WGN (AM)
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| WGN | |
 |
|
| Broadcast area | Chicago, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Branding | News/Talk 720 |
| Slogan | The Voice of Chicago |
| First air date | June 1, 1924 |
| Frequency | 720 kHz |
| Format | News/Talk/Sports |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | "World's Greatest Newspaper" - reference to Chicago Tribune |
| Owner | Tribune Company |
| Website | www.wgnradio.com |
WGN-AM is a radio station on 720 kHz in Chicago. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the television flagship WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago Magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The station offers a news and talk format and is the radio play-by-play home of the Chicago Cubs baseball games. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago.
WGN went on the air on June 1, 1924 from studios in the Drake Hotel as the new name for WDAP, a station which had been broadcasting since May of 1922. Its call letters stood for "World's Greatest Newspaper", a reference to the station's owner, the Chicago Tribune. [1] To underscore that, in the Tribune's radio listings, their station was listed as "W-G-N", whereas the other stations were listed without hyphens.
WGN, a high-powered clear channel AM station (50,000 watts), which during nighttime hours is often audible over much of the USA, parts of Canada, and sometimes as far away as Australia and South America.
Early programming was noted for its creativity and innovation. It included live music, political debates, comedy routines, and some of radio's first broadcasts of sporting events, including the Indianapolis 500 automobile race, and a live broadcast of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial from Dayton, TN. In 1926, WGN broadcast Sam & Henry, a daily serial with comic elements created and performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. After a dispute with the station in 1927, Gosden and Correll took the program's concept and announcer Bill Hay across town to WMAQ and created the first syndicated radio show in history, Amos 'n' Andy.
WGN was a founding member of the Mutual Broadcasting System.
In November 1958, WGN became the first radio station in Chicago to broadcast helicopter traffic reports featuring Police Officer Leonard Baldy.
WGN is now mainly a news and talk radio station. WGN broadcasts news, weather, traffic and sports every hour. Pat Hughes and Ron Santo serve as the play-by-play team for all games of the Chicago Cubs, another Tribune asset. WGN is also the radio home of Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball games.
Over many decades, WGN was a "full service" radio station. The station played small amounts of music during mornings and afternoons, moderate amounts of music on weekends during the day, had midday and evening talk shows, and sports among other features. The station's music was easy listening/MOR-based until the 1970s, when the music was more of an adult contemporary-type sound. The music played at the station was phased out during the 1980s, and by 1990, the station's lineup mainly consisted of talk shows.
In October 1985, an electronic bandit overpowered the signal of the popular Wally Phillips show on WGN-AM radio and made sexually explicit comments.
Some former well-known personalities on the station include longtime morning host Wally Phillips; Bob Collins, who was killed in a private plane crash in 2000; and Roy Leonard.
In 2005, Tom Langmyer joined WGN as Vice President and General Manager. Langmyer was previously Vice President and General Manager of KMOX Radio in St. Louis and Vice President-Programming of CBS Radio's 10 News/Talk Stations.
[edit] WGN Radio's Monday-Friday schedule
- 5-9 a.m.: The Spike O'Dell Radio Program
- 9 a.m.-noon: Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey
- Noon-3 p.m.: Steve Cochran
- 3-7 p.m.: John Williams
- 7-9 p.m.: WGN Sports Central with David Kaplan
- 9-11 p.m.: Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg
Other WGN radio personalities include Dean Richards, Nick Digilio, and Steve King and Johnnie Putman.
In June 2005, WGN Radio changed its slogan from "Chicago's News and Talk (and Cubs!)" to "The Voice of Chicago". In late August 2006, the word "Radio" in the slogan was replaced with "News/Talk", said fully on-air as The Voice of Chicago, News/Talk 720 WGN.
[edit] External links
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