WIND, Chicago

[radioman148]

I appreciate the kind words that have come since my original posting about the glory days of WIND.

It was an era that's gone, when even music-oriented stations did serious news coverage, personalities dominated and there was no voice-tracking directed by bean-counters at giant conglomerates.

Howard Miller was the dominant force in Chicago radio for many years. During the late sixties, when I was the kid of the on-air staff,
Howard frequently hit 30 shares and WIND overall regularly ran in the 20's. WLS and WGN battled for second in the 8-to-10 range. FM was no real factor. I still have rating books from that period.

Miller was so big, during one period he was on FIVE stations simultaneously; WIND live, and tape on WCFL, WMAQ ... and the others escape memory. Advertisers couldn't get enough of him. He was also national daily on CBS.

When WIND blew him out after the Martin Luther King riots, he was replaced for a few years by the team of Chuck Benson and Kurt Russell. Later they were replaced by Robert W. Morgan in one of many stupid, failed moves by the management that drove a legendary station right into the ground.

I went on to a management career in St. Louis and Miami, then returned to the air when WIND was reincarnated as a talk station.
A few years later I went to ABC's KGO in San Francisco, a move I never regretted, and finished my career as morning-man on their co-owned KSFO twenty-five years later.

I extend condolences to the folk at WLS, who've suffered under Citadel and now are about to be absorbed by Cumulus. From what I hear, Cumulus makes Citadel's satanic CEO Farid Suleman look like Mother Teresa by comparison!

Lee Rodgers -- [email protected]

Good to hear from you Lee. I read your internet blog everyday & enjoy it very much. I really appreciate the work that you do.
Good health!

 

[Ultimajock]

Miller was so big, during one period he was on FIVE stations simultaneously; WIND live, and tape on WCFL, WMAQ ... and the others escape memory. Advertisers couldn't get enough of him. He was also national daily on CBS.

...interestingly, there exists a hilarious tape, from around '56 or '57, on which Paul Gibson gripes on-the-air about his programmer at WBBM, Ernie Shomo, demanding that he give the time and temperature every three minutes because Miller over on WIND did the same, and that must be why Miller was getting the big ratings and Gibson wasn't! ;D In the course of the tape, Gibson comments that Miller was his next-door neighbor...

 

[Tim L]

Hello Lee:
Though I never knew of you at all (from the Cleveland market area) it is nice to hear from anyone from the "classic radio" days that would take the time to post here.  Wanted to ask..Is the "Howard Miller" from WIND the same Howard Miller that hosted an afternoon live variety show (2:00 ET) on NBC-TV that originated from Chicago duing the 1957-58 era? I do a vintage media blog for the Cleveland area and have seen his name in old listings (In Color) on WFMJ-TV 21 in Youngstown, Ohio and WICU-12 in Erie, Pa...KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the Miller show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

 

[radioman148]

Hello Lee:
Though I never knew of you at all (from the Cleveland market area) it is nice to hear from anyone from the "classic radio" days that would take the time to post here. Wanted to ask..Is the "Howard Miller" from WIND the same Howard Miller that hosted an afternoon live variety show (2:00 ET) on NBC-TV that originated from Chicago duing the 1957-58 era? I do a vintage media blog for the Cleveland area and have seen his name in old listings (In Color) on WFMJ-TV 21 in Youngstown, Ohio and WICU-12 in Erie, Pa...KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the Miller show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

After Cleveland didn't "Big" Wilson move to WNBC New York?

 

[Ultimajock]

Hello Lee:
Though I never knew of you at all (from the Cleveland market area) it is nice to hear from anyone from the "classic radio" days that would take the time to post here. Wanted to ask..Is the "Howard Miller" from WIND the same Howard Miller that hosted an afternoon live variety show (2:00 ET) on NBC-TV that originated from Chicago duing the 1957-58 era? I do a vintage media blog for the Cleveland area and have seen his name in old listings (In Color) on WFMJ-TV 21 in Youngstown, Ohio and WICU-12 in Erie, Pa...KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the Miller show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

After Cleveland didn't "Big" Wilson move to WNBC New York?

