me to relieve my stress. We were able to

Reviews

Ride the Cyclone: A Fantastic Journey

by: Lola Furbee Ride the Cyclone recently donned the stage of Meiley-Swallow Theatre on the campus of North Central College. Directed by Claribel Gross and Jeremy Ohringer, with music direction by Kevin Disch, this musical served as the second NCC Theatre Department production of the semester. Ride the Cyclone tells

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

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