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.
Netflix unveiled the full list of cities and theaters participating in fan screenings of the Season 5 finale of Stranger Things, which has been confirmed to have a runtime of 2 hours and five minutes.
The screenings will take place in over 500 theaters in the U.S. and Canada starting on December 31, 2025 at 5:00pm PT, timed to the finale’s global premiere on Netflix, and run through January 1, 2026. The full list of theaters and RSVP information can be found on Netflix’s website, stfinale.com.
Shawn Levy stated that the last episode belonged on the big screen..
This promises to be a pivotal pop culture moment..
Many theaters are already selling out.. Get tickets now..
Today’s the big day! You can now buy tickets for the finale of Stranger Things in a theater.. I foresee this being a major cultural event..
We’ve got a grand total of two theaters in Pennsylvania running the Season 5 finale… yep, just two that I could find. One out in Warrington and another all the way over in Clarion, near Pittsburgh.
Now, maybe this is some kind of strategic move, spreading out the love to suburban and university towns rather than just the big cities. Or maybe it’s not strategic at all, and it just comes down to which theater chains decided to jump on board. Either way, I’m not complaining because I’ve got my ticket in hand. As an example it appears that there’s only two theaters in Pennsylvania showing it, one being a suburb of Philadelphia and the other being Clarion. Clarion smart because there’s University there maybe that’s the goal. Not sure if it’s strategic or just by accident where the theaters were chosen..
My plan? Well, I’m turning off the entire digital world from 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve until I’m back from the theater on New Year’s Day. That means no social media, no Twitter, no Facebook, no updating my site.. nothing. I’m going full digital hibernation mode because I do not want a single spoiler before I see that finale on the big screen.
And sure, some folks might say going to a theater for a TV show is a bad idea. They’ll say you’ll be surrounded by loud, obnoxious people. But come on, if you’re heading out to see Stranger Things in a theater, you’re probably just as much of a fan as everyone else in the room. We’ll all be there to laugh, cry, cheer, and maybe even dress up like a Demogorgon or two. It’s going to be a shared experience, and honestly, that’s the fun of it.
So good luck if you’re hunting for tickets. It’s limited, it’s special, and if you do find a seat next to me, just give me a little elbow room and don’t throw popcorn.. unless it’s at a really scary part.
So here’s the thing: I’ve been a “Stranger Things” fan since 2016, and let’s face it, that first season dropped us right into a perfect little 1983 time capsule. Back then, it looked and felt like the ’80s through and through.. like you could almost smell the mall food court and hear the rustle of a D&D manual. But as the show went on, the production got glossier, and it lost a bit of that old-school aura that made it feel like a true time warp.
Enter Season 5 and this little gem called “The Squawk” radio station.
I stumbled on it through the TuneIn app, and it’s like stepping into a bubble of 1988 all over again. They’ve actually built out a full-on 1980s-style broadcast, right down to the DJs and the vintage audio processing. Listening to it while out for a walk or driving around is great background noise but it goes further than that for me and others… it’s a whole mood. I can practically see my eight-year-old self heading to the mall for a He-Man figure or riding the school bus with this playing in the background. It’s pure, immersive nostalgia in a way I didn’t even realize I missed.
Let’s be honest, the show’s early seasons really leaned into that gritty ’83 vibe, and some of that faded as the CGI and polish ramped up. But “The Squawk” is like a little gift to us fans who miss that pure, old-school feeling. It’s our chance to time travel again, even if it’s just for a little while, before Hawkins and all its quirky corners fade away.
And fade away it may.. Word is this station will vanish on January 1, 2026. Maybe when Hawkins itself does?
Either way.. there are countless fans already being made to feel good enough vibes that they do not want it to be gone. And neither do we..
So let’s set out a mission to SAVE THE SQUAWK.. Keep this station.. we will even allow for bid name product placements.. calling all ad people, find your famous ads from the late 80s and play them here. Generate some revenue.. This station is so amazing, a step back in time, that it can become a part of your life in mere minutes.. It will be sad when *if??* it goes..
So if you haven’t checked it out yet, definitely tune in and take that nostalgia ride. It’s like a love letter to the ’80s that we didn’t even know we needed again.. beyond even Stranger Things, it is tapping into a simpler time that we also did not know we needed–and that we forgot existed.
Stranger Things 5: From “Uh Oh…” to “Okay, I’m All In Again”
Stranger Things season 5 (at least the first part of it) is officially here. The first four episodes dropped Thanksgiving Eve, 8 p.m. Eastern, and the internet did what the internet does best: tried to watch all at once and briefly broke Netflix. We’re told the service crashed under the weight of Hawkins hype, though to be fair it seemed like it was back up and running pretty quickly.
What struck me more than the outage, though, was how Netflix released it. That 8 p.m. drop made it feel almost like a live event. For once, instead of silently dropping a season at 3 a.m. and letting everyone binge at random times, Netflix basically said: “Okay, everybody sit down, we’re pressing play together.” Volume 1 on Thanksgiving Eve, Volume 2 on Christmas, the finale on New Year’s Eve — it’s like they rebuilt appointment TV inside the streaming world.
