WLS (AM)
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| Broadcast area | Chicago, Illinois |
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| Branding | 890-AM WLS |
| Slogan | Chicago's Talk Station |
| First air date | April 12, 1924 |
| Frequency | 890 kHz |
| Format | News/Talk |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A (clear channel) |
| Callsign meaning | World's Largest Store |
| Owner | ABC Radio |
| Website | http://www.wlsam.com/ |
WLS is a pioneer Chicago radio station. The call letters stand for World's Largest Store (for its original owner, Sears, Roebuck). The station operates on an AM frequency of 890 kHz. 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, WLS has been owned and operated by the radio division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which is expected to merge with Citadel Broadcasting by the end of 2006. Its transmitter and towers are located in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Sears opened the station in 1924 as a service to farmers and subsequently sold it to the Prairie Farmer Magazine, which continued that orientation through 1960. 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 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.
In 1960 WLS hired star disc jockey Dick Biondi (RHOF) [1] from WKBW in Buffalo, New York to anchor the station's new Top 40 music radio format. Other notable disc jockies who worked at WLS include Fred Winston, Art Roberts, Clark Weber, Ron Riley, Larry Lujack, Bob Sirott, John Records Landecker, Yvonne Daniels, Kris Erik Stevens, Steve Dahl, Steve King, Chuck Buell, and Tommy Edwards. In the 1960's WLS was a major force in introducing new music and recording artists. Voted by broadcasters nationally as "The Station of the Year" in 1967, 1968 & 1969. During the late 1960s and 1970s WLS ran a Sunday night music interview program called Music People. Beginning in the mid 1980s WLS cut back on mainstream Top 40 music with mostly AC leaning and oldies and had more talk from disc jockeys rather than music, including a Sunday night late night talk show called "Sex Talk" and a daily late night sports related talk show. On August 23, 1989 at 7pm, WLS stopped playing occasional music on its AM station (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 and Stacy Taylor from San Diego. After a few years, however, they dropped many of these hosts and began a mostly syndicated lineup. It currently features Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,and others.
WLS and the other O&O ABC Radio Network stations not affiliated with ESPN Radio or Radio Disney are part of the transaction in which ABC Radio is to be merged with Citadel Broadcasting.[2]
[edit] Current Weekday Line Up
- 4:00 a.m. – 5:00 a.m.: Wall Street Journal This Morning
- 5:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Don Wade & Roma
- 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Eileen Byrne
- 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.: Rush Limbaugh
- 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.: The Roe Conn Show
- 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.: Sean Hannity
- 10:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.: Mark Levin
- 12:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m.: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory
[edit] External links
- Scott Childers' History of WLS
- WLS web site
- Jeff Roteman's WLS tribute site
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WLS
| AM Radio stations in the Chicago market (Arbitron #3) | |
|---|---|
| By frequency |
560 | 620 | 670 | 720 | 750 |780 | 820 | 850 | 890 | 930 | 950 | 1000 | 1080 | 1110 | 1160 | 1200 | 1230 | 1240 | 1270 | 1300 | 1370 | 1390 | 1450 | 1450 | 1490 | 1530 | 1570 | 1590 | 1690 |
| By callsign |
WAIT | WAUR | WBBM | WBGX | WCPT | WCEV | WCRW | WEDC | WGN | WGRB | WIND | WJJG | WJOB | WLS | WLTH | WMBI | WMVP | WNDZ | WNTD | WNWI | WONX | WPNA | WRDZ | WRLL | WRTO | WSBC | WSCR | WVON | WYLL | WWCA |
| Other |
Bloomington | Champaign | Chicago (FM) (AM) | Decatur | LaSalle-Peru | Marion-Carbondale | Peoria (FM) (AM) | Quad Cities | Rockford |
