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Old WFXW Geneva

L

lgdavis

Guest
About 15 years ago, I used to listen to the old WFXW (I think that was the call) from Geneva at night - I lived in Arlington Hts at the time.

They had a 30s and 40s big band show, with a guy named Denny Ferrell who did the show from a studio in his home somewhere out in the western burbs.
I don't normally listen to that kind of music but it was so interesting that I really got hooked on it. I discovered it after seeing a piece about him on WGN-TV news. He had a huge library of old 78s, and studio, in his basement.

Is Denny Ferrell still around, or does anybody have an update on him - is he still on somewhere?

I remember the station was on 1470 then, is that right? I know it's on 1480 now because they dismantled the towers.

BTW, where exactly is this mysterious long-wire site that they are using now ??
 
Further back than WFXW was WGSB 1480. It's always been 1480 so far as I know, at least since the late 60's. There's no good way to have 1470 from Geneva with Chicago Heights on 1470 and WMBD from Peoria booming in to the Chicago area at night. WGSB/WFXW had a decent signal all the way up to the Crystal Lake area and it was an enjoyable listening experience, like WKFM 103.5, WRSV 101.9 or WNMP 1590, back in those days! No idea on the long wire, perhaps someone in the area could direction-find and locate the transmitter site...
 
I believe Jack lost the station in his divorce settlement w/Nelda.

Wasn;t there a suburban station that Howard Miller (of WIND fame) owned? One of his properties was in Rockford, but the other was Chicago suburban, right?
 
stormy01 said:
Further back than WFXW was WGSB 1480. It's always been 1480 so far as I know, at least since the late 60's. There's no good way to have 1470 from Geneva with Chicago Heights on 1470 and WMBD from Peoria booming in to the Chicago area at night. WGSB/WFXW had a decent signal all the way up to the Crystal Lake area and it was an enjoyable listening experience, like WKFM 103.5, WRSV 101.9 or WNMP 1590, back in those days! No idea on the long wire, perhaps someone in the area could direction-find and locate the transmitter site...
Click to expand...
I tried to link a copy of the STA up here, unfortunately the link won't take you past the FCC referring page.
I'll try and figure out another way, I have it in my files, it's kind of hard to locate it. The easiest way is to go through
the AM Query page on the FCC website, and click on the imported letters for WSPY AM.

I have driven by the tower it is located just west of The Fox River on McKee St., (about 1 mile south of Fabyan Pkwy).
It is located on the south side of the street, about 3/4 miles west of Rt. 31(N. Batavia Ave.), 1/4 mile east of Western Ave.

The authorized power is .125Kw from a long wire.

Happy tower hunting ;),
TR1992
 
I should have added that the site is in Batavia, not Geneva, where the former towers were located, that land is now a
subdivision. They have been running on the STA since Nelson bought the station around 2001.

They were running an EZ/Lite AC/MOR format as WFXV in the mid 90's, before flipping to MOYL. They then went silent
for a time, and were bought by Nelson, who installed what is now known as "Timeless" on the station.

They have an APP on file to move the station to Millbrook, Il. The problem is they are the only station licensed to
Geneva, unless an FM translator on 100.7 FM for EMF gets approved they will have trouble moving the COL.

They are also having problems with NIMBY, from the people around the proposed TX site.
 
Prais said:
I believe Jack lost the station in his divorce settlement w/Nelda.

Wasn;t there a suburban station that Howard Miller (of WIND fame) owned? One of his properties was in Rockford, but the other was Chicago suburban, right?
Click to expand...

The station was always at 1480. It was WGSB when owned by Nelda Brickhouse. I believe it was under her name because Jack could not technically own it due to his contract with WGN not permitting him to do so.

Talk show legend Howard Miller bought the station and changed calls to WFXW. Howard even did a 90 minute daily talk show there. It was a real treat having a major market legend hosting a show on a little suburban station.

Howard also owned a daytimer on 1330 in Rockford and a couple others along the way in Florida and Illinois, I think. He sold WFXW/Geneva to the Gamel family and I think they did not have much success with it, and it eventually got into current owners hands. The station had a very tight pattern, almost no signal went east (protecting 1490 Oak Park and 1470. It went mostly north to Elgin and south to Aurora, 1000 watts day and 500 watts night. During Howard's ownership it was really a nice suburban station with lots of news and local sports.

