WLIT

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WLIT-FM (93.9 "The Lite") is an AC radio station out of Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Clear Channel Communications.

Contents 1 History 2 WLIT-HD2 3 Station Management 4 Current and former programming staff 5 The Holiday Lite 6 External links

[edit] History

Their former call letters were WLAK, WWEL, and WEBH. WEBH was broadcasting on 93.9 FM in the Mid 1950s. WEBH changed to WWEL sometime in the 1960s. The station broadcasted "beautiful music" an easy listening format with mostly instrumentals and a couple soft vocal songs per hour.

WWEL was "Well" in the 1960s to describe the easy listening format that was broadcast on 93.9 FM. It was also that way long before. WWEL changed call letters to WLAK in the early 1970s. At that time Viacom bought WLAK. WLAK continued to play mostly instrumental easy listening but increased vocals to about four an hour. In the mid-1980s WLAK began drifting into Soft AC. It would be a gradual evolution. By 1988 they were down to four instrumentals per hour and core artists moved toward AC singers rather than standards artists. Finally at the end of 1988 WLAK dropped all the non hit instrumentals and became a Soft AC. WLAK switched calls in late 1989 to WLIT.

WLIT 93.9 FM has continued to broadcast in the Chicago area for 18 years. In the mid 1990s WLIT evolved out of Soft AC and into a straight AC format. Viacom sold their radio stations to Chancellor in 1997 making WLIT a Chancellor station. Chancellor restructured and became known as AMFM inc in 1999. In 2000 AMFM inc merged with Clear Channel Communications making WLIT a Clear Channel station.

On August 14, 2006, WLIT added Whoopi Goldberg's new wake-up morning show to the lineup. Her syndicated show "Wake Up With Whoopi" airs from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

[edit] WLIT-HD2

In February 2006, WLIT began broadcasting in High Definition (HD). WLIT's HD-2 format (WLIT-HD2) is Disco (flashback).

[edit] Station Management

Operations Manager and Program Director: Darren Davis

Assistant Program Director and Music Director: Eric Richeke

[edit] Current and former programming staff

Current:

Whoopi Goldberg, Rick Zurick, Robin Rock, Melissa Forman, Dave Hilton, Mike Kendall, Diane Banks, Beth Reynolds, Eric Richeke, Darren Davis, The Girls (Theresa Lucas, Tamie Lockhart, and Mary Schmidt)

Former:

Bob Brynteson, Britni Moore, Mary Ann Meyers, Steve Schy, Margo Johnson, Megan Reed, Bob Kaake, Mark Edwards, Phil Redo, Derrick Brown, Eva Rhodes, Ken Southern, Bruce Buckley, Ann Henschold, Bill Jurek, Gene Christenson, Paul Peterson, JoAnn Genette, Grant Field, Gene Honda, Donna Mullen, Steve Ruxton, Jim Gronemann, Coco Cortez

[edit] The Holiday Lite

During the holiday season, usually starting sometime in November, WLIT temporarily changes its name to The Holiday Lite and plays straight Christmas music, with December 24th and 25th being branded as "A Chicagoland Christmas," and then ending on December 26th, going back to a regular music schedule. In 2006, the station began airing 24/7 Christmas music on November 2, only two days after Halloween [1]. Salt Lake City's KOSY was the earliest in the nation, switching to a Christmas format on Halloween night. However, The Holiday Lite never aired a Chicagoland Christmas in 2006, yet it was commercial free music on late Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as in previous years. [2].

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Chicagoland Radio History