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WVON FIRST TOP 40 R&B 1450.

B

BOBBY.B

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WE TALK ABOUT THE STATION'S WE WOULD BRING BACK! NOT ONE SAID ANY THING ABOUT wvon .THE FIRST R&B TOP 40 STATION IN CHICAGO=AT 1450 ON THE DIAL==THE GOOD GUY'S AS THEY WHERE CALLED.== THE REAL MOTOWN SOUND.THAN WYNR WENT AFTER WVON AFTER THEY COULDN'T BREAK THRU WLSam. we did have great station's in that ERA OF RADIO IN CHICAGO. HEY HAVE A GREAT DAY===BOBBY. ???
 
Up until WVON moved to 1690, one of the good guy's, "The Blues Man" Pervis Spann, who was the owner of WVON,(He
may still co-own the station's with his daughter, I'm not quite sure), did overnights. He did an excellent blues/dusty
music show. He took requests from Midnight-4AM. He would put listeners on the air all the time. He ran the show exactly
how he wanted, because he owned the place.

I actually had the honor of sitting in with him one night while he did his show. He was juggling record's, CD's, carts
and phones like no one I had ever seen. He was also loving every minute of it, as was I, it was truly a great experience.
I wish his show was still on, it was truly a a REAL Chicago radio show!

Another great show on WVON, which moved there after 1390 switched to gospel, was "The Best Music Of Your Life"
with the late great Richard Pegue, another Chicago legend!
 
TR1992 said:
I actually had the honor of sitting in with him one night while he did his show. He was juggling record's, CD's, carts
and phones like no one I had ever seen. He was also loving every minute of it, as was I, it was truly a great experience.
I wish his show was still on, it was truly a a REAL Chicago radio show!
Click to expand...

I worked at the same place as Pervis very briefly in the '70s. The guy was phenomenal. Not only did he do everything you described (except the CD's, which hadn't been invented yet), but he also was on the phone selling time while songs were playing (during the all night show, no less)....as well as shuffling little wadded up pieces of paper stuffed in his pockets which contained copy (or notes) for live spots he was reading on the air!
 
Didn't Yvonne Daniels..SP? work for a while at WGRT?

They were actually a history making station in the early 90's as WJPC "Rap Radio 950 AM". They were the only
24/7 all rap station in the country. They actually did rather decent in the rating's, which was hard to do with an
AM station geared to 18-34 year old males. If not for consolidation and the fact that they either lowered their
nightime power, or tightened up their directional pattern drastically, they might still be around. I called and
spoke to the late Charles Mootry, the GM at the time, and he stated that they did nothing to change it. This was
not true, when they were simulcasting the FM, and during the first few months of the rap station, the 5,500 watt
nightime signal was was just as clear in my area as the 1,000 watt daytime pattern. Then suddenly one night when
I turned them on, the signal was weaker than before and I had to change the direction of my radio to listen, when
they switched to the nightime pattern. They also faded in and out in the car which never happened prior to that. Does
any one really know what happened back then?
 
TR1992 said:
Didn't Yvonne Daniels..SP? work for a while at WGRT?

They were actually a history making station in the early 90's as WJPC "Rap Radio 950 AM". They were the only
24/7 all rap station in the country. They actually did rather decent in the rating's, which was hard to do with an
AM station geared to 18-34 year old males. If not for consolidation and the fact that they either lowered their
nightime power, or tightened up their directional pattern drastically, they might still be around. I called and
spoke to the late Charles Mootry, the GM at the time, and he stated that they did nothing to change it. This was
not true, when they were simulcasting the FM, and during the first few months of the rap station, the 5,500 watt
nightime signal was was just as clear in my area as the 1,000 watt daytime pattern. Then suddenly one night when
I turned them on, the signal was weaker than before and I had to change the direction of my radio to listen, when
they switched to the nightime pattern. They also faded in and out in the car which never happened prior to that. Does
any one really know what happened back then?
Click to expand...

I don't remember Yvonne Daniels there, but I do remember Tom Joyner on WJPC in the 70s.
 
TR1992 said:
...If not for consolidation and the fact that they either lowered their
nightime power, or tightened up their directional pattern drastically, they might still be around. I called and
spoke to the late Charles Mootry, the GM at the time, and he stated that they did nothing to change it. This was
not true, when they were simulcasting the FM, and during the first few months of the rap station, the 5,500 watt
nightime signal was was just as clear in my area as the 1,000 watt daytime pattern. Then suddenly one night when
I turned them on, the signal was weaker than before and I had to change the direction of my radio to listen, when
they switched to the nightime pattern. They also faded in and out in the car which never happened prior to that. Does
any one really know what happened back then?
Click to expand...

I have been trying to figure out myself about the 950 signal - it used to come in more clearly in the Barrington / Crystal Lake area. I do know that WWJ Detroit did raise their power to 50,000 watts in 2000, so 950 in Chicago may have been asked to modify their
directional night pattern to minimize interference to WWJ. I agree if there were no changes since the 950 nighttime facility was built, then our signal reception should not have changed. Another possibility is that the ground radial system may be deteriorating, but after only about 10-15 years?
 
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