WLS (AM)
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 discontinuation of
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). 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 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). However, some programs from the network that were not sponsored were transferred from WLS to air on another Blue Network/ABC affiliate in Chicago,
WCFL.
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, Steve Dahl,
Steve King, Chuck Buell, and
Tommy Edwards. During the late 1960s and 1970s WLS ran a Sunday night music interview program called
Music People. Beginning in the mid 1980s WLS had 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 predominantly conservative 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
Los Angeles. 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.
Recently WLS and the other O&O ABC Radio Network stations not affiliated with
ESPN Radio or
Radio Disney were sold when ABC Radio merged with
Citadel Broadcasting in late January 2006.
* 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*
History of WLS*
WLS web site
