WLS 100th birthday

[HadYourPhil]

Last weekend, WLS celebrated 100 years with a two-part special that was to run 4-8pm CST on Saturday and Sunday. I was able to hear a lot of it either OTA or streaming. A friend recorded all 8 hours. But... the show on Saturday was only two hours, as a soccer match started at 6pm CST and ran (at least) until 8PM. The Sunday four hours appears to be all there, wirh the first of the Sunday special devoted to the Top-40 era. Anybody know why the show would be promoted as an 8 hour special when it was only six?

Also, kudos to Jeff Davis for the great production!!

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Many stations have reached their 100 year anniversary with little fanfare. I attribute it partly to the lack of interest in History as a whole. At least there was some recognition. One that might surprise you that two years ago reached its 100 year anniversary is WNTD 950. It signed on in early 1922 as WAAF, the 49th oldest surviving station. You can tell by the call letter series WAA# that they had mostly just run out of three letter callsigns to assign. WLS was a essentially a "vanity" callsign in today's vernacular, available later than the series callsigns being assigned in 1922.

 

[HadYourPhil]

That's interesting and all, but it doesn't answer my question about the missing segments...

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

That's interesting and all, but it doesn't answer my question about the missing segments...

I guess my point was that you are lucky that they observed the anniversary at all. Many owners and employees don't know and really don't care. Look at some of the Wikipedia articles about stations with little or no History shown, or dwelling on unimportant things. I attribute it to youth and selfishness.

I find myself looking at the History Cards for the truth. It varies from station to station, but there are things that people swear didn't happen that absolutely did that are listed. Even people who worked at the stations don't know a lot of the History, and the radio oldtimers are disappearing fast. I can't begin to tell you all the times I wish I could ask more questions of people who have passed away.

 

[HadYourPhil]

They say if ya want something doen right, do it yourself. Turns out, while the WLS celebration was broadcast in its entirety, the stream was cut off for a soccer game. My contact at WLS tells me he is revising hours 1-4 and the new improved version will be up very soon.

HadYourPhil's Cat

 

[Yabadabado1]

Then you have some stations that may have a very different format [think religious or talk] from their heyday and the current owners may have no interest in revisiting the glory days of "evil" rock & roll, country, etc. or any other era of that station's history as it means nothing to them. I doubt very much that any 100 year old station is still owned by the same company/person's descendants, not counting those that may have changed the corporation name [XYZ broadcasting now known as ZYX broadcasting] but still owned by original owners'/founders family. More likely to find someone from the station's past, like Jeff Davis, put something together and put it out on a podast/Youtube/other streamer. I think WHK just played little snippets of stuff from the past for their 100th year.Or you may have some stations just say "Hey' we're 100 years old today!', blow a kazoo, and go right back to their regular crap.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Between our Radio Discussion administrators, and fccinfo.com, we have easy access to History with a few clicks. The FCC.gov site is good also, but can be difficult to navigate and slow to load.

 

[Gregg.]

Many stations have reached their 100 year anniversary with little fanfare. I attribute it partly to the lack of interest in History as a whole.

Most AM stations that are still successful have celebrated with parties and on-air specials. But you mention WNTD 950 Chicago not doing much for its century mark. That may be because the staffs at struggling AM stations are so small now, there's nobody around to record a retrospective or hold a celebration. Some of these stations may not make to Year #105 or 110.

 

[JoeU]

Most AM stations that are still successful have celebrated with parties and on-air specials. But you mention WNTD 950 Chicago not doing much for its century mark. That may be because the staffs at struggling AM stations are so small now, there's nobody around to record a retrospective or hold a celebration. Some of these stations may not make to Year #105 or 110.

The current day AM 950 WNTD has absolutely zero association with the original AM 950 WAAF.

Relevant Radio the current owner /operator is all about getting their message out and could care less about WAAF and their association with the Union Stock yards, the jazz era, the Atlas Communications era, the soul music era, the Johnson Publishing era, the Air America era, etc.

It was a no brainer for WGN to celebrate a 100 year anniversary simply because a good deal of todays programming still has some lineage to the glory days of WGN 60s thru 90s and the pioneering Col. Robert R. McCormick era.

In the case of WLS. there are still many surviving baby boomers who remember WLS form the rock and roll era from 1960 thru 1989 that Cumulus Media's hand was forced to do some type of tribute at hours that are considered non essential. Like WNTD, WLS with Cumulus ownership is about getting the message out and not so much about it's past history even going back to the Prairie Farmer days.