...indeed, he did. In fact, Wilson and John Bartholomew Tucker were the two final "communicators" to host a weekend of NBC Radio's Monitor in January 1975. After New York, Wilson went to Miami, where, among other things, he was the utility announcer for WPBT/2's Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler until 1997, several years after his death...

 

[rfichaser]

I appreciate the kind words that have come since my original posting about the glory days of WIND.

It was an era that's gone, when even music-oriented stations did serious news coverage, personalities dominated and there was no voice-tracking directed by bean-counters at giant conglomerates.

Howard Miller was the dominant force in Chicago radio for many years. During the late sixties, when I was the kid of the on-air staff,
Howard frequently hit 30 shares and WIND overall regularly ran in the 20's. WLS and WGN battled for second in the 8-to-10 range. FM was no real factor. I still have rating books from that period.

Miller was so big, during one period he was on FIVE stations simultaneously; WIND live, and tape on WCFL, WMAQ ... and the others escape memory. Advertisers couldn't get enough of him. He was also national daily on CBS.

When WIND blew him out after the Martin Luther King riots, he was replaced for a few years by the team of Chuck Benson and Kurt Russell. Later they were replaced by Robert W. Morgan in one of many stupid, failed moves by the management that drove a legendary station right into the ground.

I went on to a management career in St. Louis and Miami, then returned to the air when WIND was reincarnated as a talk station.
A few years later I went to ABC's KGO in San Francisco, a move I never regretted, and finished my career as morning-man on their co-owned KSFO twenty-five years later.

I extend condolences to the folk at WLS, who've suffered under Citadel and now are about to be absorbed by Cumulus. From what I hear, Cumulus makes Citadel's satanic CEO Farid Suleman look like Mother Teresa by comparison!

Lee Rodgers -- [email protected]

Lee, thanks again for posting here. Howard Miller was a force of nature -- I don't think there's ever been a better salesman on the radio. What a talent he was.

I also enjoyed Benson & Russell's evening program and later when they did mornings after Miller left. Their program was genuinely fun. I agree that Robert W. Morgan was a bad fit for WIND and for Chicago. WIND's format in the '60s had to evolve with the audience, and though I might have disagreed with some of the moves (including the loss of your program) I have to give Westinghouse credit for trying new things that at the time were unique. "Contact", originally with the British host (whose name escapes me) and later Dave Baum was always good. "Larry the Legend" overnight was a Hail Mary pass but it did keep the overnight audience connected, and eventually opened the door for Ed Schwartz. For a time there was also a full hour of news at 5:00 that was a real news program. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was also a first.

I see those as examples of a quality station trying to stay relevant as a committed broadcaster. Maybe nothing would've helped with the shift of the audience to FM, but WIND was a great ride while we had it.

 

[Tim L]

Hello Lee:
Though I never knew of you at all (from the Cleveland market area) it is nice to hear from anyone from the "classic radio" days that would take the time to post here. Wanted to ask..Is the "Howard Miller" from WIND the same Howard Miller that hosted an afternoon live variety show (2:00 ET) on NBC-TV that originated from Chicago duing the 1957-58 era? I do a vintage media blog for the Cleveland area and have seen his name in old listings (In Color) on WFMJ-TV 21 in Youngstown, Ohio and WICU-12 in Erie, Pa...KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the Miller show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

After Cleveland didn't "Big" Wilson move to WNBC New York?

 

[Tim L]

Hello Lee:
Though I never knew of you at all (from the Cleveland market area) it is nice to hear from anyone from the "classic radio" days that would take the time to post here. Wanted to ask..Is the "Howard Miller" from WIND the same Howard Miller that hosted an afternoon live variety show (2:00 ET) on NBC-TV that originated from Chicago duing the 1957-58 era? I do a vintage media blog for the Cleveland area and have seen his name in old listings (In Color) on WFMJ-TV 21 in Youngstown, Ohio and WICU-12 in Erie, Pa...KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the Miller show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

After Cleveland didn't "Big" Wilson move to WNBC New York?

...indeed, he did. In fact, Wilson and John Bartholomew Tucker were the two final "communicators" to host a weekend of NBC Radio's Monitor in January 1975. After New York, Wilson went to Miami, where, among other things, he was the utility announcer for WPBT/2's Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler until 1997, several years after his death...