And honestly? That part felt kind of magical.
For a few hours, it really did feel like all of us, scattered around the world, were sitting down at the same time, in the same virtual living room, watching Stranger Things together. That’s something TV used to do really well before streaming turned everything into “watch whenever you get around to it.”
The Rough Start
Now, let me be completely honest: the first couple of episodes had me nervous.
I found myself wincing at some clunky lines, a few goofy setups, and character beats that just felt… off. There are moments in episodes 1 and 2 where it almost feels like we missed a memo on who certain people are now. Motivations didn’t always line up, and some of the humor landed like it was beamed in from a completely different show.
Episode 2 throws in a new disappearance and, yes, I’ll give you one spoiler: the Wheeler family house gets absolutely wrecked. It’s chaotic and big and loud, but at the same time I caught myself thinking, “Wait, are we doing this just to do it, or does this really serve the story?”
Then comes episode 3 and suddenly I’m wondering if I accidentally switched over to Narnia for a bit. There’s a tonal shift in places that made me feel like I was watching an entirely different fantasy universe — not necessarily bad, but disorienting when you’ve lived in Hawkins this long.
So at that point, my mental scorecard looked like this:
Excitement for being back in this world: high.
Faith in the writing: slipping.
Confusion about certain characters: very present.
Episode 4 Brings It Home
And then we hit episode 4, and things suddenly snap back into focus.
The pacing tightens. The emotional beats start landing again. Threads that felt random in episodes 1–3 begin to weave together into something that resembles the Stranger Things we signed up for years ago.
Vecna returns with a kind of brutality that honestly surprised me. The show has always had its fair share of horror, but this round feels more graphic and gratuitous than I remember from prior seasons. Not unwatchable, but definitely more intense. It’s like the Duffer Brothers decided, “If this is the end, we’re not pulling any punches.”
The shaky, try-hard humor that kept popping up earlier? Pretty much gone by the end of episode 4. The stakes feel high, the danger feels real, and the tone finally matches the enormity of what’s supposed to be happening in Hawkins and beyond.
By the time the credits rolled on that fourth episode, I went from: “Uh oh, did they lose it?” to “Okay. There it is. That’s Stranger Things.”
Streaming, But Make It Old School
What really sticks with me isn’t just the plot, though — it’s the way Netflix engineered this to be part binge, part throwback.
Releasing four episodes at night, attached to a holiday, at a time when most people are home and able to watch together? That’s smart. Releasing the next chunk on Christmas and saving the finale for New Year’s Eve only doubles down on that “shared event” feeling. This isn’t just something you catch up on whenever; it’s being built into the calendar of your life.
And we leaned into it. We watched all four episodes in one shot. We complained about the weak spots. We rolled our eyes at the odd character choices. But we also yelled at the screen, pointed at clues, and sat in shocked silence when Vecna reminded us what kind of monster he really is.
Where I’m At Now
I don’t think “BYLER” is going to be a thing.. And I really hope that they give Joyce more character development beyond just screaming her child’s name randomly.. And Hopper? That goes back to that weird character development with the exception of Derek Turnbow.. that they are doing VERY REALLY with Derek..
The first four episodes done, waiting for the next batch around Christmas — and of course we’ll be watching.
Yes, some of the early writing felt rushed. Yes, a few characters are being shoved into weird corners that don’t fully make sense yet. And yes, there were moments in those first three episodes where it felt like we were watching a very expensive fan fiction version of Stranger Things.
But episode 4 changed the trajectory. It took what was shaping up to be a long, boring baseball game and turned it into a seventh-inning shot into the upper deck.
If the rest of the season follows the path that episode 4 set up, then this might still be the ending Stranger Things deserves.
We’re not in the Upside Down yet. But after that fourth episode, I’m at least convinced we’re heading in the right direction.
Well, it’s here. After all this waiting and all this preparation, Stranger Things is finally about to start unveiling itself for the last time. Season 5 is set to begin on Friendsgiving — the night before Turkey Day. It all begins just hours from when I’m writing this.
We’re not getting the entire season tomorrow. It’s coming in waves. So I want to go on record, officially, with my top three predictions for what we might be left with when the dust finally settles at the end of Season 5.
Fast-forward to 2026, as the new year begins and we’re watching that last episode: here are the three outcomes I think we could be confronted with.
1. It was all a Dungeons & Dragons campaign
I still give a little bit of credence to the idea that the entire show has really just been the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Listen — this is the theory everyone loves to hate, but I kind of think it’d be pretty cool.
At first, I might dislike it because it feels a little predictable. But it does make a certain kind of sense. The notion that the kids have been role-playing this giant campaign the whole time… and that maybe, just maybe, the Duffer Brothers have been cutting in real footage of the kids at the table… and the final episode ends with them wrapping up the campaign — dice, maps, junk food, and all.
Maybe there’s “secret” footage tucked away, and that’s what we see as Season 5 closes.
Would people get mad? Oh yeah. Absolutely. And it wouldn’t exactly leave much room for spin-offs. So I still rank this as a low-probability ending… but not impossible.
