THE SOUND OF MUSIC Think Pink’s Batacan and Roldan tinker with vinyl.

Photo: Steven Johnson Photography

In 2003, if you heard the velvety falsetto of the Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears on the radio, the dial likely was turned to 88.7 FM. A year before the queer party band was on everybody’s radar, Erik Roldan discovered the group and began airing it on his show, Think Pink Radio.

A two-hour weekly radio program created by Roldan and friend Ali McDonald, Think Pink Radio has been devoted to showcasing queer music ever since its September 2003 debut on community radio station WLUW-FM 88.7. With Think Pink, DJs Roldan, 29, and McDonald, 30, (whom Roldan met through McDonald’s ex-girlfriend), found both an outlet for their musical passions and an opportunity to document queer culture in Chicago and elsewhere. A simple mix of music, commentary and occasional in-studio interviews, the show has left an indelible stamp on Chicago’s queer-music scene—and likely will continue to do so when it switches over to a podcast format sometime in August.

Roldan says he spends hours every week trolling the Internet in search of emerging queer artists who haven’t yet reached the public’s consciousness. “[Music] has always been my passion,” he says. “I was singing in the kitchen at my mom with a hairbrush as my microphone when I was, like, five.”

His obsession has paid off. Over the years, Think Pink has put queer bands like the Antony and the Johnsons, the Gossip and Matmos on its playlist long before mainstream radio caught up. It also has championed local queer acts such as Three Dollar Bill and the Pussy Pirates both on the show and at Fruit, a queer dance party that happened intermittently at the Hideout. “Bringing queers to a traditionally nonqueer venue was fun because the regulars didn’t know what to expect,” Roldan says.

To be sure, Think Pink isn’t the only place in Chicago for queer sounds. Recurring music series like Homolatte, the Flesh Hungry Dog Show and Cake Chicago all provide outstanding outlets for LGBT music. But Think Pink’s radio format means you don’t have to be out and about (or out of the closet) to enjoy it.

When McDonald left Think Pink at the end of 2006 to launch the wildly successful party FKA at Big Chicks, she left a hole in the cohost slot, one that Roldan filled with friend and local comedian Ruth Batacan, 32. “Erik is more of the music nerd,” Batacan says. “I’m just there for show, honestly.” Together they’ve had to contend with last year’s sale of WLUW by parent WBEZ to Loyola University (which sold it to WBEZ almost a decade ago with the proviso that it could buy the station back at will). The shift led to Roldan’s decision to ditch the radio format after five years since Loyola intends to use WLUW for university purposes. “The mission of the radio station isn’t there anymore,” he says. “It’s not there to serve the community; it’s there to serve Loyola. I was, like, screw it; let’s move on. We did some awesome stuff; let’s be more awesome.”

Enter the new-and-improved Think Pink Radio in podcast format. Roldan and Batacan will shorten each show to one hour and will broadcast live from Wangs bar in Boystown and all over the city. By jumping on the podcast bandwagon, they hope to better serve their queer fan base. “Some really nice people have expressed a sadness that we’re leaving, but now it will be better because you can take us with you,” he says. “We won’t be stuck in a box every Tuesday night. We’ll be out in our city talking to some really cool people.”

Think Pink’s final show airs Tuesday 29 at 6pm on WLUW-FM 88.7. Its farewell party, Transition, happens at the Bijou on Thursday 24.