old Chicago Newspaper radio log

[b344077]

As long as we are going down memery lane, here is a newspaper radio log from 1959. Note some of the great names in radio.

I bleive this is from the Chicago Daily News: http://www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files/1950s/1959/59_01Jan/%5Bc%5D59-01-02-(Fri).pdf

 

[radioman148]

Dan Sorkin, John Harrington, Eddie Hubbard, Howard Miller--etc-the list goes on. What great memories.
Thanks for posting.

 

[stormy01]

I didn't know WAAF was on 1000, thought it was 950. W-G-N <--- was that a "Tribunism", like spelling night, nite?
Funny typos....WNUR on 93.8 (really 89.3) , and WENR on 93.7 (must have been 94.7)
That channel spacing definitely would not have worked back in the day: 93.7, 93.8, 93.9...unless you had a MacIntosh Tuner!!!
WMAQ 101.0 LOL! There were no digital tuners then of course, so some people didn't know WMAQ-FM was really 101.1 anymore
than they would have known that "FM100" was really 100.3 that's what I even thought they were 100.0

Ah, Memories! Howard Miller, Mal Bellairs, Sig Sackowicz, F.Flynn (is that Fahey Flynn, who was the bow-tie guy on Channel 7?)

 

[radioman148]

I didn't know WAAF was on 1000, thought it was 950. W-G-N <--- was that a "Tribunism", like spelling night, nite?
Funny typos....WNUR on 93.8 (really 89.3) , and WENR on 93.7 (must have been 94.7)
That channel spacing definitely would not have worked back in the day: 93.7, 93.8, 93.9...unless you had a MacIntosh Tuner!!!
WMAQ 101.0 LOL! There were no digital tuners then of course, so some people didn't know WMAQ-FM was really 101.1 anymore
than they would have known that "FM100" was really 100.3 that's what I even thought they were 100.0

Ah, Memories! Howard Miller, Mal Bellairs, Sig Sackowicz, F.Flynn (is that Fahey Flynn, who was the bow-tie guy on Channel 7?)

Sig Sackowicz the big cigar smoking talker. Mal Bellairs is 90 this year.

 

[w9wi]

I didn't know WAAF was on 1000, thought it was 950.

Note that no WAAF programs are shown in the listings, but several programs are shown as airing on WCFL. (which actually *was* on 1000)

Also missing is WLS! And WCRW and WEDC. (which had shared time on 1240 with WSBC since at least the mid-1930s and continued to do so into the 21st Century)
On FM, WBEZ is missing. They date back to 1942. Also missing is WNIB-97.1, which appears in the 1966 Yearbook as signing on in 1955.

 

[stormy01]

Now this is getting a bit more confusing! This webpage* says WAAF was on 950, but that the WAAF call sign was the predecessor of WGN, which I believe has always been on 720. So then the WAAF call sign was moved (or resurrected) to 950. The page also says that WCFL is the original call sign for 1000, which later became WLUP and now WMVP. *http://www.playlistresearch.com/Chicago%20Radio%20History.htm

The newspaper must have favored only certain stations if they didn't list them all, it's not like they couldn't hear 'em. At least the frequencies would be noted. The paper most likely would have only printed the program schedules of stations that sent them in to the paper.

 

[b344077]

Here is the web source that will provide more Chicago newspaper listings from the late 50's than you'll ever want top see again: http://www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files_OCR/CDT/1950s/55-60/

 

[cyberdad]

I would presume that WAAF on 1000 is a misprint....as would be WENR on 93.7. My favorite hour would definitely be 11pm, when you could start out with Guy Lombardo and then flip over to Lawrence Welk at 11:30. (or was it the other way around).

 

[radioman148]

I would presume that WAAF on 1000 is a misprint....as would be WENR on 93.7. My favorite hour would definitely be 11pm, when you could start out with Guy Lombardo and then flip over to Lawrence Welk at 11:30. (or was it the other way around).

There were lots of misprints in those days & most of the time they didn't list all the stations and their programming.

 

[stormy01]

Anyone notice that 93.1 was on the air in 1955, but not listed in 1960? So did 93.1 go off the air for a few years?
I see that the Chicago area had WLEY for a call sign in 1955! Was this station in or near Leyden Township?
Where was WCHI 95.9 broadcasting from?
Does anyone remember WRSV when it was on 98.3 from Skokie? (and WFMT was on 98.7 at the same time! - didn't the FCC know about "short-spacing" then?) [Later WRSV moved to 101.9]
WOPA was on 102.3 before moving to 102.7? (Probably about the same time WRSV went to 101.9)
And did anyone notice that WJJD was on-air at 4:00 a.m. - they were a "limited" station, thought they could only stay on until KSL's sunset,
wouldn't WJJD have been interfering with KSL if they signed on at 4:00 a.m.?

 

[Prais]

Note; the listings on the Tribune radio page were PAID FOR by the stations. That is why there are missing stations. Of course they favor WGN, nearly always listed in caps and first. .

WLEY was in Elmwood Park, predecessor to WXFM -

 

[radioman148]

WLEY was in Elmwood Park, predecessor to WXFM -

Thanks I didn't know that.

 

[stormy01]

Note; the listings on the Tribune radio page were PAID FOR by the stations. That is why there are missing stations. Of course they favor WGN, nearly always listed in caps and first. .

