93XRT’s Saturday Morning Flashback

Every Saturday morning, Chicago’s alternative rock station WXRT airs the long-running “Saturday Morning Flashback” that takes listeners back to a specific year in rock. 

From 9 until Noon, the show dives deep into that specific year, resurrecting its music, revisiting what was in the news then and reliving its pop cultural moments. The show’s expansive length gives hosts room to feature probably 35 songs.

A recent episode revisited 1989. George H.W. Bush takes the oath, Field of Dreams dominates summer movie-going, “The Wonder Years” leads TV ratings, and show hosts play tracks from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” to The Cure, “Pictures of You,” and Roy Orbison’s, “You Got It.”

Begun in 1985, Saturday Morning Flashback originally ran four hours before settling into its current three-hour format. The show’s expansive length gives rotating hosts Frank E. Lee, Johnny Mars and Annalisa room to feature probably 35 songs per episode, diving deep into each year’s music, news headlines, and pop cultural moments. This transition expanded Flashback’s scope beyond the original 1967-1990s range to include years well into the 2000s with playlists that capture each year’s essence. 

(Occasionally, years like 1998 and 1999 are combined into a single show — perhaps suggesting thinner musical periods — but the new curators’ song choices and fresh perspectives keep things lively.)

What makes Flashback stand out from other throwback shows is the thoughtful sequencing and commentary. This is no algorithmic playlist. When covering 1988, hosts followed news about the Cubs’ first night games at Wrigley Field with Robert Cray’s “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.”

It’s this witty blend of music plus context — like Tom Marker calling Dave Edmunds the “Welsh Keebler Elf”— that often brings that year right back. You don’t just “hear 1995,” you feel it. 

Station veteran Lee, who retired in January from XRT at age 72 (his second and final farewell), became known for his darkly humorous “Rock and Roll Obituary” segments, marking celebrity deaths with quips like this from a 1991 SMF: “Normally, Redd Foxx worked blue, but it was Code Red for the comedian and television sitcom star when he collapsed on the set at the age of 69.”

The show preserves musical moments that might otherwise vanish from cultural memory. Peter Gabriel’s punk-influenced “On the Air” (1978) seems frozen in amber as his one, brief new wave experiment — and a pretty cool one at that. Russ Ballard’s “Voices,” an otherwise forgotten (and deep!) track that I guess was featured in the series, “Miami Vice,” finds (in me, anyway) a new audience, and again shows Flashback’s archaeological approach to rock history.

Before the music-streaming services were prevalent, I spent several weekends researching and collecting MP3s representing Flashback years 1972-1995 as a 50th birthday gift for a friend. (Luckily for me at the time, I had been granted access to “the magic Pableaux USB drive”— aka Paul ‘Pableaux’ Johnson’s “wonderful treasury of every song ever written since the beginning of time.” Okay well closer to 38,000 MP3s. Granted, it was “so 2011” to get to do it that way — and not as cool as the 131 publicly available Pableaux playlists currently posted still at Spotify.)

Today, Spotify users like “Men’s Library Club” do the heavy lifting (and I thank him or her), curating a master, overall 93 WXRT playlist — more than 8,000 songs’ worth — and also posting SMF year-by-year specific lists, like 189 tracks for 1976, updated regularly. These digital repositories let anyone call up a list of confirmed tracks used. 

Yet the show itself remains the spark, its live broadcasts a weekly, coffee and grocery-unloading ritual for a loyalist like me.

Nostalgia powers Saturday Morning Flashback. It’s a stated trip back in time, after all. But the show’s true power lies in this dual allure — it packages that timeframe’s vibe cleanly enough that you find yourself unlocking personal memories. I left Chicago 30 years ago, but Flashback yanks me back to specific neighborhoods, apartments and moments. Tracks from 1989 evoke work stories and lakeside runs. The year 1991 brings out the earliest days dating Christi — now my wife, still a fan of the show — delivering vivid images of those times.

And the show’s local roots deepen its charm. Despite a Wikipedia page, the show seems like it still flies under the pop culture radar, a Chicago secret that attaches listeners to the city, whether they’re still there — or like me, long gone.

Whether you lived through “Year X” or simply appreciate its musical significance, Flashback takes every listener back. Saturday Morning Flashback is a tether back to where we were and the songs that accompanied us through it.

A snapshot from Saturday Morning Flashback: 1996

“Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin • “High Hopes” by Bruce Springsteen • “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth” by Primitive Radio Gods • “The Old Apartment” by Barenaked Ladies • “Follow You Down” by Gin Blossoms • “Bittersweet Me” by R.E.M. • “Private Conversation” by Lyle Lovett • “If You Could Only See” by Tonic • “So Much To See” by Dave Matthews Band • “Outtasite” by Wilco • “Mas Y Mas” by Los Lobos • “Where It’s At” by Beck • “Key West Intermezzo” by John Mellencamp • “No Excuses” (unplugged) by Alice In Chains • “A Long December” by Counting Crows • “Change the World” by Eric Clapton • “Big Me” by Foo Fighters • “Cold Shot” by Doctor John • “Criminal” by Fiona Apple • “Santeria” by Sublime • “One Headlight” by Wallflowers • “Bound For the Floor” by Local H • “The Distance” by Cake • “Fly Like An Eagle” by Seal • “Everyday Is A Winding Road” by Sheryl Crow • “God’s Gallipoli” by Poi Dog Pondering • “Barely Breathing” by Duncan Sheik • “Walls (No. 3)” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers • “Virtual Insanity” by Jamiroquai • “Everything Falls Apart” by Dog’s Eye View • “Good Day For the Blues” by Storyville • “Burden In My Hand” by Soundgarden • “Desperately Wanting” by Better Than Ezra

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