2. Will Byers has been dead the entire time
The second possibility, I actually think, is much more plausible:
Will Byers never really made it back.
When he was taken into the Upside Down in Season 1, he died. Instead, Vecna — using whatever dark, twisted powers only Vecna can use — implanted himself into Will. That let him spy on the kids in the real world, learn their weaknesses, and work out how to take everything over.
This would be a brutally dark ending.
I think a lot of the kids may not survive this season. This is definitely Will’s season… but I’m not convinced it’s Will’s season to make it.
On my personal scale of probability, I put this one pretty high.
3. Hopper finally gets his date at Enzo’s
Now here’s the one I’m really rooting for — my highest-hope ending.
Back in 1985, Hopper went to Enzo’s restaurant by himself, waiting for a date. Joyce never showed up. She still owes him that dinner.
It’s been hinted at, teased, dangled… and I think it would be a perfect emotional bow, no matter how chaotic the rest of the story gets. My dream ending is this:
The final battle is done. The dust has literally and figuratively settled. Maybe we’ve lost people. Maybe Hawkins will never be the same. The music swells… the camera pulls away…
And then we cut to Hopper, sitting at Enzo’s.
Joyce walks in. They’re finally both there, at the same time, at the same table. He smiles. She sits. Maybe they say a few words, maybe they don’t have to.
And as they start that long-overdue dinner, the credits roll.
So there you have it — my big three predictions for how this whole thing might wrap up when Season 5 finally ends.
Until then, let’s enjoy the ride in waves:
the first wave hitting on Friendsgiving,
the next wave rolling in around Christmas,
and the final wave crashing into 2026.
Stranger Things has given us one hell of a ride. Let’s enjoy these last few moments in Hawkins while we still can. 👾🧇
Just in time for groggy eyes to wake up from what may be a full night of streaming the first few episodes of Stranger Things 5, people are pretty excited about a show-themed float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade…
Brendan Kennedy, director of creative production at Macy’s studio, has dried out from last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade after the festivities were dampened by persistent rain.
Come rain or shine, Kennedy, now on his second parade, is ready to “show off the floats and balloons that we’ve been working on for over a year.”
Aside from the traditional balloons and floats, Kennedy revealed Buzz Lightyear, Mario, Shrek and Pac-Man are among the new balloons. The phenomena that are KPop Demon Hunters and Labubu will also be represented during the parade.
“The Duffer brothers have been on it the whole time,” Kennedy says. “This is such a cool departure from saying, ‘Hey, 3D print me something from a film.’ What we’re doing here is creating a world. This is fully experiential.”
The float will feature the Hawkins National Laboratory. “There’s a containment device meant to contain an eight and a half foot tall Demogorgon puppet,” he adds. “That size is really in the wheelhouse of parade and continuing the legacy of Tony Sarg’s puppetry in the parade.”
The float itself will feature practical effects, including lighting and smoke effects. “It’s the laboratory come to life.” Kennedy teases that there are easter eggs within the design of the float. In addition to that, Foreigner, whose music featured prominently in the show, will be performing on 34th Street.
It won’t be long now until the big release of Stranger Things Season 5. We’ve all been waiting for this one — not just for the story to continue, but to finally see how it all comes to an end. But the big question floating around right now isn’t just what will happen in Hawkins… it’s how much did this season actually cost to make?
We’re being told Season 5 is going to be huge. The Duffer Brothers didn’t just go big — they swung for the fences. According to various trade publications, the production budget for Season 5 may have climbed past $626 million dollars. Let that sink in for a second. That’s a bigger budget than plenty of major films, and when you consider the length and scope of this season, it’s almost like we’re getting several movies stitched together into one long final chapter.
The Duffer Brothers really did create one of the biggest science-fiction/horror hits of our time. And now we’re seeing the marketing push reflect that: Doritos, American Express, brand tie-ins, billboards, commercials — it’s everywhere. One last blast of the Upside Down meets 1980s nostalgia, flooding our feeds and our store shelves.
But that price tag? If the numbers are accurate, this would make Season 5 one of the most expensive television seasons ever made — even surpassing the $365 million budget of Avengers: Endgame in 2019..
There is also a chance that the entire season of Stranger Things may STILL be shorter than Endgame–we kid Marvel. Rumor has it some people are still watching it in theaters since 2019 .. again we kid, we kid.
But here’s the thing: let’s do ourselves a favor and avoid spoilers for at least a few weeks when it drops. We want to experience this in real time — not through leaks, comments, or breakdowns before we even get the chance to feel it.
We have our theories. We have our predictions. But we’d rather watch it unfold with our own eyes, the way it’s meant to be seen.
Just a few more weeks now. One last trip to Hawkins. One last time in the Upside Down.
“Obviously, you understand I can’t get into personal on-set matters, but I will say we’ve been doing this for 10 years with this cast, and at this point they’re family and we deeply care about them. So, you know, nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy,” Ross Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the Stranger Things premiere…
When you consider all things, the damage control is going pretty decently.. most media has already enriched themselves in product placements .. corporations own the media.. it’s all going according to plan..
