• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WPJX 1500 AM

W

wlxx

Guest
in 1998,Radio Disney bought 1300 WTAQ/1500 WTAU,the calls would be changed to WRDZ/WDDZ,In
2000,1500 was shut down,the next year,1500 Tested with classical music

stay tuned.......
 
wlxx said:
in 1998,Radio Disney bought 1300 WTAQ/1500 WTAU,the calls would be changed to WRDZ/WDDZ,In
2000,1500 was shut down,the next year,1500 Tested with classical music

stay tuned.......
Click to expand...

So ???
 
wlxx said:
in 1998,Radio Disney bought 1300 WTAQ/1500 WTAU,the calls would be changed to WRDZ/WDDZ,In
2000,1500 was shut down,the next year,1500 Tested with classical music

stay tuned.......
Click to expand...

It wasn't classical music. It was instrumental/easy listening music. I remember hearing it in fall 2001 and even more laughable I think I have an aircheck of it somewhere.

Also, for a short time in 2001 it simmulcasted 1460 WBJX Racine and later ran its own automated regional mexican music when they turned it over temporarily to WBJX's owner who apparently was one of the original owners of 1300/1500 during its Spanish days.

WPJX returned in the spring of 2002 simmulcasting with WRDZ again. Later that summer Multicultural Broadcasting Of Chicago took it oldies/classic country. It was automated, had some PSAs and offered advertising for $5 per minute. Studios were in Waucanda. Only advertisers I ever heard on there were a Zion recycling center within view of their tower site and a dental supply company on the same street as the studio.

It went dark again last year. Came back with the same format temporarily. It was sold to Polnet and they flipped it to Hurban as a stunt and finally Radio Formula which it continues to air today.
 
Jeremy Andrews said:
It wasn't classical music. It was instrumental/easy listening music. I remember hearing it in fall 2001 and even more laughable I think I have an aircheck of it somewhere.

Also, for a short time in 2001 it simmulcasted 1460 WBJX Racine and later ran its own automated regional mexican music when they turned it over temporarily to WBJX's owner who apparently was one of the original owners of 1300/1500 during its Spanish days.
Click to expand...

I remember visiting the 1500/96.9 studios back in the WKZN/WZBN days in the 70s. Kind of a neat operation back then...
 
EDwalker said:
Jeremy Andrews said:
It wasn't classical music. It was instrumental/easy listening music. I remember hearing it in fall 2001 and even more laughable I think I have an aircheck of it somewhere.

Also, for a short time in 2001 it simmulcasted 1460 WBJX Racine and later ran its own automated regional mexican music when they turned it over temporarily to WBJX's owner who apparently was one of the original owners of 1300/1500 during its Spanish days.
Click to expand...

I remember visiting the 1500/96.9 studios back in the WKZN/WZBN days in the 70s. Kind of a neat operation back then...
Click to expand...

What did they program? I can only remember as far back as the early 90s.
 
Jeremy Andrews said:
What did they program? I can only remember as far back as the early 90s.
Click to expand...

IIRC (I've lost a few brain cells since then), I believe it was AC or beautiful music...partially simulcast. I think there was AP or UPI news at the top of the hour which they did go to direct simulcast for. The studios were on Sheridan Road. I remember two automation systems side-by-side next to an on-air
studio. Think they were either Gates or Schaefer automation machines with all the music on reel to reel and cart carousels for the spots.

In fact, I just grabbed the 1974 Broadcasting Yearbook...here what it says:

WZBN..(on-air date) Sept 19, 1967. 1500khz. 250w DA-D. 2700 Sheridan Road 60099. Zion Benton Bcstg.
Format: Contemp. (I truly think its was MOR or AC)
W. James Bicket, pres. William J. Bicket, gen mgr; Tony Noce, news dir; Charles King, chief engr.
WKZN(FM)..(on-air date) 1962. 96.9mhz. 10kw horiz, 8.1kw vert. Ant 500ft. Dups WZBN 10%. Stereo.
Frank M. Falduto, stn mgr

Don't know anything about the staff, but I do believe Tony Noce later worked at 92.7 in Arlington Heights when it was
WWMM. Might be wrong.

Down in Waukegan, 102.3 was the mighty WEFA. I heard its studios were in an old bank vault in the basement of a building. The address listed was 4 S. Genesse St. Always wanted to visit that one back then, but never did.
 