Daevid:
Thanks for the clarification on that, I wasnt sure if he went straight to New York from Cleveland or not..

 

[Ultimajock]

KYW-TV 3 Cleveland ran movies in that time slot with KYW-1100 morning personality "Big" Wilson..I believe Mike Douglas was part of the [Howard] Miller [NBC-TV] show..Incidentally, Douglas replaced the KYW movie slot December 11, 1961.., beginning a 21 year run..Wilson was gone by this time..

After Cleveland didn't "Big" Wilson move to WNBC New York?

...indeed, he did. In fact, Wilson and John Bartholomew Tucker were the two final "communicators" to host a weekend of NBC Radio's Monitor in January 1975. After New York, Wilson went to Miami, where, among other things, he was the utility announcer for WPBT/2's Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler until 1997, several years after his death...

Daevid:
Thanks for the clarification on that, I wasnt sure if he went straight to New York from Cleveland or not..

...you're welcome, Tim. BTW, as I'm sure you already know (but some of our Chicagoans may not), Big Wilson had a writer for his KYW-TV movie show known today as Tim Conway. I have an aircheck of Tim's visit to Tom Snyder's radio show circa '91, and Tim claimed a lot of his scripts for Wilson eventually made it to the bottom of Big's on-the-set birdcage ;D ...

 

[radioman148]

I appreciate the kind words that have come since my original posting about the glory days of WIND.

It was an era that's gone, when even music-oriented stations did serious news coverage, personalities dominated and there was no voice-tracking directed by bean-counters at giant conglomerates.

Howard Miller was the dominant force in Chicago radio for many years. During the late sixties, when I was the kid of the on-air staff,
Howard frequently hit 30 shares and WIND overall regularly ran in the 20's. WLS and WGN battled for second in the 8-to-10 range. FM was no real factor. I still have rating books from that period.

Miller was so big, during one period he was on FIVE stations simultaneously; WIND live, and tape on WCFL, WMAQ ... and the others escape memory. Advertisers couldn't get enough of him. He was also national daily on CBS.

When WIND blew him out after the Martin Luther King riots, he was replaced for a few years by the team of Chuck Benson and Kurt Russell. Later they were replaced by Robert W. Morgan in one of many stupid, failed moves by the management that drove a legendary station right into the ground.

I went on to a management career in St. Louis and Miami, then returned to the air when WIND was reincarnated as a talk station.
A few years later I went to ABC's KGO in San Francisco, a move I never regretted, and finished my career as morning-man on their co-owned KSFO twenty-five years later.

I extend condolences to the folk at WLS, who've suffered under Citadel and now are about to be absorbed by Cumulus. From what I hear, Cumulus makes Citadel's satanic CEO Farid Suleman look like Mother Teresa by comparison!

Lee Rodgers -- [email protected]

Lee, thanks again for posting here. Howard Miller was a force of nature -- I don't think there's ever been a better salesman on the radio. What a talent he was.

I also enjoyed Benson & Russell's evening program and later when they did mornings after Miller left. Their program was genuinely fun. I agree that Robert W. Morgan was a bad fit for WIND and for Chicago. WIND's format in the '60s had to evolve with the audience, and though I might have disagreed with some of the moves (including the loss of your program) I have to give Westinghouse credit for trying new things that at the time were unique. "Contact", originally with the British host (whose name escapes me) and later Dave Baum was always good. "Larry the Legend" overnight was a Hail Mary pass but it did keep the overnight audience connected, and eventually opened the door for Ed Schwartz. For a time there was also a full hour of news at 5:00 that was a real news program. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was also a first.

I see those as examples of a quality station trying to stay relevant as a committed broadcaster. Maybe nothing would've helped with the shift of the audience to FM, but WIND was a great ride while we had it.

Bill Berg's sports-talk wasn't the first in Chicago. Rick Weaver had one in the mid 60s on WBBM. Whatever happened to Bill Berg?

 

[rfichaser]

Lee, thanks again for posting here. Howard Miller was a force of nature -- I don't think there's ever been a better salesman on the radio. What a talent he was.

