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WLS

Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicago market / Northern Illinois
Frequency	890 kHz
Branding	WLS-AM 890
Programming
Language(s)	English
Format	News/Talk
Affiliations	ABC News Radio; The Weather Channel
Ownership
Owner	Citadel Broadcasting (Radio License Holding XI, LLC)
Sister stations	WLS-FM
History
First air date	April 12, 1924 (1924-04-12)
Former call signs	WES (April 9–11, 1924)
Former frequencies	870 kHz ("345 meters" or "344.6 meters", 1924–1941) 670 kHz ("448 meters", pre-April 12, 1924)
Call sign meaning	World's Largest Store (original owner Sears)
Technical information
Facility ID	73227
Class	A (clear-channel)
Power	50,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates	41°33′21.1″N 87°50′54.2″W / 41.555861°N 87.848389°W / 41.555861; -87.848389 (NAD83)
Links
Webcast	WLS-AM Live Feed
Website	www.wlsam.com

WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois.

WLS is currently a talk radio station, with its programming consisting of about half local talk shows such as Don Wade and Roma and The Roe Conn Show, and the rest syndicated programming such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Adam Bold and others. WLS also covers Notre Dame football and basketball.

WLS had been owned and operated by the radio division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) since the purchase of its parent company in 1959 and the subsequent merging with WENR, a station with which WLS had shared its frequency since the 1920s. ABC-owned radio stations not affiliated with ESPN Radio or Radio Disney, including WLS, merged with Citadel Broadcasting on June 12, 2007.

Despite different owners, WLS and WLS-TV maintain a strong partnership (as WLS-TV is the local ABC owned-and-operated television station).

History

In the 1920s, Sears, Roebuck and Company was a major mail order company. To target farmers, Sears bought time on radio stations, and then decided to form their own station. Just before the permanent station was ready, Sears began broadcasts on March 21, 1924 as WBBX with noon programs using the WMAQ studios.

Sears broadcast test transmissions from its own permanent studios on April 9, 10, and 11, 1924, using the callsign WES (for "World's Economy Store"). On April 12, 1924, the station commenced officially, using the callsign WLS (for "World's Largest Store"); and on April 19, aired its first National Barn Dance.

Sears opened the station in 1924 as a service to farmers and subsequently sold it to the Prairie Farmer magazine in 1928. The station moved to the Prairie Farmer Building on West Washington in Chicago, where it remained for 32 years. For a few months after ABC's 1960 purchase of it and the format change, the "bright new sound" that began in May 1960 was broadcast from the Prairie Farmer Building. WLS didn't make the move to downtown Michigan Avenue's Stone Container Building until October of that year. Thirty years later, it would move once more, to its present location at 190 North State in downtown Chicago. It was the scene of the National Barn Dance, which featured Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, and George Gobel, and which was second only to the Grand Ole Opry (in itself a local National Barn Dance spinoff) in presenting country music and humor.

The station also experimented successfully in many forms of news broadcasting, including weather and crop reports. Its most famous news broadcast was the report of the Hindenburg disaster by Herbert Morrison.

Starting in the 1930s, WLS had been an affiliate of the Blue Network of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and as such aired the popular Fibber McGee and Molly and Lum and Abner comedy programs (both produced at the studios of Chicago's NBC-owned stations, WENR and WMAQ) during their early years. When the Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to sell the Blue Network, WLS maintained its affiliation with the network under its new identity, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Under this affiliation, some programs from the network that were not commercially sponsored or which were scheduled to cross the time that WLS and WENR shifted its use of the same frequency (such as baseball or football games) were transferred to air on a third Blue Network/ABC affiliate in Chicago, WCFL. Blue/ABC network broadcasts of addresses by labor leaders were also shifted away from WLS and WENR to WCFL, which was owned at the time by the Chicago Federation of Labor.

WENR

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010)

WENR became active in late 1924 and early 1925, the creation of E. N. Rauland, whose company manufactured the All-American brand of radios. Rauland started with 10 watts on 1030 kHz in 1924; on March 19, 1925, he received his license for WENR at 100 watts. By late 1925 WENR was using a 1000 watt transmitter designed by Rauland himself.

WENR and WLS used the same frequencies in a time-sharing arrangement until 1954, when ABC, who by then owned WENR, bought WLS and combined the stations.

