-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
106.3 Lansing WLNR
- Thread starter Word!
- Start date
I did overnight news there for a year back in the 1980s when the station was local talk days, sports talk late afternoons, followed by a few hours of adult standards in the evenings, soul gospel late nights, and easy listening religious in the wee hours. I believe owner Wendell Borrinck lost a bet and had to name the station after the host of the late night gospel show, Rev. Harold Patton's wife Eleanor. ("LNR")
And if you believe that story, I've some some primo concrete to sell you to repave the Kingery Expressway.
Actually, despite the often misguided impulsive programming decisions made by the station owner, which kept the programming mix rather far-flung on weekends, seemingly for any paid-programmer who had a few bucks, it was an interesting little station that escaped attention in the Chicago media, until the prequel-style blowhard conservative morning host Warren Frieberg pulled a disrespectful stunt on a Chicago TV talk show.
WLNR often seemed like a setting for a sitcom, with the variety of programmers on the air, from the racist conservative south Lake County Indiana types who were always bitching about Gary, Indiana politics, to the somewhat shady African-American preachers from Gary and Chicago's South side who were there to comfort the fearful and lonely late at night. It was even more unusual on the weekends, when it went all-Spanish for much of Saturday, and several storefront preachers on Sunday had live remotes from their churches on the South Side, which were often inaudible for lack of proper engineering. I used to have to collect something like $175 in cash, and slip it under the PD's office door, from the owner of the Caribbean Music Shop in Chicago, before they were allowed into the studio to host a 90-minute reggae show.
Still, the station had hourly local newscasts of about 5 minutes on every hour weekdays and nights, covered local politics for several decently sized suburbs like Calumet City, South Holland, and Dolton (?!) IL, Munster and Highland IN, and would be the primary local station for a market of well over a million in the Calumet region of Illinois and Indiana, if it wasn't part of metro Chicago on the side of town stations like WGN deliberately overlooked. Probably only a few of the staff made a good living, but it did have paid positions for a sizeable staff, by today's standards. The station's arch rival was WJOB Hammand, on AM 1230, which had local newscasts on the hour and half hour all day and night.
Writing this, I do remember Jerry (last name escapes me), the evening host of a remarkable nightly three hours of adult standards, a la Julie Christie, Dave Brubeck, Al Martino, etc., probably in his late 50s at the time. He told me with tears in his eyes that he had been told his airshift would be replaced by some recorded brokered programming or another, and he would be out of the job at the end of that night's shift. Watching what it did to him (I hosted the local news during his shift), I resolved I would never allow myself to be caught as an aging underpaid disk jockey, at the mercy of heartless management. So I quit a year later to attend graduate school, and never looked back.
And if you believe that story, I've some some primo concrete to sell you to repave the Kingery Expressway.
Actually, despite the often misguided impulsive programming decisions made by the station owner, which kept the programming mix rather far-flung on weekends, seemingly for any paid-programmer who had a few bucks, it was an interesting little station that escaped attention in the Chicago media, until the prequel-style blowhard conservative morning host Warren Frieberg pulled a disrespectful stunt on a Chicago TV talk show.
WLNR often seemed like a setting for a sitcom, with the variety of programmers on the air, from the racist conservative south Lake County Indiana types who were always bitching about Gary, Indiana politics, to the somewhat shady African-American preachers from Gary and Chicago's South side who were there to comfort the fearful and lonely late at night. It was even more unusual on the weekends, when it went all-Spanish for much of Saturday, and several storefront preachers on Sunday had live remotes from their churches on the South Side, which were often inaudible for lack of proper engineering. I used to have to collect something like $175 in cash, and slip it under the PD's office door, from the owner of the Caribbean Music Shop in Chicago, before they were allowed into the studio to host a 90-minute reggae show.
Still, the station had hourly local newscasts of about 5 minutes on every hour weekdays and nights, covered local politics for several decently sized suburbs like Calumet City, South Holland, and Dolton (?!) IL, Munster and Highland IN, and would be the primary local station for a market of well over a million in the Calumet region of Illinois and Indiana, if it wasn't part of metro Chicago on the side of town stations like WGN deliberately overlooked. Probably only a few of the staff made a good living, but it did have paid positions for a sizeable staff, by today's standards. The station's arch rival was WJOB Hammand, on AM 1230, which had local newscasts on the hour and half hour all day and night.