I believe 2028 will be a 100 anniversary year for WIND AM 560 and AM 1000 WMVP. In the case of WMVP, we're lucking Good Karma is even bothering to keep the radio statio on the air by leasing the WCPT night site in Joliet. The WMVP message is ESPN Sports not the 60 and 70's rock and roll era or the Chicago Federation of Labor era. WIND's owner Salem Media is again all about getting their political message out and could care zero about the Westinghouse Broadcasting era of the 50s thru 80s.

Will WCPT care about the 100th anniversary of AM 820? I doubt it. That frequency has gone thru many hands as any association with WAIT and its original Elmhurst transmitter site are long gone.

 

[emcman]

A lot of credit for recognizing WLS's anniversary goes to Chicago-market veteran Scott Childers, who over the last 15 years or so has maintained a comprehensive WLS history website at wlshistory.com. Kudos also to Jeff Davis, who put together the anniversary program and has done similar productions in the past.

The website is really well done. It has information by decade going back to the station's origin with Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sears called itself the "World's Largest Store," allowing WLS to hold an early set of vanity call letters.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Cumulus has very little to do with Sears either. Sears is gone, and Cumulus appears to be in deep trouble. And I made the point about WLS being an early "vanity" callsign in an earlier post.

Radio management is largely younger people, and most don't care about radio, don't listen, and many don't even have a radio.

 

[secondchoice]

If Cumulus last another 10 years in it's current form, it should be considered a success. Between the ABC radio deal (not really having clusters in some cities), the Citadel deal, the Dickey's management, the bankruptcy I sure employees always have their resumes updated. The Cloud company has been hard on shareholders and debt holders too.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Many stations have reached their 100 year anniversary with little fanfare. I attribute it partly to the lack of interest in History as a whole. At least there was some recognition. One that might surprise you that two years ago reached its 100 year anniversary is WNTD 950. It signed on in early 1922 as WAAF, the 49th oldest surviving station. You can tell by the call letter series WAA# that they had mostly just run out of three letter callsigns to assign. WLS was a essentially a "vanity" callsign in today's vernacular, available later than the series callsigns being assigned in 1922.

Sears owned the station...World's Largest Store...WLS

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Sears owned the station...World's Largest Store...WLS

Is there really anyone here over the age of 60 from the Eastern half of the US with the slightest knowledge of radio that doesn't know that? The only other thing that would make sense would be the "World's Last Station" to add contemporary records in the later years of their Music format. I considered it to be a recent recurrent format in later Top 40 years, where most of their top records were headed down the charts, or already off the charts completely in smaller markets. I tuned in day and night for recurrent songs I liked. I used to count the weeks it took newer and rebound popularity era artists from smaller market charts in Southeastern Markets to the WLS and WCFL charts. Thirteen weeks between peaks was common. Look at ARSA.

 

[JJSPC]

Seems like most of the weekend is now taken up by infomercials. Gotta stay on the air somehow I suppose.

 

[JoeU]

It's always been troubling to me in the way that WLS has been programed after the rock music radio era ended in the late 80s. For such a storied franchise as what WLS once was. it's been dragged through the mud in latter years by ABC, Citadel, and now Cumulus. As Steve King calls it, "the once Big 89".

WLS with it's 50 kW signal could have been programed as an alternative to WGN's talk and news format but instead was muddied with a politically charged mainly syndicated talk format that's been responsible for dragging public discourse into the toilet for the past 25 to 30 years. Almost void of any balanced news outside of morning and and afternoon drive.

That's what makes the whole 100 year anniversary such a hollowed out event. A once great radio station that is just not even a shadow of its former self.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WLS with it's 50 kW signal could have been programed as an alternative to WGN's talk and news format...

Actually, because the WLS tower is at the far South end of the Market, from when it was trying to be a rural farm oriented format, it served downstate Illinois better and not the Northern part of the market. The 15 mV/m signal, a minimum now to serve listeners due to electrical noise according to David's sources, barely reaches the Northern city limits of Chicago. It can't really compete with WGN today with a 50-100 mV/m signal over much of that Northern service area. And that's based on M-3, without all the development that's occurred to the North of the WLS TL since that map was constructed.