Rock music years

In 1960 WLS hired star disc jockey Dick Biondi (Radio Hall of Fame) from WEBR in Buffalo, New York, to anchor the station's new Top 40 music radio format that began May 2, 1960. Mort Crowley was the first on-air voice of the new WLS (6 AM); the first song played was "Alley-Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles. Other notable disc jockeys who worked at WLS include Fred Winston, Art Roberts (2002), Clark Weber, Ron "Ringo" Riley, Gene Taylor, Mort Crowley, Larry Lujack, Dex Card, Chuck Buell, Bob Sirott, John Records Landecker, Yvonne Daniels (1991), Kris Erik Stevens, Steve Dahl, Garry Meier, Brant Miller, Steve King, and Tommy Edwards. Some of the production directors responsible for the sound of WLS were Ray Van Steen, Hal Widsten, Jim Hampton and Bill Price. In the 1960s WLS was a major force in introducing new music and recording artists. The first US airplay of a Beatles record was on the WLS Dick Biondi show on February 8, 1963. WLS was voted by broadcasters nationally as "The Station of the Year" in 1967, 1968 & 1969. John Rook was named "Program Director of the Year" in 1968 & 1969 as WLS was estimated attracting 4.2 million listeners weekly by Pulse research.

By the mid-1970s, WLS became conservative about introducing new songs, and many record promoters referred to the station as the "World's Last Station" to add new releases for airplay, usually only after the songs had reached the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. (Although in 1974, the station started playing a track by a Chicago band called Styx from an older album of theirs. The track was called "Lady". This resulted in other stations around the country adding the song and it became the first national Top 40 hit for Styx.) During the 1970s WLS ran a Sunday night music interview program called Music People. Well into the 1980s, WLS continued as a mainstream Top 40/CHR station. By 1985, Their music evolved into more of a Hot AC format. In 1986, WLS began evening talk programming as its ratings were on a steady decline.

Unique "WLS-only" versions of songs

Like many AM radio stations of the seventies, WLS edited many of the songs they played into a more "radio-friendly" or "radio edit" (a term still used today) format, usually 3 minutes to 3 and a half minutes in length. Even songs that were only 4 minutes in length as a single were sometimes edited. The Doobie Brothers 1975 hit "Black Water", for example. The single/LP version is 4:18 in length; the WLS version edited out some of the instrumental bridge. Of course even longer songs, such as Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", were heavily edited. WLS engineers also made special editions of some Top 40 songs exclusively for their broadcasting. Among these were:

• John Denver's "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (1975) - added "farm animal" sound effects.
• Reunion's "Life Is A Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" (1974) - Changed audio lyric to "Life is a rock/WLS rolled me".
• The Pointer Sisters "Fire" (1979) - Changed audio lyric to "I'm riding in your car/you turn on W-L-S."
• Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "Por Amor Viveremos" (1975) - Created a "Spanglish" version with alternating English/Spanish lyric vocals. The Spanish-only version of the song ("Por Amor Viveremos") charted in 1975.
• Johnny Wakelin's "Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)" (1974) - Added quotes from Howard Cosell between vocals.
• Benny Bell's "Shaving Cream" (1975) - Added additional verse making reference to WLS disc jockey Bob Sirott.
• Micky Goodwin's "Mr Jaws" (1975) - "This is Mickey Goodwin, WLS. We're here on the shores of Lake Michigan..."

Talk radio

By 1987, WLS was an AC station during the day and talk at night. Their approach was no longer music intensive. By 1988, the station evolved into a soft AC format with very few if any current product. By now the station focused more on personality and less on music, including a Sunday night late night talk show called "Sex Talk" and a daily late night sports related talk show.

In June 1989, WLS announced they were going all talk by the end of the summer. Rumors were that the change was to happen September 1. Air personalities were becoming more talk intensive anyway and midday talk was added as well. But quietly with no warning, on August 23, 1989 at 7pm, WLS stopped playing music altogether (appropriately, the last song played was a song by Chicago, "Just You 'N' Me", from their 6th album) as it became a 24/7 all talk station featuring high-rated talk talents from around the country, such as Bob Lassiter from Tampa Bay, Stacy Taylor from San Diego and their biggest hit, Rush Limbaugh out of New York. After a few years, however, they dropped Lassiter, Taylor and some of their other national hosts in favor of more local hosts. Jay Marvin also had several stints on WLS, where he was one of the few liberal voices on its political talk shows. The station is also the "flagship" broadcast outlet for the weekly, national political talk show, Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont.

On Memorial Day 2007, WLS took a cue from sister station WABC and ran a special day of musical programming, "The Big 89 Rewind," featuring live visits from Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards, Fred Winston, Chris Shebel, Jeff Davis, John Records Landecker, Tom Kent, and other D.J.s, sounders, and airchecks from the Musicradio era. The broadcasts re-aired on Independence Day 2007, and there was a new Rewind in 2008.

The station voice is long-time WLS personality, Jeff Davis.

