Stranger Things fans are getting a little sneak preview of what life will be like when their favorite radio station disappears. Let me explain.
You might have read on my site (and plenty of others) about WSQK—a.k.a. The Squawk. It’s that now-famous “radio” station that was really just an online stream but felt like a real 80s station straight out of Hawkins, Indiana. It had 80s DJs, 80s music, the whole nostalgic vibe.
You could find it on TuneIn Radio. But now a bunch of people, myself included, are getting these weird warnings that The Squawk is suddenly “not available in our region” or country.
At first, I thought, “Hey, maybe this is some kind of promo stunt, like the Demogorgons hijacked the station for a bit.” But nope, it’s not part of the show.
It’s just a glitch or a regional licensing issue on TuneIn.
The good news is you can still get The Squawk on the Global Player app. I tried it, it works, and others have done the same. So you can keep listening for now.
Just know that come January, The Squawk is reportedly going off the air for good as that little promo run ends. So yeah, consider this a taste of what life will be like when the station disappears for real.
As we get closer to the two-night finale of Stranger Things dropping December 31, 2025 and January 1, 2026, it’s worth remembering one thing: we didn’t just watch a show for a decade .. we lived one.
When Stranger Things started filming, David Letterman was still hosting late-night. Jay Leno had only recently walked away from The Tonight Show. Conan O’Brien was still on TBS. (We really miss him).. It was when late night was waning but two kings were still reigning.
The streaming world was a completely different universe. Netflix was king and pretty much alone on the throne. There was no Disney+. No Paramount+. No HBO Max. No Peacock. CBS All Access was barely a whisper. Streaming was simple compared to the buffet line it is today.
Politically? Well… it was Barack Obama’s America. Donald Trump hadn’t even been elected yet. There was no constant chaos cycle, no decade of non-stop political adrenaline. If you told someone in 2016 what was coming for the next ten years, they might have said you were living in the Upside Down.
Celebrity culture? Justin Bieber was still with Selena Gomez. Prince William wasn’t even married yet. That’s how far back we’re talking when you think of it…
Music-wise, the world was dancing to “Closer” by The Chainsmokers and “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber. In theaters, people were lining up at midnight screenings of Rogue One, dressing up, filling auditoriums — back when opening nights still felt like events, not a casual option between Netflix binges.
Even in sports, the snapshot is wild: The Chicago Cubs broke their 108-year curse and won the 2016 World Series. The Denver Broncos, led by a retiring Peyton Manning, won the Super Bowl.
We were just beginning dabbling in the nostalgia that the mid 2000-teens were about to present us.. We were just waiting for a show to come around and really bring it home.
And television? Entire shows began and ended during the Stranger Things era while we were still waiting for the next season in Hawkins. Shows like Cobra Kai, The Umbrella Academy, The Good Place, Westworld, and others completed their entire lifespan before Stranger Things even got to its final chapter.
And now here we are…
When we look back at this time capsule — this Upside Down decade, if you will — it shows just how much everything has changed, and how much we have changed with it.
The question becomes: Did we change the decade, or did the decade change us? Did we create Donald Trump, or did he create us? Maybe historians will be arguing about that long after we’re gone.
What we can say is this:
A full decade of life passed while this show unfolded. And our entire experience the this entire reality has altered.
If your child was six when Stranger Things premiered, you’re now staring down the day they get their driver’s license. If they were Eleven (*like our star*) you are nervously waiting for that first legal drink.
Time moved. Life moved. We just didn’t notice how fast.
We watched these kid actors in a weird, neon-tinted horror-sci-fi show grow up on our screens. And the joke was always, “By the time season five comes out, they’ll be in a retirement home.”
But guess what? So are we. Or at least we’re a lot closer than we were in 2016.
The decade went fast .. and slow all at the same time. When we began 2016 the show tapped into nostalgia .. We were immersed in it. But by COVID and the arguments during the pandemic, the age of nostalgia vanished away.. we were instead enraged on an hourly basis, streaming actively and killing cable, staying at home and killing malls.. and wondering what our collective purpose was in this place and time.
Now, as the final season airs a decade on, nostalgia–at least what it was then–is dead. The show seemingly has tried to stay stuck in a time that moved on… a decade is a long time. Especially THIS decade.. THIS upside down period of time..
So take a breath.
Take a moment and look around. A decade has passed in the blink of an eye.
As we gear up for the final Stranger Things episodes, maybe even seeing it in a movie theater, surrounded by others who’ve taken the same ride, remember this: This was a snapshot of our lives.
And just like Hawkins, we all came out a little older, a little wiser, and definitely changed.
The Stranger Things world premiere event just wrapped, and it ended with something huge — the first five minutes of Season 5.