According to the late Glen Clark, WLS Staff Engineer in the 1970s and WLS-FM CE, WLS had to do all sorts of audio processing machinations to compete with WCFL, with a 3 to 1 to 6 to 1 field strength advantage in those areas. Glen investigated a new transmitter location in Addison for that very reason, with direct experimental field measurements made on 1200 kHz throughout the market circa 1975. Before moving to the border of Tinley Park and Mokena, the WLS TL was 4-5 miles South of the WCFL TL, also in Downers Grove, and which probably should have at least stayed there.

It isn't just my opinion, WLS staff recognized it themselves by the 1970s.

 

[KeithE4]

Actually, because the WLS tower is at the far South end of the Market, from when it was trying to be a rural farm oriented format, it served downstate Illinois better and not the Northern part of the market. The 15 mV/m signal, a minimum now to serve listeners due to electrical noise according to David's sources, barely reaches the Northern city limits of Chicago. It can't really compete with WGN today with a 50-100 mV/m signal over much of that Northern service area. And that's based on M-3, without all the development that's occurred to the North of the WLS TL since that map was constructed.

Back in the mid '80s, before all the current electrical interference, I lived in Wauconda (Lake County IL) and had trouble with WLS at night. They were so weak that WCBS/880 would sometimes splash on top of them. No issues with the other blowtorches.

According to the late Glen Clark, WLS Staff Engineer in the 1970s and WLS-FM CE, WLS had to do all sorts of audio processing machinations to compete with WCFL, with a 3 to 1 to 6 to 1 field strength advantage in those areas.

And yet, The Voice of Labor bit the dust in 1976, even with a superior signal into the northern and northwest suburbs.

 

[JoeU]

I believe the site just north a 83rd St and Lemont Rd actually belonged to WENR and WLS transmitted from Create at that time, pre 1939. WLS choose to move to LaGrange Road at aprox. 183rd street because it was just south of the Cook County boarder. Story was that the Prairie Farmer did not want to pay higher Cook County taxes and chose to locate on the Will County side. Serving the central and southern IL farming community was also factored into that location as you mentioned.

Not sure my facts are completely correct, the WENR transmitter site was sold in 1939 with WENR using the WLS Tinley Park site at night, WLS using the site during the day. The WENR Lemont Rd site turned into a munitions factory during World War II for the war effort. In latter years, 60s and 70's was a moth ball factory. Around 2000 ish the site was sold to a real estate developer for building residential condos. When digging up the site, the base of the old WENR radio tower was found.

If I remember correctly, in the late 60's early 70's WLS had no issue making it into southern and central Wisconsin with their ground wave signal. Not as strong as WMAQ, WGN and WBBM but still had a respectable signal. I remember it being stronger during the day than WCFL. Dial position had a lot to do with that as well. I'm thinking the WLS radial system back then was not compromised as it probably is now after the Tinley Park, Orland Park, Orland Hills building boom of the late 70s and early to mid 80s.

I did remember the Gary Deeb mentioned in his Tribune radio / TV column in 1975 that WLS was likely to move to Addison from Tinley Park for a more centrally located signal. Maybe with WCFL's demise as a rock station, ABC changed their mind and didn't want to spend the money. The old Ham Radio operators that used to operate on 160 Meters used to blame the Lake St elevated structure for blocking ground wave conductivity from South Side to North and visa versa. Referred to it as the Iron Curtain.

Pulling a move off like that now would be more problematic a move further north for WLS would probably necessitate a power reduction due to signal contour issue enforced after clear channel status was done away with in the mid 1980s.

 

[gr8oldies]

It's always been troubling to me in the way that WLS has been programed after the rock music radio era ended in the late 80s. For such a storied franchise as what WLS once was. it's been dragged through the mud in latter years by ABC, Citadel, and now Cumulus. As Steve King calls it, "the once Big 89".

WLS with it's 50 kW signal could have been programed as an alternative to WGN's talk and news format but instead was muddied with a politically charged mainly syndicated talk format that's been responsible for dragging public discourse into the toilet for the past 25 to 30 years. Almost void of any balanced news outside of morning and and afternoon drive.

That's what makes the whole 100 year anniversary such a hollowed out event. A once great radio station that is just not even a shadow of its former self.

The first 10 years of the WLS talk format were excellent. Mostly live (except Limbaugh as first a fill, then permanent). Jeff Hendricks and Jim Johnson still doing news with a pretty upbeat presentation.All the hosts weren't conservative. I listened a lot in that era. Obviously it's gone way down hill.