Writing this, I do remember Jerry (last name escapes me), the evening host of a remarkable nightly three hours of adult standards, a la Julie Christie, Dave Brubeck, Al Martino, etc., probably in his late 50s at the time. He told me with tears in his eyes that he had been told his airshift would be replaced by some recorded brokered programming or another, and he would be out of the job at the end of that night's shift. Watching what it did to him (I hosted the local news during his shift), I resolved I would never allow myself to be caught as an aging underpaid disk jockey, at the mercy of heartless management. So I quit a year later to attend graduate school, and never looked back.
I think Dick Gonski & a few others hosted a weeknight sports talk show on WLNR in the 80s.
One thing interesting about WLNR is that they carried White Sox baseball on year. The Sox I think had problems getting one of the major 50KW
to carry them, so put together a network of smaller stations in the area
to carry the games, and WLNR was one of those stations.
Old Chicago
to carry them, so put together a network of smaller stations in the area
to carry the games, and WLNR was one of those stations.
Old Chicago
OldChicago said:
You're right. That would've been 1971 &72.
R
rfichaser
Guest
I lived in Hammond in the late 1960s when WLNR was new. As I recall, it was only on the air from afternoon until about midnight and had a live adult-standards program in the evening. I can't remember the host's name, but he was a smooth pro. I remember the show's title as "An Evening on the South Shore".
WJOB was still the station to beat in that market. WJOB had news on the half-hour and live programs 24/7 with remarkable quality for a small station. WLNR had an uphill climb in those early years.
WJOB was still the station to beat in that market. WJOB had news on the half-hour and live programs 24/7 with remarkable quality for a small station. WLNR had an uphill climb in those early years.
rfichaser said:
I believe that WLNR had a sports show in the late 70s & early 80s. I used to be able to hear it well in the northern Chicago suburbs.
Alright, so when did WLNR start simulcasting the all-female urban AC format with WJPC on 950 AM? I have posted some airchecks of this format taped off the AM but mentioning the simulcast from around 1989/1990.
WLNR was put on the air by Gordon Boss. He was also the chief engineer of WJOB. Boss later sold the station to Wendell Borrink and a couple of other folks who with their Dutch heritage names were probably part of the South Holland Mafia ;D.
Boss was a very meticulous engineer. While small WLNR was spotless, and if you had ever seen the WJOB studios back in the days of Dale Zahn, you could say the very same thing.
I too remember the very short broadcast day (4PM to 10 or 11PM) and an emphasis on the South Suburbs (Illinois) as opposed to "da' Region" (Indiana).
I would have to think that the WLNR calls stood for "Lansing" Radio. I also remember my dad being fascinated by a weekly remote they used to do from some tavern in Lansing featuring the musical stylings of Bill Dragland at the Hammond Organ. This would have been in the late 60's early 70's. Because of Borrink's and partner religious orientation the tavern never could mention anything close to booze etc. in the spot or two they got in the program. Bill Dragland was beyond awful to the 18 year-old kid I was at the time and I remember the broadcast being on a lo-res broadcast loop, would have sounded OK on AM but not on FM.
Another WLNR memory was a one-time only election coverage simulcast with WLTH-1370 in Gary. WLTH at the time was still a daytime.
Why Julian Colby owner of WJOB never bought WLNR is a mystery to me. I was told that he could have easily afforded it.
Boss was a very meticulous engineer. While small WLNR was spotless, and if you had ever seen the WJOB studios back in the days of Dale Zahn, you could say the very same thing.
I too remember the very short broadcast day (4PM to 10 or 11PM) and an emphasis on the South Suburbs (Illinois) as opposed to "da' Region" (Indiana).
I would have to think that the WLNR calls stood for "Lansing" Radio. I also remember my dad being fascinated by a weekly remote they used to do from some tavern in Lansing featuring the musical stylings of Bill Dragland at the Hammond Organ. This would have been in the late 60's early 70's. Because of Borrink's and partner religious orientation the tavern never could mention anything close to booze etc. in the spot or two they got in the program. Bill Dragland was beyond awful to the 18 year-old kid I was at the time and I remember the broadcast being on a lo-res broadcast loop, would have sounded OK on AM but not on FM.