Originally the studios were at the transmitter site (there was a house on the property). Howard moved the studios to an office building in Geneva. Lots of old equipment, but it generally worked OK. Sad to see it in its current condition.
 
Nevertheless, it is still a good local station, and the only one in the Chicago area providing that format, with local news and sports. I was out that way today and enjoyed listening to them, as I always do. I hope they can improve their signal at some point.

Comparing the audio on 1180 and 1480 during the times when they are broadcasting the same material, there is a distinct difference in the sound. I actually like the 1480 signal a bit better, although 1180 covers a much larger area.
 
I did two to four airshifts a week for a couple of years on WFXW in the early 1980s. Howard Miller was a cantakerous old sort who actually listened to us and gave me constructive feedback, besides paying us all under the table in case to avoid paying payroll taxes (he was a conservative, don't you know, and it went against his beliefs to play by the rules). I rarely worked for any commercial broadcasters (and had worked at more than a dozen small operators over a more than 12 year period) who bothered to give you feedback on how you sounded. Howard did, and called to praise my work when he heard how I had improved and taken his critiques to heart.

He had us monitor the air signal on a cheap schoolroom PA monitor. Said he wanted us to know how things sounded on a cheap kitchen radio. We all thought he was just cheap (not to mention the pay scale).

I did respect him, even if I thought he could be a bit much, and I enjoyed being able to have a got deal of freedom being an air personality with a middle of the road music format. That helped keep DJs who had to have other means of support on the staff.

Back then, Chicago also had Jay Andres (spelling?) hosting a more downtempo, old school overnight music weekend show on WGN back then, too. Included some light classical music and potetry, with his deep voiced laid back musings. from what I recall. Wish I could hear some of that again. KMOX St Louis also had a great overnight show like that back then, but I don't recall the host's name. I'm not away of any of those shows being available online, or anyone doing that sort of late night relazing music format anymore. But it sure was good. I for one would sure enjoy being able to hear some more of it again.



We weren't allowed to segue between songs, had ABC news on the half hour, no AP wire, and the signal barely went 10 miles to the east during the day, but the nighttime pattern sent it east into DuPage County and the northwest suburbs. The "Voice of the Valley" was a cool little station.

Miller retired to Florida, where he had another 1kw AM station in Melbourne. I don't know if and when he has passed away, but presume, due to his age, that he's no longer with us.
 
I tried to link a copy of the STA up here, unfortunately the link won't take you past the FCC referring page.
I'll try and figure out another way, I have it in my files, it's kind of hard to locate it. The easiest way is to go through
the AM Query page on the FCC website, and click on the imported letters for WSPY AM.

The authorized power is .125Kw from a long wire.
Click to expand...

125 watts - that's it ?     ::)
I believe you - but can't find anything, on the FCC site, that shows this

I have driven by the tower it is located just west of The Fox River on McKee St., (about 1 mile south of Fabyan Pkwy).
It is located on the south side of the street, about 3/4 miles west of Rt. 31(N. Batavia Ave.), 1/4 mile east of Western Ave.

Happy tower hunting ;),
Click to expand...

Guess you mean the big ham tower behind Menards - I drive by there often.

Thanks for the info....

Doesn't anbody have any info about Denny Ferrell ?

Larry Davis
Geneva, IL
 
Late 90s 1998-2001 I can remember always hearing WFXW on 1480. What I can remember about it was an oldies format. I believe it was 50s, 60s and 70s. Then later on they added 80s music and started plugging the fact that they were "Not only the 50s, 60s and 70s, but now 80s too!"

It was kinda like the original WMCW before Kovas got his hands on it.

I remember when they lost their tower site. The station just disappeared into thin air and I haven't heard from it here since. I live in Kenosha

Can't remember the day, I think it was in either 2007 or 2008 we drove thru Kane County and I put on 1480 and they were running MOYL. The signal faded in and out terribly. I'm still wondering what they were running on. This thread seems to have cleared that up.
 
They were running an EZ/Lite AC/MOR format as WFXV in the mid 90's, before flipping to MOYL. They then went silent
for a time, and were bought by Nelson, who installed what is now known as "Timeless" on the station.
Click to expand...