I also enjoyed Benson & Russell's evening program and later when they did mornings after Miller left. Their program was genuinely fun. I agree that Robert W. Morgan was a bad fit for WIND and for Chicago. WIND's format in the '60s had to evolve with the audience, and though I might have disagreed with some of the moves (including the loss of your program) I have to give Westinghouse credit for trying new things that at the time were unique. "Contact", originally with the British host (whose name escapes me) and later Dave Baum was always good. "Larry the Legend" overnight was a Hail Mary pass but it did keep the overnight audience connected, and eventually opened the door for Ed Schwartz. For a time there was also a full hour of news at 5:00 that was a real news program. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was also a first.

I see those as examples of a quality station trying to stay relevant as a committed broadcaster. Maybe nothing would've helped with the shift of the audience to FM, but WIND was a great ride while we had it.

Bill Berg's sports-talk wasn't the first in Chicago. Rick Weaver had one in the mid 60s on WBBM. Whatever happened to Bill Berg?

I don't remember Rick Weaver's WBBM sports-talk program. My memory of WBBM is of Mal Ballairs (who just passed away a few months ago) and of CBS's ongoing commitment to old-school radio programs like "Gunsmoke" and Arthur Godfrey's daily show. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was a novelty, though it wasn't the first.

I know Bill Berg was a DJ on WIND before he began doing the sports program, and he later went on to WGN to do an afternoon talk show. I think he later did voiceover work. Don't know what he's doing now.

Besides the rich and musical choral jingles on WIND, another endearing custom was its decades-long habit of playing "The Whiffenpoof Song" every night at 2:00 a.m. My understanding is that it began in memory of someone who died in the 1930s and the 2:00 a.m. song continued into the 1980s. Does anyone know the full story of that?

 

[radioman148]

Lee, thanks again for posting here. Howard Miller was a force of nature -- I don't think there's ever been a better salesman on the radio. What a talent he was.

I also enjoyed Benson & Russell's evening program and later when they did mornings after Miller left. Their program was genuinely fun. I agree that Robert W. Morgan was a bad fit for WIND and for Chicago. WIND's format in the '60s had to evolve with the audience, and though I might have disagreed with some of the moves (including the loss of your program) I have to give Westinghouse credit for trying new things that at the time were unique. "Contact", originally with the British host (whose name escapes me) and later Dave Baum was always good. "Larry the Legend" overnight was a Hail Mary pass but it did keep the overnight audience connected, and eventually opened the door for Ed Schwartz. For a time there was also a full hour of news at 5:00 that was a real news program. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was also a first.

I see those as examples of a quality station trying to stay relevant as a committed broadcaster. Maybe nothing would've helped with the shift of the audience to FM, but WIND was a great ride while we had it.

Bill Berg's sports-talk wasn't the first in Chicago. Rick Weaver had one in the mid 60s on WBBM. Whatever happened to Bill Berg?

I don't remember Rick Weaver's WBBM sports-talk program. My memory of WBBM is of Mal Ballairs (who just passed away a few months ago) and of CBS's ongoing commitment to old-school radio programs like "Gunsmoke" and Arthur Godfrey's daily show. Bill Berg's sports-talk show was a novelty, though it wasn't the first.

I know Bill Berg was a DJ on WIND before he began doing the sports program, and he later went on to WGN to do an afternoon talk show. I think he later did voiceover work. Don't know what he's doing now.

Besides the rich and musical choral jingles on WIND, another endearing custom was its decades-long habit of playing "The Whiffenpoof Song" every night at 2:00 a.m. My understanding is that it began in memory of someone who died in the 1930s and the 2:00 a.m. song continued into the 1980s. Does anyone know the full story of that?

The last I remember of Bill Berg was on WGN. Regarding the Whiffenpoof Song, WIND did play it every morning at 2AM. I do not know the story behind it, but I do remember that they played a different version everyday. Larry The Legend Johnson used to curse that song. He really hated to play it. I also would like to know the history behind why WIND played it.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Bill Berg's sports-talk wasn't the first in Chicago. Rick Weaver had one in the mid 60s on WBBM.