Another WLNR memory was a one-time only election coverage simulcast with WLTH-1370 in Gary. WLTH at the time was still a daytime.
Why Julian Colby owner of WJOB never bought WLNR is a mystery to me. I was told that he could have easily afforded it.
R
rfichaser
Guest
317C50KW said:
I'd forgotten that Gordon Boss set up WLNR. I worked in an electronics shop in Hammond those years and met Gordon. Nice guy, and meticulous, as you say. Didn't he also engineer the FM in Crown Point?
Anyone with a story to tell about WBEE Harvey IL please feel free to pitch in. I really enjoyed that station as a definitive straight-ahead jazz station (with all of those church remotes on Sundays). WBEZ-FM was the only other jazz outlet at the time, apart from some of the weeknight music on WLNR that was a mix of older jazz and standards. WBEE AM1570 had some great, credible announcers, who never got in the way of enjoying the music, but added just the right tone. Similar to Bob Parlocha (formerly of long-gone KJAZ San Francisco), whom I think WFMT still syndicates to a collection of non-comm stations as either an overnight or time shifted jazz service.
As a thousand watt daytimer WBEE didn't get a strong signal into the Lloop and northward, but it did seem to have something of a presence in a lot of South side communities, black and white alike. I'd sure like to hear them again.
As a thousand watt daytimer WBEE didn't get a strong signal into the Lloop and northward, but it did seem to have something of a presence in a lot of South side communities, black and white alike. I'd sure like to hear them again.
Word! said:
I had completely forgotten about that simulcast back in 94. Thanks for reminding me.
A little more about the WJPC-WLNR history.
WLNR was purchased by Johnson Publishing Company(W-JPC) around 87 or 88? They simulcasted as WLNR/WJPC, Chicago's Soft Touch.
The ratings for the FM were at 0.4, the FM at 0.2.
I believe it was 1990 that they swithed to J106, The Best Blend of Music with a Smooooth Touch. They tried really hard to compete against V 103. They did not mention 950 AM except for the hourly ID as WJPC LANSING/ CHICAGO AM AND FM. They kept mostly female hosts, they did bring in The Butterman Butter Jones for 7-Mid.
He had a voice like Barry White. They did make it to 0.9 on the FM and then slid slowly back down, The AM slipped to 0.1 for several books. About early 1992 they started calling it WJPC 106.3 FM and 950.
In June of 92 the AM became Rap Radio WJPC 950 AM.
The FM then went to mostly dusties, and went up to a 1.0 and the AM beat them with a 1.1.
The late Charles Mootry was the GM, he claimed they were a phenomanon, as this was the highest ratings they ever had.
The AM ratings declined because their signal at night was changed and was only clear to the north of the towers, its a two site operation. If you were more than a couple miles to the west, the signal was very bad, I'm not sure why they changed it at night. It is still bad to this day.
In about 94 they were bought out by Broadcast Partners, who owned V103, and turned into 106 Jamz. It was simulcast on the AM. The station made it to 3.0 rating,
and gave WGCI a run for their money at night, with 18-34, because WGCI went slow Jams after 10, while 106 had a more rap based show hosted by a local Chicago man who went by the name Pinkhouse. He had a loyal following from being on college 89.3 WKKC and the first dj on rap radio 950 AM. He also passed away, he was rather young, it was sad, he was a great radio talent.
Eventualy they became part of what is now Clear Channel. They were two stations over their limit so the FM was sold to Crawford and changed to paid gospel/religion.
The AM retained the format as WE JAM 950 AM, for a few months until being sold to what is Sporting News Radio, now. They shut the station down for a couple days, beforr running sports. They fixed the signal at night somewhat, it was never as strong as it was originally though.
The FM is still Crawford owned and the AM is owned by the guy who founded Relevent Radio which airs there now. His first name is Mark, I can't recall his last name though, I hope that helped.
