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WIND

A big air-kiss to radiorob and jp for the kind words. I have always enjoyed trying to make life more fun through radio
and may soon find a new radio home. In the meantime, I'm back to the drawing board - literally - www.portraitartchicago.com -- "Jeszcze Polska Nie Zginela!"
 
A datapoint on "The Whiffenpoof Song": there's a website that reprints a young woman's diary from 1945-1946 with explanatory references. ( http://www.dhdd.net/dorothy/1946/jan.html ) In the 1/19/46 entry she wrote of being up with friends until 3:45 a.m. and listening to "Night Watch". Here are the background notes on that entry:

Update: A reader —a former radio station owner— adds that in 1946 WIND had its studios on the fifth floor of the Wrigley Building and was known for playing the current hits:
“Night Watch was an overnight disk jockey show. There was news on the hour and half hour. In January of 1946 they might have played Bing Crosby - I Can't Begin to Tell You; Vaughn Monroe - Let it Snow, Let it Snow; Freddy Martin - Symphony; Frank Sinatra - Nancy with the Laughing Face.

Every morning, following the 2am news, WIND played The Whiffenpoof Song. They had a collection of over 100 artists performing this song.”

So WIND was playing "Whiffenpoof" at 2:00 a.m. in 1946. Still don't have the original story as to why, though.

Also -- big props to Connie Szerszen! Always a pleasure to hear her and her unapologetic love for Elvis.
 
Gush, gush...can you see me blush...thank you Corky Marlowe and rfichaser...! It's why I love doing radio...to share the fun. As for Elvis...I DID actually get to meet him as I hid behind the dirty linen racks near the freight elevator at the Arlington Hilton. It was in May...just months before he died. He was so so so so good looking...even better than his best photos...and so quiet and polite. I handed him several boxes of reel tapes that my engineer at WIND had recorded during my show that day. I called it a "Radio-Gram" to Elvis...the tapes were of listeners who called in with messages for Elvis...
he seemed to really appreciate them. I told him this showed how Chicago loves him. (This was, of course, after he stepped off the freight elevator, surrounded by his bodyguards with his girlfriend Ginger at his side...in a red dress with a white fur coat. The bodyguards almost pushed me away -- but then Elvis said something to them and they parted like the Red Sea...and there was Elvis in the middle...waiting. I almost melted.) I am currently seeking a publisher for my memoirs, "Top Rock Girly Jock" where I recall special moments as this one...one I'll never forget.
 
Connie....

The 50s and 60s were generally regarded as the "heyday" of WIND, and deservedly so. However, the station was arguably every bit as good in the 70s. Your evening show was a big part of that, a truly great listen, and here's looking forward to your finding a publisher and sharing your memories.
 
Thank you so much, Cyberdad -- Radio is such enjoyment...because by bringing some fun to a listener -- it just bounces back to me. You know it's what you're supposed to do....when you're not doing it for the money...and most DJ's don't...because, frankly, only a very few DJ's make big bucks. Many of my secretary friends had better salaries...but I definitely had more pleasure. Thank you again for the kind words.
 
cyberdad said:
I believe "Whiffenpoof Song" at 2am went all the way back to the 30s and 40s. Something to do with students at Northwestern needing to be back in the dorms at that hour (or something else similar). The song apparently being the signal that it was time to call it a night and head home. I definitely stand to be corrected on that one.

It might be hard for some to fathom today, but the fact is WIND indeed enjoyed a very proud history as one of the major players on the Chicago radio scene for many years. I'd describe the format as top 40, but the music as something of a top-40/MOR hybrid during its heyday in the 50s and 60s. Kids like me may not have liked it when their parents tuned to WIND, but it was much "brighter" and contemporary than the frequently stale stuff eminating from the 50KW blowtorches (except 'LS after 1960).

Yes WIND slipped when Howard Miller left in '68, but then it scored an impressive comeback a couple of years later as one of the pioneering oldies stations. That was an interesting and popular format. Oldies, but with a current chart tune once during each half hour.

The advent of music on FM (and oldies on WFYR) finally put an end to the glory days in the form of a talk format that never quite caught on...despite the considerable talents of Weber, Baum, Hale, & company.
Click to expand...
Would it be safe to call WIND perhaps a pioneer with an 'Adult-Contemporary' format in the 'mid-to-late '50s and perhaps '60s as well. When did WIND sign on with this format and when did WJJD start doing top-40? Would it also be safe to say that WJJD was more aggressive that WIND in the late '50s?
 
Old fart picking a few nits...

WIND was "Rock and Roll" in the 50's. Eddie Fisher, Kay Starr, Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine were rock and roll in those days.

Adults were NOT pleased with "Dungaree Doll" or "The Rock and Roll Waltz." Then Pat Boone zeroed in on the kids. Meanwhile, Al Benson (who could hardly talk) was playing "race music" (like The Orioles) on WGES and WOPA.

Wally Phillips broadcast from Riverview Amusement Park on WGN catering to "kids." Jim Lounsbury was on WGN playing that stuff and on TV, imitating Dick Clark in Chicago.