References

1. ^ "The Beginning". The History of WLS Radio. Scott Childers. 2010-03-02. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
2. ^ "New Radiotelephone Stations Operating in Chicago". The New York Times. 1924-06-01. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
3. ^ pmg / NzeroNNK (2004-11-24). "WLS/890 and Larry Lujack". Retrieved 2010-07-30.
4. Disney-February 6, 2006-ABC Radio To Merge With Citadel Broadcasting
5. Disney June 12, 2007-Disney and Citadel Announce Completion of ABC Radio Merger
6. "The Prairie Farmer Days". The History of WLS Radio. Scott Childers. 2010-05-06. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
7. A look at the floor plan for the WLS studios in the Prairie Farmer Building-Studio A and its control room are still intact today
8. ^ "The Bright Sound of Chicago Radio". The History of WLS Radio. Scott Childers. 2010-05-06. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
9. "WLS Talkradio 89: The Talk of Chicago". The History of WLS Radio. Scott Childers. 2010-03-02. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
10. WLS move to 190 North State-1990
11. ^ Childers, Scott, ed. (2008), Chicago's WLS Radio, Arcadia Publishing, pp. 11–59, ISBN 0738561940, retrieved 2010-04-02 Cite error: The named reference "WLS" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
12. WLS History-National Barn Dance
13. audio file of Herbert Morrison's account of the Hindenburg Disaster for WLS
14. Eastmond, Bruce; Fishman, Karen; Adamko, Suzanne. "WENR, "The The Voice of Service": Chicago Radio Broadcasting Station 1924-1954". Library of American Broadcasting, University Libraries, University of Maryland. Retrieved 2010-07-30. {{cite web}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
15. Chicago Museum of Broadcasting History-Dick Biondi Hall of Fame Induction 1998
16. Mr. Pop History-Week of May 5, 1960-page 3-The new WLS Lineup. Biondi was at WKBW, Buffalo, previously, but walked out.
17. Billboard May 9, 1960-"Chi's WLS Launches New Program Format" pages 11 and 16
18. Rock Radio Scrapbook-Changes
19. Art Roberts' website-artroberts.com
20. Reel Radio-The Art Roberts Collection-audio files and information about Art Roberts
21. "Tributes to Art". Radio Daily News. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
22. Ron Riley's website-ronriley.com
23. Billboard June 5, 1982 Yesterday's Deejay Heroes: Where Are They Now? Pages 28 & 31
24. Larry Lujack-Radio Hall of Fame-Inducted 2004
25. "The Secret World of Dex Card". WLS Personality Magazine-WLS Radio. c. mid 1960's. Retrieved 29 July 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
26. "Yvonne Daniels, Radio Hall of Fame". Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
27. Billboard February 23, 1963 Most Disc Execs Swear By (not at) Chi's Dick Biondi-pages 4 and 8
28. Miles, Barry, ed. (2009), The British Invasion: The Music, the Times, the Era, Sterling, p. 55, ISBN 1402769768, retrieved 2010-04-27
29. "Who played the first Beatles record in America?". Forgotten hits. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
30. The big 89-WLS from "Passing Thru" by John Rook
31. audio file-Lujack and Edwards-"The Big 89 Rewind" May 28, 2007
32. YouTube video of Big 89 Rewind-2007
33. YouTube video of WLS Rewind 2008

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID WLS ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• WLS-AM 890 — official web site
• Scott Childers' History of WLS
  • Program Schedule
• WLS music surveys from 1960 to 1982
• Jeff Roteman's WLS tribute site
• I Remember JFK: WLS Radio
• Reel Radio-John Rook Collection-audio files including WLS jingles and air checks for many personalities
• Reel Radio-Windy City Airchecks Collection-WLS: The MusicRadio Years 1960-1985-audio files covering the 25 year period
• Chicago Tribune December 10, 2009-Citadel Broadcasting Prepares for Pre-Arranged Bankruptcy
• A look at the WLS studios-2004

v t e AM stereo radio stations in the United States
The following 45 stations broadcast in C-QUAM AM stereo.
By callsign	KBPS KCLI KCSR KDUN KFRO KGAK KINY KKIN KQWB KRGE KRRS KSUM KSVE KVON KWHW KYET KYMO WARB WATX WBBT WBLQ WEMG WENK WGOL WIKE WINY WIOE WION WIRY WJIB WKDA WLWL WMMI WNNC WOAP WOKR WPAX WPCI WRDN WTOU WWLX WXYG WYLD WZKY WZZB WKHB
By frequency	540 590 610 620 700 740 770 800 830 900 920 930 940 1030 1080 1080 1170 1220 1230 1230 1240 1240 1290 1310 1310 1320 1330 1340 1340 1350 1370 1370 1390 1430 1430 1440 1450 1450 1450 1460 1490 1490 1580 1650 1660 1660

• Radio stations in Chicago, Illinois
• News and talk radio stations in the United States
• Radio stations established in 1924
• Citadel Broadcasting radio stations