| Broadcast area | Chicago metropolitan area |
|---|---|
| Branding | Radio Formula |
| Frequency | 1450 (kHz) |
| Format | Regional Mexican |
| ERP | 1kw |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | W (required for radio stations licensed east of the Mississippi River) ReaL OLdies (on-air branding for original WRLL at 1690 AM) |
| Owner | Midway Broadcasting |
| Website | http://wrll1450.com/english/index.html |
WRLL (1450 AM, Radio Formula) is a regional Mexican radio station licensed to Cicero, Illinois, and serving the greater Chicago area. It shares time with WCEV, which broadcasts over the same facilities.
The original WRLL (1690 AM) was an oldies station licenced to Berwyn, Illinois, and serving the greater Chicago area. It was owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications. On September 18, 2006, the station became the new frequency for WVON. The call letters are now warehoused on 1450AM, WVON's old frequency.
"Real Oldies 1690", as it called itself on the air, played music from the 1950s and early 1960s, featuring pop artists such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como as well as the rock and roll hits of the period. It broadcast from sister station WGRB's transmitter location. "Real Oldies" was also a format aired by sister stations WSAI (now sports/talk "1530 Homer" WCKY (AM))in Cincinnati and WCOL-AM(now talk station WYTS) in Columbus, Ohio; WHNE-AM in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also a Clear Channel station at that time (now Cumulus business-talk station WLBY), also aired a variation of the format identified as "Honey Radio". "Dangerous Dan" Allen created the format initially for WSAI who was also its program director and air personality there.
WRLL signed on as a station on the extended AM band on October 8, 2003. Until August 16, 2006 the station featured radio legends Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards in the morning drive, as well as other legendary Chicago area radio personalities, mostly from WLS, along with suburban radio mainstay Len O'Kelly (overnights) and Ron Smith (evenings), with his weekly "Foreign Friday" feature.
The oldies format ended at 12:00 AM CST on September 16th 2006.
WRLL's former oldies format continues to stream at http://www.realoldies1690.com
WRLL had long been the subject of format switch rumors. Some people thought that it would go off the air and be replaced by progressive talk, featuring programming from Air America Radio in March 2005, but the format instead was picked up by WCPT 850. During the month of August 2006, many of the station's on-air staffers left the station as they announced a pending format change.
Finally, on August 15, it was announced that another radio station, African-American talk-formatted WVON, would move its format, talk show hosts and call letters from their longtime spot on the dial at 1450 AM to 1690 AM, effective September 18, 2006. WVON signed an agreement with Clear Channel which would allow them to lease the station with an option to buy, and obtain marketing, promotional and production assistance from them as well.
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