Nobody was "anything" 24 hours a day back then. People were used to often using the frequency knob. EVERY station had variety.

WIND played "music for kids" had Cubs baseball games (again - not exclusively) and lots of other variety like soap operas during the day
and dance bands at night.There was a dial full of adult stations then. Only sporadic stuff for teens.

Look here. This is a great site; Check out a WIND schedule.
http://www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/index.htm

As I remember, WJJD took the kids away from WIND. All Plough Inc.
stations, including WJJD changed to "top 40." AS "a Broadcast service of Plough Incorporated" WJJD was 50kw (but a daytimer), but they were full of contests, more "immediate" sounding news, jingles (WIND got jingles in the 60's) and jocks that "talked to the kids (with PLENTY of echo in their "lingo" ) and did high school dances and LOTS of stuff to get teens talking about them.

WIND was "squaresville, daddy" and left far behind, quickly. Howard Miller was on WIND, but also on a few other stations. I believe that He did NOT sign exclusively w/WIND until Westinghouse bought them
from Ralph Atlass.

Then, in late 1960, WLS took the kids from WJJD. Then WYNR TRIED and failed, to take kids from WLS, and WCFL made a more expensive try. FM killed WLS-am.

Now, keep off MY grass or I'll call your mom, sonny boy! Your music will NEVER last!
 
I remember listening to WJJD in the late 50s to get my rock & roll fix. When they signed off in the evening (Salt Lake City sunset) I'd switch to WIND. On Sunday nights Howard Miller or Milo Hamilton, who was a WIND DJ before his baseball days, would play the new WIND Top 21 survey.
WJJD & WIND were the only places to get rock & roll before WLS switched in 1960.
 
I stand to be corrected, but my recall in the late 50s was that WJJD indeed had the standard top 40 (hence rock) format.

WIND basically pioneered the top 40 genre earlier in the decade, but morphed into a softer version of that (at least during the daytime hours) as the rockers came to dominate the charts. "Blueberry Hill" and "Don't Be Cruel" were regular fare on WIND, but you had to go to WJJD (or WGES) if you wanted to hear "Good Golly Miss Molly".
 
cyberdad said:
I stand to be corrected, but my recall in the late 50s was that WJJD indeed had the standard top 40 (hence rock) format.

WIND basically pioneered the top 40 genre earlier in the decade, but morphed into a softer version of that (at least during the daytime hours) as the rockers came to dominate the charts. "Blueberry Hill" and "Don't Be Cruel" were regular fare on WIND, but you had to go to WJJD (or WGES) if you wanted to hear "Good Golly Miss Molly".
Click to expand...
You're right -- WIND had a Top-40 program in the late '50s hosted by Howard Miller and others, though by 1960 or so it was dropped and the station became a fulltime MOR format with "The Sound of the City" as its signature. It was during those years (1960s) that WIND had the remarkably musical jingle package that I asked about earlier in the thread.

WJJD and WYNR were the other rockers in the early '60s, but they were steamrolled by WLS with its deeper pockets and bigger signal. WIND didn't really try to compete with WLS, as I recall. Alas, Connie Szerszen didn't come around soon enough. :)
 
Growing up in the Chicago area back in the 60s I think of WIND being Howard Miller and MOR. I can still hear the sounds of Les and Larry Elgart coming out of the kitchen radio's speaker. I do remember going to an event picking up photos of the WIND dj's and may have em sitting around gathering dust in a box somewhere. There were a few times Larry the Legend was doing fill in for Howard which kind of blew me away. Like what is this hillbilly doing on a major station. Sorry dude but WJJD is up the dial. Anyone remember when WMAQ also did MOR for awhile along with their NBC monitor program on weekends. WIND did have some cool looking studios the time a few of us radio geeks paid em a visit and this must have been sometime in the early 70s.
 
Came across this thread while Googling my dad - wanted to set the record straight ... (I asked him to respond - he's doing great, by the way!)

WIND manager Phil Nolan did not fire Howard Miller. Phil arrived at WIND in July of 1969. Miller had departed in 1967 in the wake of inner city rioting, triggered in part by riots that had taken place in Detroit. And, Miller wasn't fired, he was put on "leave of absence" by then Manager Jack Williams. Neither Miller or the Station attempted to reconcile the matter and Miller took jobs with at least two other Chicago stations, which did not produce the kind of ratings he had enjoyed at WIND. Nolan rehired Miller in 1973 to do a Saturday night talk show. Miller famously opened the first "come back" program by saying, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." Nolan remembers Miller as being a marvelous communicator, who would become overly involved in politics and race issues on the air. After several months of Saturday nights Howard left WIND, bought a radio station in Rockford, and put himself on the air in morning drive. He was a great favorite of the Chicago Police and Fire Fighters, whom he both defended and praised on air.
Phil Nolan

And I just wanted to say hello to Connie - still my favorite top Rock Girlie Jock!

Mike Nolan
 
Thanks for setting the record straight.

And I agree that Connie always will be Chicago's top rock girlie jock...beating out some formidible competition (Yvonne Daniels, Patti Haze, Terri Hemmert, Wendy Snyder....to name just a few).
 
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