The scene opens with a young Will Byers in the Upside Down, softly singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” It’s eerie, familiar, and heavy with everything we know he’s been carrying. Suddenly, a Demogorgon appears. There’s a struggle — Will fights, but he’s dragged deeper into the dark.
We’re taken to Vecna’s lair.
Out of the mist, Vecna slowly emerges and approaches Will. He tells him that, “at long last,” they are finally going to begin. Then, in one of the most unsettling visuals yet, Vecna places his tentacles over Will’s mouth and inserts something into him.
Cut to black. STRANGER THINGS logo. The music hits.
And that’s it.
The crowd reportedly lost it. Social media is already spiraling. The final chapter is finally starting. The slow burn, the buildup, the finish line — it’s all here.
We’ve been watching, and this is absolutely not just a sci-fi nostalgia trip. It’s heavier. More sinister. It leans way harder into horror than Stranger Things ever did.
It’s set in 1962 and follows the twisted early events that open the door to the version of Derry, Maine, we all know… the one haunted by Pennywise the Dancing Clown. And yes — Bill Skarsgård is back, fully locked in, bringing the same chilling energy that made the movies so memorable.
Collider points out that the show goes further into horror than Stranger Things does, and they’re right.
But what we don’t love is when headlines try to frame it as though the two are the same thing. Just because a story has kids in danger doesn’t automatically make it Stranger Things. If anything, you can argue the influence goes the other direction — It existed long before Hawkins, Indiana, bikes, walkie-talkies, and The Upside Down. The Duffer Brothers have openly borrowed (lovingly) from 1980s pop culture, which itself was shaped by King. So the lineage is clear.
It sometimes feels like we can’t just enjoy entertainment anymore without everything being compared, ranked, and stacked in lists.
Why can’t a show be allowed to stand on its own without being “the next” anything?
So here’s where we land: We appreciate Stranger Things. We appreciate Welcome to Derry. They are both completely different experiences — and that’s the point.
We’ll enjoy Welcome to Derry now. And when Stranger Things arrives in a few weeks, we’ll enjoy that too.
But let’s be honest — the reason a lot of us are here is Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise. He was phenomenal in the films, and he’s already proving he’s going to bring something equally unsettling, memorable, and terrifying to this series.
Just let good storytelling be good storytelling. No comparisons needed.
It seems appropriate that the final season of the show will actually take place during the same “Seasons” as the opening.
Recent reports strongly suggest that the final season will unfold during Christmas.
A Reddit user shared photos from the sets of Stranger Things. The location is likely Hawkins High School and it features a Christmas tree. There’s also a message on the board that reads, “We know times are tough for all of Hawkins, but anything you can spare will be much appreciated.
Perhaps there will be a need for Joyce’s wall art to light up yet again.
Noah Schnapp was featured in a video promoting stickers with phrases like ‘Zionism is sexy’ and ‘Hamas is ISIS.’ This video has triggered outrage among social media users, with many fans labeling his actions as disgusting. The backlash has escalated to the extent that many people are now advocating for a boycott of the final season of Stranger Things.
In addition to Schnapp, Brett Gelman, recognized for his role as Murray Bauman, has come under scrutiny for sharing anti-Muslim posts on social media. Beyond the cast, there is criticism directed at Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy and the show’s writers, The Duffer Brothers. They are facing backlash for endorsing a letter in support of Israel, further fueling the controversy surrounding the show.
— Read on strangerthingshub.com/stranger-things-fans-are-leaving-the-fandom-after-new-controversy/
“If you’ve enjoyed season four up until this point, get ready because the (last two episodes) are the best thing that makes what you’ve seen look like chump change compared to it,” David Harbour, who plays fan favourite character Hopper, told Reuters.
“It’s a masterpiece, it’s beautiful, it’s epic… but it’s also on a scale and a scope that almost gets silly and it’s like wondrous, almost manga-esque… You’re going to be blown away.”
Netflix finally dropped a new promotional ad for STRANGER THINGS 4 — but it wasn’t much to see..
You can judge for yourself;
The ‘teaser’ was more of a clip-by-clip rehash of seasons 1 through 3–even a little promo was included to remind viewers that those first three seasons were still on Netflix..
But the real news, if there is any, is a very much alive and thinner Hopper holding what appears to be a weapon in one second of the clip, and Eleven with long hair …
The show will be dropping in 2022.
That’s right, 2022.
The biggest obstacle Netflix may now face is lack of interest.
With the crew from Hawkins aging quickly, how much more can these delays do to hurt a potential season 5? Or ..is four it and then the branch off shows with side characters and other stories?
As always we will happily watch season 4. But .. it sure gets tough waiting when the last time we saw the gang was Fourth of July so many years ago now.
