A week ago, Chicago’s Q101 (WKQX-FM) ceased broadcasting. Though I haven’t lived in the Windy City for over a year now, and honestly, hadn’t listened to Q101 with any real regularity since 1998 or 1999, the station’s passing still marks the end of an era for me.

As someone who spent a chunk of time in Chicago radio, I’m well aware that’s the way the industry works: Stations get sold, switch formats, and fire staff. Not always all three at the same time, but that’s how it went for Q101. After 20 years of broadcasting alternative rock (including its variances and shifts in sound during that period), 101.1 FM will reportedly become an all-news station. (I think nipping at the market’s longtime big dog, WBBM Newsradio 780, is a bit of foolishness, but that’s just me being all-insidery. And honestly, I haven’t paid much attention to Chicago radio ratings for some time, so today it may be possible to take a bite.)

I grew up knowing Q101 as an adult-contemporary station (one of several spots on the dial I’d visit). When it flipped to alternative rock in 1992, I was away at college and was unaware of the change. During a visit home, I was clicking through presets on the family stereo and couldn’t believe my ears when instead of Taylor Dayne, Mike & The Mechanics, or Madonna, this tune came blaring out instead:

Dovetailing with my own broadening musical tastes (I instantly recognized The Charlatans’ “Weirdo”), Q101 became my favorite radio station from that point forward. As an arbiter of all things alternative rock (modeled after Los Angeles’ venerable KROQ), Q101 was my music-discovery service (and served up a fantastic retro lunch hour too). I can’t imagine the summer of 1993 without the station as my soundtrack. I’ve compiled a video playlist of 11 songs from that time:

I remained a stalwart Q101 listener until the advent of rap-rock and nu-metal in the post-Nirvana years. By the time the pendulum swung back to something more palatable, my ears were often connected to an iPod. And in the car, I’d made the switch to Sirius.

It wasn’t really a new owner that killed Q101, but death by a thousand cuts — ubiquitous use of portable MP3 players and other mobile devices, satellite radio, customizable iTunes playlists, Pandora, and nascent streaming services (like the just-launched Spotfiy).

But for a golden period of time in the mid-90s, we were a generation of weirdos and losers, baby, and the music Q101 played helped us navigate the often awkward transition from adolescent to adult.

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A former Q101 on-air personality and producer, James VanOsdol, plans to compile an oral history of the station and has set up a Kickstarter page to solicit support for his Smells Like Rock Radio book project.

Although Q101 may no longer exist on the FM dial in Chicago, the brand was purchased by a third party, quickly relaunching the station on the internet at Q101.com with future plans to bring some of the old magic back.