Rick Weaver went on to become the long-time voice of the Miami Dolphins. He was at the mike for their undefeated 17-0 season in 1972.

 

[cyberdad]

Regarding the Whiffenpoof Song, WIND did play it every morning at 2AM. I do not know the story behind it, but I do remember that they played a different version everyday. Larry The Legend Johnson used to curse that song. He really hated to play it. I also would like to know the history behind why WIND played it.

I thought it had something to do with curfew at Northwestern University. When the song came on your car radio, "date night" was over. Or something like that. Perhaps if this is correct, someone can fill in the blanks.

 

[Dr Wayne]

Is Larry still living or did he pass? Why did he leave WIND?

 

[radioman148]

Is Larry still living or did he pass? Why did he leave WIND?

I know he was a weatherman in Milwaukee after he left WIND, but why he left I don't know.

 

[Ultimajock]

Is Larry still living or did he pass? Why did he leave WIND?

I know he was a weatherman in Milwaukee after he left WIND, but why he left I don't know.

...Larry "The Legend" Johnson was not a weatherman during his stint in Milwaukee. After he left WIND, he did some fill-in work at WMAQ, and then signed on to do a noon-hour local talk show on WLUK, then the ABC-TV affiliate in Green Bay. Circa 1976, Larry got the morning drive shift on WZUU-AM-FM in Milwaukee, where he was the city's top-rated morning man for several years. (The Sirius History of Howard Stern installment dealing with Howard's tenure at WWWW Detroit had a clip of Howard and The Lege arranging the payoff on a Brewers-Tigers game bet, in which IIRC Howard agreed to send Larry three cases of Stroh's.) By 1980, WZUU-AM had flipped to Oldies WLZZ, which was promptly trounced in the ratings by WEMP. By '82, WLZZ had flipped again to country, and the station brass moved Larry over from WZUU-FM to do mornings there. He didn't last long as a country jock; he jumped to WISN when they switched to news/talk in the mid-'80s and did the midday shift until suffering a stroke in '89. (Larry's morning lead in for the last months of his WISN gig was, ironically enough, Don Vogel, who'd previously been at both WIND and WMAQ.) After that, Hearst couldn't see fit to insuring him, and despite a brief stint as a movie reviewer on WITI/6, that was the end of his career. Last I heard, he was a resident at the Milwaukee Catholic Home after suffering more strokes; http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/29213104.html contains the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obituary for his wife Mary Burns Johnson, who died five years ago...

 

[radioaircheck]

There are no more glory days at WIND anymore.

 

[radioman148]

Is Larry still living or did he pass? Why did he leave WIND?

I know he was a weatherman in Milwaukee after he left WIND, but why he left I don't know.

...Larry "The Legend" Johnson was not a weatherman during his stint in Milwaukee. After he left WIND, he did some fill-in work at WMAQ, and then signed on to do a noon-hour local talk show on WLUK, then the ABC-TV affiliate in Green Bay. Circa 1976, Larry got the morning drive shift on WZUU-AM-FM in Milwaukee, where he was the city's top-rated morning man for several years. (The Sirius History of Howard Stern installment dealing with Howard's tenure at WWWW Detroit had a clip of Howard and The Lege arranging the payoff on a Brewers-Tigers game bet, in which IIRC Howard agreed to send Larry three cases of Stroh's.) By 1980, WZUU-AM had flipped to Oldies WLZZ, which was promptly trounced in the ratings by WEMP. By '82, WLZZ had flipped again to country, and the station brass moved Larry over from WZUU-FM to do mornings there. He didn't last long as a country jock; he jumped to WISN when they switched to news/talk in the mid-'80s and did the midday shift until suffering a stroke in '89. (Larry's morning lead in for the last months of his WISN gig was, ironically enough, Don Vogel, who'd previously been at both WIND and WMAQ.) After that, Hearst couldn't see fit to insuring him, and despite a brief stint as a movie reviewer on WITI/6, that was the end of his career. Last I heard, he was a resident at the Milwaukee Catholic Home after suffering more strokes; http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/29213104.html contains the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obituary for his wife Mary Burns Johnson, who died five years ago...

Somebody had mentioned that he had done weather in Milwaukee for awhile. Thanks for the correction.