No, WFXW was airing Classic Hits prior to going silent. As Jeremy described AM 1480 was oldies with some classic album-oriented-rock tracks mixed in. In the late 90's I remember hearing mostly 70's oldies, and diverse tracks like "I Can't Drive 55" (Sammy Hagar), "Christine Sixteen" (Kiss), and "Black Betty" (Ram Jam).

This programming was locally produced. I remember Program Director Robin Lange did alot of talking on his morning show. Angie Dickinson (not the actress) was middays. And Jon Morgan was voice-tracked the rest of the day. Dick Bartley's syndicated oldies show aired on weekends. Greg Springer handled sports.

The station's signal was MUCH stronger than it is now. I think the station's format was Talk before going Classic Hits because they used to promote that all the "talking and yakking" has gone away.

WFXW was a fine station. There were several other good music-oriented AM stations from the 90's which have now vanished: AM 930 WAUR (Oldies/Auto Racing), AM 1060 WHFB (All 70's), AM 1390 WGCI (Soul R&B Oldies), AM 1580 WKKD (Classic Country in Stereo).
 
Goldilocks,
Your KMOX reference. Was that Jim White "the man who walks and talks at midnight?"

Next to WGN, KMOX is the very best!
 
I worked for 1480 one summer (1974) - between my freshman and sophomore years of college - when it was still WGSB. Nelda Brickhouse owned it then, but we never saw her. I had convinced the then-news director, Jeff Martin, to hire me for the summer part-time, then I would go full-time whenever he took vacation.

No wire-service, yet half-hour or hour news blocks, as I recall. When Jeff went on vacation, it ended up being a 16- or 17-hour-a-day gig as I was covering nighttime meetings too... everything and anything in Geneva, St. Charles, and Batavia. Plus, visiting the police departments in the tri-cities each day to go over arrest sheets (the good old days before P.I.O.'s!).

But I enjoyed every minute of it. After all, it was my first paid gig in radio, and not an internship! As I recalled - when I worked those marathon shifts - I stayed over in Geneva, but when I worked parttime, I drove in from Western Springs--LaGrange. (It always shocked me how sharply directional WGSB's signal was; you could literally see the tower lights from the east at night, and barely pick-up the station!)

A wonderful summer. I wasn't aware Howard Miller had acquired the station at some point later.

But he interviewed me for a summer job, I believe, the spring before I took that job at WGSB. At the time, he owned a station further west... I want to say WZOE in Princeton, Illinois, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, fully aware that he once commanded the top-rated show in Chicago radio, I was rather nervous, but he put me at ease. Very much the gentleman.

I worked the following summer in news at WTAQ La Grange, then S & S Broadcasting Company, and a hodgepodge of programming in Spanish, Italian, and Polish (great polka shows over the weekends!), plus some local talk (The "Q Line") and local news. Great people!
 
Hey DX, I LOVED WTAQ's weekend Polka shows; Chet Schafer and the others, like The Chicago Push and Uncle Henry (sugar in Polish). I remember the noonish daily polka show sponsored by the "Bohemian Cemetery."

WTAQ was always a very interesting listen, even the nighttime talk shows and abc news on the hour. I remember when the White Sox were on there. What a great signal, too.

As a kid, I was a regular visitor to alot of downtown Chicago stations (nearly 50!!!! years ago).

I especially remember WFMF, WDHF (Frank Lee), and WCLM, WEFM (classical). I met Jesse Owens (!!!), Marty Faye, Daddio Daylie and Jerry Leighton (while he recorded a commercial form Muntz TV - "Have Color tv in your home tonight...Esterbrook 9-6777") at WAAF, and met Studs Terkel at WFMT.

I Hung around w/Al Von Maish and Stu Olsen at the behind the awning store on the West side of Harlem North of Grand studio of WXFM.

I met Buddy Black at the Edgewater Beach Hotel (closet) studio of WEBH way up the road, and spent lots of time with John Weigel and Two Ton Baker in the Chicago Board of Trade top floor studio of ch 26.

WIND was wonderful. Howard Miller always treated this pimply 13 year old kid like a champ. Rest his soul.
 
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