album station in chicago , early 70`s

[flashback]

does anyone remember an album fm rock station in chicago in around 1971. I listened to it durring a visit there then. it seemed underground but that was a long time ago and memories may not be the best.

it was I believe the first chicago radio job for steve king.who worked at wnap ,indianapolis , before working at the chicago station.

I remember that I really liked it.

 

[flashback]

after doing on line reserch ,it must have been wbbm-fm.it was a good station from the little bit I heard.

does anyone have memories of it.if I am mistaken I have no problem being corrected.

 

[chriscoxradio]

You're probably thinking of WXRT, 93.1FM.

http://www.93xrt.com

 

[jp1520]

After spending the late 60s as "The Young Sound on 'BBM-FM" it was a progressive rock station for a few
years before becoming Top-40 and eventually morphing into what it is today. It was progressive rock when
I was in high school...and then it was Top-40 by the time I left Chicago in 1975. I think Steve King was there
when it was Top-40...that's what I seem to recall.

 

[radiotower40]

I saw your post and you can find your answer by going to wgnradio.com and go to the Steve and Johnnie page, there is a whole history
of his career and it answers all your questions. I'm sorry I can't post a link for you. P.S. if you are thinking of visiting Chiacgo don't
do it tonight are wind chill is supposed to be 15-20 below the next couple nights....lol ;D

 

[BobMSmith1959]

After spending the late 60s as "The Young Sound on 'BBM-FM" it was a progressive rock station for a few
years before becoming Top-40 and eventually morphing into what it is today. It was progressive rock when
I was in high school...and then it was Top-40 by the time I left Chicago in 1975. I think Steve King was there
when it was Top-40...that's what I seem to recall.

Oh! you mean B-96! that's what it's called now.
And the call letters is still called WBBM a.k.a B-96......

 

[Barefootom]

BBM-FM is a good guess. Another would be WGLD, which started in the late 60's. It was on 102.7...what is now V-103...and morphed into WBMX sometime in the 70's. Several XRT jocks, including Terri Hemmert were there before XRT started rocking late at night.
The other possibility is WXFM at 105.9, which had underground tunage late at night for many years during that era.

 

[flashback]

I saw your post and you can find your answer by going to wgnradio.com and go to the Steve and Johnnie page, there is a whole history
of his career and it answers all your questions. I'm sorry I can't post a link for you. P.S. if you are thinking of visiting Chiacgo don't
do it tonight are wind chill is supposed to be 15-20 below the next couple nights....lol ;D

last night I did a search on steve king and got the wgn site you suggested. that is how I figured it was wbbm-fm. it was around 71 or 72 and I know it was not wls so it had to be wbbm.

 

[Tom Wells]

I think WSDM (smack-dab inthe Middle) rans an album rock format back then, some searching should show what it became.

 

[Ultimajock]

...WSDM did have its "Underground Den" show late at night on weekends, but they also had the all-female air personality policy at the time (established by 1967-68 program director Linda "Hushpuppy" Ellerbee, then pretty much dropped around the time Connie Szerszen -- "Den Pal Dawn" -- moved from WSDM to WIND). Before the WBBM-FM gig, Steve King had done an audition tape for WCFL in '71, which Steve told me was the oddest experience of his entire career. Somewhere around here I have a copy of that thing that Tom Konard had given me, and I in turn passed it along to Steve (who'd never heard it all these years) about three years ago. Steve himself was surprised at how "mediocre" he found it to be. Oh, and WDAI was also an album rocker around that time, and WCFL had a Sunday night show on which Dick Biondi played a lot of album cuts and conducted laid-back (at least laid-back for Dick) interviews. The WCFL show, come to think of it, may have been inherited from Barney Pip, who often would slip PSAs for anti-Vietnam War events into his weeknight shifts as early as '68 (I'll bet Chicago Federation of Labor President Bill Lee just loved that!)...

 

[Barefootom]

Hush Puppy, AKA Linda Ellerbee, was my favorite WSDM Den Pal, at least until Yvonne Daniels got there, but she was never the Program Director, nor did she establish the format. Burt Burdeen was the PD. As far as I remember, there never was a female PD. WSDM became WLUP in 1977 when Jay Blackburn took over.

 

[Barefootom]

The other possibility is WXFM at 105.9, which had underground tunage late at night for many years during that era.

The underground program on WXFM was called "Triad," and it aired from 1969 to 1977. There was also a magazine of the same name that covered the Chicago music scene.

 

[Barefootom]

Another would be WGLD, which started in the late 60's. It was on 102.7...what is now V-103...and morphed into WBMX sometime in the 70's. Several XRT jocks, including Terri Hemmert were there before XRT started rocking late at night.

Program Director of WGLD was Morgan Tell who left to manage the singer, Jim Croce and, sadly, died in the same plane crash that killed the singer in 1973. Also on the WGLD air staff was John Ryan, who went on to produce the first Styx album, which contained the hit "Lady" and who later formed Chicago Kid Records.

As I recall, WGLD morphed into an all-request format after dropping album rock and ultimately became the Urban station WBMX. Legendary studios were in the Oak Park Arms hotel in Oak Park.

 

[Tom Wells]

I know for sure Garry Meier came to the Loop from WGLD.

 

[PhilJSmith67]

After spending the late 60s as "The Young Sound on 'BBM-FM" it was a progressive rock station for a few
years before becoming Top-40 and eventually morphing into what it is today. It was progressive rock when
I was in high school...and then it was Top-40 by the time I left Chicago in 1975. I think Steve King was there
when it was Top-40...that's what I seem to recall.