WLEY was in Elmwood Park, predecessor to WXFM -

Lo and behold, Elmwood Park is in Leyden Township...makes perfect sense.
Also it makes sense why in the radio listings, the dial positions and call letters were often out of order.

 

[Charlie Gee]

And did anyone notice that WJJD was on-air at 4:00 a.m. - they were a "limited" station, thought they could only stay on until KSL's sunset,
wouldn't WJJD have been interfering with KSL if they signed on at 4:00 a.m.?

There was a little rule that stations could use their daytime facilities starting at 4 am unless someone complained about interference.
As I remember it WJJD signed on at 4 am with Cattle Call by Eddie Arnold and then after an hour or so signed off for 15-30 minutes with some announcement about KSLor Sunrise, or something like that, and then back to the country programming.

 

[w9wi]

Note; the listings on the Tribune radio page were PAID FOR by the stations. That is why there are missing stations. Of course they favor WGN, nearly always listed in caps and first. .

Did they charge separately for the listing in the list of all stations, and for the listing of individual programs?

It just seems strange that WLS and WCFL aren't in the list of all stations, but programs on those two stations are listed.

 

[w9wi]

Anyone notice that 93.1 was on the air in 1955, but not listed in 1960? So did 93.1 go off the air for a few years?

Probably. A lot of FMs went bust in the early 1950s.

The 1966 Yearbook lists WXRT's launch as an unspecified date in 1959. (I would bet it was a different license from the 1955 WFJL 93.1.)

And did anyone notice that WJJD was on-air at 4:00 a.m. - they were a "limited" station, thought they could only stay on until KSL's sunset,
wouldn't WJJD have been interfering with KSL if they signed on at 4:00 a.m.?

They could also use any night hours not used by the Class A station. If KSL was off the air between 2 and 5am Mountain Time -- between 3 and 6 Chicago time -- WJJD could sign back on for that period. Another regulation 73.87 allowed operation at daytime facilities between 4am and sunrise, provided no interference was caused to the Class A station.

 

[Prais]

In it's ealy life, WXRT rebroadcast the foreign language programs of WSBC 100% from their urine smelling, rat infested, filthy studio in a 10 story building at the corner of Western and Madison in a Chicago slum. It was the son o f the owner who changed WXRTto rock in the 70's and moved to Belmont Ave.

WOPA FM also rebroadcast the foreign language programs of wopa am 24/7 from the Oak Park Arms hotel. WOPA changed to oldies in the 70's before moving to "underground music" then the urban format.

Come to think of it, WMAQ fm, WBBM fm and WLS fm all simulcast their am partners.

 

[radioman148]

And did anyone notice that WJJD was on-air at 4:00 a.m. - they were a "limited" station, thought they could only stay on until KSL's sunset,
wouldn't WJJD have been interfering with KSL if they signed on at 4:00 a.m.?

There was a little rule that stations could use their daytime facilities starting at 4 am unless someone complained about interference.
As I remember it WJJD signed on at 4 am with Cattle Call by Eddie Arnold and then after an hour or so signed off for 15-30 minutes with some announcement about KSLor Sunrise, or something like that, and then back to the country programming.

I do remember as a kid in the late 50s getting up one morning just so I could hear WJJD sign on. If I remember they just signed on & then went right into a record the time I heard them.

 

[radioman148]

>>Come to think of it, WMAQ fm, WBBM fm and WLS fm all simulcast their am partners>>

I remember that very well. In fact on the FM radio that we had the AM & FM dials were listed one on top of the other (AM on top). It just so happened that WBBM AM & FM were at the same place on the dial so all I had to do was turn the AM & FM button & not move the dial at all to hear them both.

 

[Prais]

LOTS of co-owned fm stations were configured so all you needed to do was switch from the am station to the fm band and have the same program, only on fm. Not sure if WJJD had an fm station til later, then wjez. I don't remember them simulcasting.

Just remembering the late 50's and early 60's; Most standalone fm's were either classical music or "semi-classical."WDHF, WFMF, WKFM, WFMQ, WEBH, WEFM, WNIB, WFMT, WCLM and WXFM were all doing that.

WXFM was in a (barely standing) shack behind an awning store on Harlem, a block north of Grand. Not air conditioned until the late 60's in Summertime it was unbearable to be inside (as I worked Saturday night). Their classical and broadway format came from a trade with Polk Brothers department store (who also sponsored the all night show). An owner of the store was a son-iin-law of an owner of WXFM.

WEFM, owned by Zenith, was ALL Classdocal and all on records that came from 4 turntables. There were few programs that were "announced" and ONLY Zenith commercials read by a live announcer.

WKFM only had about a hundred albums and only about 5 sponsors. Kovas was a genius to make it all work. It sounded very good.

WEBH played "big band" music and was on the main floor of the Edgewater Beach Hotel, in really swanky digs, but you could barely turn around in the all glass studio. Buddy Black (a wgn announcer) was the owner. He was on for 6 hours daily or longer, and they had 2 part timers to run the rest til midnight.

WCLM's license was taken away because they broadcast horse race results on their sub-carrier, also used for "in store and restaurant music. They had beautiful studios in the 333 N. Michigan building. I got about a hundred albums from them when they closed.