Ended Loop / 'Sad, epic meltdown' / Cop imposter sought

Ended Loop. After four decades as a Chicago rock station, WLUP-FM 97.9 has been sold to a company that plans to convert it to a noncommercial, listener-supported contemporary Christian radio station.

■ Reader comment on media critic Robert Feder’s blog: “I would attend a Christian Rock Demolition Night if one were hosted.”
■ A history of WLUP—once owned by a Chicago-born congressman from Hawaii.
■ The founder of the Tower Records chain is dead at 92.
■ The inventor of the wind-up radio is dead at 80.
■ Legendary Chicago DJ John Records Landecker’s daughter, Amy Landecker, is engaged to marry her Transparent costar, Bradley Whitford. (Item corrected to remove quotes around “Records” because “Records” truly is his middle name.)

Local news milestone near. The journalists launching Block Club Chicago—editorial successor to the late DNAinfo’s neighborhood-based reporting—say their Kickstarter campaign, which closes Thursday, is approaching its $172,000 goal. Co-founder Stephanie Lulay tells Chicago Public Square if that happens, “We will be the most successful local journalism Kickstarter campaign in U.S. history.”
■ WBEZ’s parent, Chicago Public Media, may acquire the editorial remains of DNAinfo’s sibling site, Chicagoist, also shuttered last year by billionaire and Cubs patriarch Joe Ricketts.

Journalists threatened. The National Rifle Association has released a video in which spokesdemon Dana Loesch warns reporters, athletes and Hollywood: “Your time is running out.”
■ A Sun-Times editorial on a “common-sense” bill to change in Illinois gun rules: “Sign it, governor.”
■ Chicago-area schools have seen a rise in threats since the Parkland, Fla., massacre.

‘Sad, epic meltdown.’ Axios deconstructs yesterday’s media rampage by Sam Nunberg, “a troubled Trump flunky, pecked at and picked apart like roadkill on the Russia Interstate.”
■ Nunberg: “Donald Trump is an idiot.”
■ … and later last night: “You know I’m the number one trending person on Twitter?“
■ Trump’s response on Twitter this morning: “There is no Chaos, only great Energy!”
■ The “anti-Trump” Oscars were a ratings rout, delighting conservatives.
■ The president tweets: “We don’t have stars anymore - except your president (just kidding, of course)!”

‘Corporations … had better start making a better case for themselves.’ A USA Today editorial says American businesses are inviting backlash with their handling of the windfall bestowed by the tax law overhaul.
■ A major Democratic organization is backlashing indeed: “Out-of-state billionaires are making you pay for their tax cuts.”
■ The right is turning its ire to Google and Facebook.
■ Tonight’s big story: Returns from the primaries in Texas, where—for the first time in 26 years—at least one Democrat is running in every congressional district and the relative turnouts among voters for each party could foretell what’s to come in November.

Cop imposter sought. Chicago police have been on the hunt for a guy who pretended to be an officer before punching and robbing a 70-year-old man on a CTA Blue Line platform downtown.
■ One man’s in custody after two men fired shots at people in a car in a South Loop garage.

‘It’s like on the top 10 banned book list, and that just makes me say: Yes! Let’s do it.’ NPR recounts the tale of a fifth-grader who grew up to turn A Wrinkle in Time into a major motion picture.
■ Smithsonian Magazine: How Wrinkle liberated young-adult literature.
■ The Onion: “More American Fifth-Graders Taking Gap Year To Unwind Before Middle School.”

Corrections.
■ Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square misspelled Best Actress Frances McDormand’s name. First to note the mistake? The ever-vigilant Mike Braden.
■ … And yesterday’s Square linked to an incomplete rundown of bar association ratings for Cook County judicial candidates. Here’s a comprehensive page.

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