If there was a Progressive Rock phase for WBBM-FM, it must have been before the days of the "Soft Rock 96" slogan, which immediately preceded the flip to Hot Hits WBBM-FM (May 1982, I think). Soft Rock 96 was analogous to today's Fresh 105.9, minus 25 years, of course.

 

[flashback]

After spending the late 60s as "The Young Sound on 'BBM-FM" it was a progressive rock station for a few
years before becoming Top-40 and eventually morphing into what it is today. It was progressive rock when
I was in high school...and then it was Top-40 by the time I left Chicago in 1975. I think Steve King was there
when it was Top-40...that's what I seem to recall.

If there was a Progressive Rock phase for WBBM-FM, it must have been before the days of the "Soft Rock 96" slogan, which immediately preceded the flip to Hot Hits WBBM-FM (May 1982, I think). Soft Rock 96 was analogous to today's Fresh 105.9, minus 25 years, of course.

we are talking 1971 or 1972.

 

[radiotower40]

flashback, I know Steve King did not work there, but could you be thinking of 95.5 or as they called it 95 and a half WMET? I was not
yet roaming the earth in 1971, but I know in the seventies they were an "adult rock" station. That station was around until the eighties
until they changed to WRXR which today is Smooth Jazz WNUA.

 

[flashback]

flashback, I know Steve King did not work there, but could you be thinking of 95.5 or as they called it 95 and a half WMET? I was not
yet roaming the earth in 1971, but I know in the seventies they were an "adult rock" station. That station was around until the eighties
until they changed to WRXR which today is Smooth Jazz WNUA.

hard telling. it was a day or 2 visit in 1971 or 1972. I perhaps listened to steve king and switched over to a more underground station.thus I may be lumping 2 or 3 stations together in my memory as one.

 

[avtosalon]

Yes, the format of WBBM-FM was "adult contemporary" for most of the 70's. The station did not flip from Progressive Rock to Top 40. They were "Soft Rock 96" during the mid and late 70's, similar to today's WLIT or WCFS. I remember on a TV commercial for WBBM-FM there was a transistor radio with a plastic mold of '96' (or was it the shape of the call letters?) that was given away to listeners. That would be a very interesting collectible to own.

I did not listen to the station much, but I remember that Greg Brown was there (prior to working at WMET when the the station was Top 40), and Tony Phillips was on 6-10 at night. I remember Mitch Michaels was at WBBM-FM briefly before the flip to Top 40.

I don't much about Steve King before he worked at WLS. At WLS, I think his show started at 10 PM, after John Landecker. After Steve King left WLS, he did mornings in the same building at Disco-DAI.

WMET was never "adult rock". The station was Top 40 as WDHF and later WMET during most of the 70's. They flipped to AOR (album oriented rock) around 1978-1979. The album rock lasted until the mid 80's when they flipped to "adult contemporary" for a short time keeping the same call letters. They flipped again to a "oldies/classic hits" hybrid as WRXR, which also did not last long.

I remember when WMET was album rock, the PD that came after Bob Coburn decided to use the phrase "Chicago's Classic Rock" which was not true because the station played about 50% newer/current music. When Doubleday owned WMET around 1985 some genius-consultant from another market decided to mix-in CHR with the AOR. The would bounce from Flashdance to Led Zeppelin to Lionel Richie! WDAI and WLUP also had flings mixing in CHR cuts when they were supposed to be AOR.

 

[radiotower40]

Yes, the format of WBBM-FM was "adult contemporary" for most of the 70's. The station did not flip from Progressive Rock to Top 40. They were "Soft Rock 96" during the mid and late 70's, similar to today's WLIT or WCFS. I remember on a TV commercial for WBBM-FM there was a transistor radio with a plastic mold of '96' (or was it the shape of the call letters?) that was given away to listeners. That would be a very interesting collectible to own.

I did not listen to the station much, but I remember that Greg Brown was there (prior to working at WMET when the the station was Top 40), and Tony Phillips was on 6-10 at night. I remember Mitch Michaels was at WBBM-FM briefly before the flip to Top 40.

I don't much about Steve King before he worked at WLS. At WLS, I think his show started at 10 PM, after John Landecker. After Steve King left WLS, he did mornings in the same building at Disco-DAI.

WMET was never "adult rock". The station was Top 40 as WDHF and later WMET during most of the 70's. They flipped to AOR (album oriented rock) around 1978-1979. The album rock lasted until the mid 80's when they flipped to "adult contemporary" for a short time keeping the same call letters. They flipped again to a "oldies/classic hits" hybrid as WRXR, which also did not last long.

I remember when WMET was album rock, the PD that came after Bob Coburn decided to use the phrase "Chicago's Classic Rock" which was not true because the station played about 50% newer/current music. When Doubleday owned WMET around 1985 some genius-consultant from another market decided to mix-in CHR with the AOR. The would bounce from Flashdance to Led Zeppelin to Lionel Richie! WDAI and WLUP also had flings mixing in CHR cuts when they were supposed to be AOR.

avtosalon, Did, XRT ever call themselves adult rock or rock for adults or something close to that? I remember seeing a TV
commercial probably around the late seventies(I was still a kid then) that I believe was aimed at WLS AM saying something like that.
I was really just guessing on the MET comment. The station just popped into my head all of the sudden because I remember my older
cousins listening to MET when I was at family parties. I remember the call letters like XRT and MET, because I Would always ask them
if we could listen to WLS and they would say no and told me they only listen FM because AM"s lame dude. The funny thing is that now
some of those same cousins listen to WNUA, how the times do change ;D