WLNR was purchased by Johnson Publishing Company(W-JPC) around 87 or 88? They simulcasted as WLNR/WJPC, Chicago's Soft Touch.
The ratings for the FM were at 0.4, the FM at 0.2.
I believe it was 1990 that they swithed to J106, The Best Blend of Music with a Smooooth Touch. They tried really hard to compete against V 103. They did not mention 950 AM except for the hourly ID as WJPC LANSING/ CHICAGO AM AND FM. They kept mostly female hosts, they did bring in The Butterman Butter Jones for 7-Mid.
He had a voice like Barry White. They did make it to 0.9 on the FM and then slid slowly back down, The AM slipped to 0.1 for several books. About early 1992 they started calling it WJPC 106.3 FM and 950.
In June of 92 the AM became Rap Radio WJPC 950 AM.
The FM then went to mostly dusties, and went up to a 1.0 and the AM beat them with a 1.1.
The late Charles Mootry was the GM, he claimed they were a phenomanon, as this was the highest ratings they ever had.
The AM ratings declined because their signal at night was changed and was only clear to the north of the towers, its a two site operation. If you were more than a couple miles to the west, the signal was very bad, I'm not sure why they changed it at night. It is still bad to this day.
In about 94 they were bought out by Broadcast Partners, who owned V103, and turned into 106 Jamz. It was simulcast on the AM. The station made it to 3.0 rating,
and gave WGCI a run for their money at night, with 18-34, because WGCI went slow Jams after 10, while 106 had a more rap based show hosted by a local Chicago man who went by the name Pinkhouse. He had a loyal following from being on college 89.3 WKKC and the first dj on rap radio 950 AM. He also passed away, he was rather young, it was sad, he was a great radio talent.
Eventualy they became part of what is now Clear Channel. They were two stations over their limit so the FM was sold to Crawford and changed to paid gospel/religion.
The AM retained the format as WE JAM 950 AM, for a few months until being sold to what is Sporting News Radio, now. They shut the station down for a couple days, beforr running sports. They fixed the signal at night somewhat, it was never as strong as it was originally though.
The FM is still Crawford owned and the AM is owned by the guy who founded Relevent Radio which airs there now. His first name is Mark, I can't recall his last name though, I hope that helped.
Didn't Tom Joyner end up on the FM for awhile?
In 1997, Evergreen Media who owned V103 and 106Jamz/950AM WEJM AM/FM had a chance to purchase WGCI from Gannett who left radio. (Eventually Evergreen merged with Chancellor, becoming AM-FM and eventually ClearChannel down the road).
But at that time in 1997, AM-FM had to let go of one station in their cluster due to market share rules, and thats how WEJM became the one to sell since they bought WGCI and no longer needed WEJM. Crawford only purchased 106.3 and still own it today, funny thing is how they blew up the hip hop station and 3years later (2000) decided to bring it back on 102.3 "Hot 102 WVJM" and then 92.3 "Power 92"
950 am still kept the call letters WEJM and kept the same programming until the sale to Sporting News a few months later after 106 was sold. Since then it was spanish twice before becoming relevant radio.
Tom Joyner only recently became on 106.3 recently since he was dropped from V103 since being on it from 1986.
But at that time in 1997, AM-FM had to let go of one station in their cluster due to market share rules, and thats how WEJM became the one to sell since they bought WGCI and no longer needed WEJM. Crawford only purchased 106.3 and still own it today, funny thing is how they blew up the hip hop station and 3years later (2000) decided to bring it back on 102.3 "Hot 102 WVJM" and then 92.3 "Power 92"
950 am still kept the call letters WEJM and kept the same programming until the sale to Sporting News a few months later after 106 was sold. Since then it was spanish twice before becoming relevant radio.
Tom Joyner only recently became on 106.3 recently since he was dropped from V103 since being on it from 1986.
Thanks for the history!
Don't forget Tom Joyner was on WJPC-AM before he was on WGCI. That must have been late 70s and/or early 80s?
Don't forget Tom Joyner was on WJPC-AM before he was on WGCI. That must have been late 70s and/or early 80s?
Scholarm1111 said:
That might have been stuck in the recesses of my memory.
- Status