Living in Zion for 10 years, I remember the Sheridan Road studios being on the 2nd floor of a store front.

Before moving to Zion, 96.9 was apparently on Green Bay Road in Kenosha a few miles up the street from the tower and the current WLIP/WIIL building.
 
Jeremy Andrews said:
Living in Zion for 10 years, I remember the Sheridan Road studios being on the 2nd floor of a store front.

Before moving to Zion, 96.9 was apparently on Green Bay Road in Kenosha a few miles up the street from the tower and the current WLIP/WIIL building.
Click to expand...

Looking at a 1964 Broadcasting Yearbook:

WAXO(FM)...(on-air date) Nov 4, 1962. 96.5mc, 3.5kw Ant 130ft. Stereo. Box 725. OLympic 8-2055. Service Bcstg Corp.
Arnold W. Johnson, pres; Roy Ambrose, VP & Gen Mgr; Paul Weyrich, Prog Dir; Don Jensen, News Dir; Jay Wells, Chief Engr.

I gotta think that the "96.5" is a typo...as at that time WFMR (now WKLH)/Milwaukee was also on 96.5....
 
...I was news director and a talk host there just after it became WRJR in late 1984. What a farce that station was. The new owner was one of those know-nothings who jumped into radio after the Reagan-era "deregulation" made it possible (specifically doing away with the law stating you had to show you could operate the station for five years and you had to hold onto the license that long once you were awarded it), and this guy couldn't make his pile of money with the other business he was running at the time. It turned out he had put the holding company in his mistress' name and kept flipping the format so often we were calling ourselves "The Format-of-the-Month Club." The call sign started to stand for "We Replace Jocks Regularly." First we were talk (the owner taking mornings and I did afternoons), then oldies, then doo-wop, then talk again, then Black gospel weekdays and Banda weekends, all within six months' time (before I quit the place). In the end, the owner had to fire-sale the station because the Waukegan News-Sun caught him rigging a contest that had (a) a grand prize of a Sony color TV in a picture tube size that Sony didn't offer at the time, and (b) a grand prize "winner" whose announced address turned out to be a cabbage field on the outskirts of Kenosha! Fortunately, I was out of that gig long before the contest was even announced...
 
WPXJ AM-1500 would be great for a stock market radio outlet,
if they happen to change their format or programming again!
Maybe someone on this board from WPXJ AM-1500 would concider
my idea, since there are lots of investors like myself would be interested
in having such a station that provides a full-time stock market report
just during the day-time hours from opening to closing market hours
Monday through Friday.....
 
Back in the mid 70's, WPJX (1500 AM) was WZBN. The sister station was WKZN (96.9). WZBN was changed to WKZN AM. I worked at both stations. Studios were on Sheridan Rd. in Zion above Bickett Pharmacy. The AM towers were in Zion and the FM tower was in Kenosha. Both stations were easy listening with quite a bit of local news and sports. There was an automation system for both stations and we rotated the same 50+ reels of tape until the stations were sold in 1979 to CDI Communications. The new owners updated the music to what we would now call an AC format. I left shortly thereafter to work in Chicago.

One of the posters mentioned WEFA in Waukegan. I worked there as well and it was in the basement of 4 S. Genesee St. Ah, what memories.
 
bikeguy said:
Back in the mid 70's, WPJX (1500 AM) was WZBN. The sister station was WKZN (96.9). WZBN was changed to WKZN AM. I worked at both stations. Studios were on Sheridan Rd. in Zion above Bickett Pharmacy. The AM towers were in Zion and the FM tower was in Kenosha.
Click to expand...

...by the time I started working for the station as WRJR, it had been bought from the trimulcast of WNIB and moved to a building across the street and half a block south of the pharmacy. The old WZBN sign above the pharmacy and WNIZ offices was still there after I left the pitiful carnival it had become. Last time I was there, back in 2003, there was an Allstate agency in the same location...
 
GrampaSquirrel said:
WPXJ AM-1500 would be great for a stock market radio outlet,
if they happen to change their format or programming again!
Maybe someone on this board from WPXJ AM-1500 would concider
my idea, since there are lots of investors like myself would be interested
in having such a station that provides a full-time stock market report
just during the day-time hours from opening to closing market hours
Monday through Friday.....
Click to expand...

Wasn't WNVR at 1030 in Vernon Hills a Bloomberg Business Radio outlet for few years?
I recall a lot of stock market info there at one time.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom