WGN

WGN
City of license	Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast area	Chicagoland / Northern Illinois
Branding	WGN Radio 720
Slogan	"The Voice of Chicago"
Frequency	720 kHz
First air date	May 19, 1922 (WDAP) March 29, 1924 (first Tribune/WGN) June 1, 1924 (WDAP becomes WGN)[1]
Format	News/Talk/Sports
Power	50,000 Watts
Class	A (clear channel)
Facility ID	72114
Transmitter coordinates	42°0′42.5″N 88°2′6.9″W / 42.011806°N 88.03525°W / 42.011806; -88.03525 (WGN)
Callsign meaning	World's Greatest Newspaper
Former callsigns	WDAP (1922–1924)[1]
Affiliations	ABC News
Owner	Tribune Company (WGN Continental Broadcasting Co.)
Sister stations	WGN-TV
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wgnradio.com

WGN (720 AM) is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The station has a news-talk format and is the flagship station of the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Blackhawks, Northwestern University football and men's basketball, and was the longtime flagship station of Paul Harvey until his death on February 28, 2009. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago and is one of only a handful of American talk radio stations to have all of its programming originating locally.^{[citation needed]}

Since around 1990, WGN has been mainly a news and talk radio station. WGN broadcasts news, weather, traffic and sports every hour. Pat Hughes and Ron Santo serve as the play-by-play team for all games of the Chicago Cubs, and the broadcasts are known as the Pat and Ron Show. WGN is also the radio home of Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball games.

WGN is a high-powered clear channel AM station (50,000 watts), which during nighttime hours is often audible over much of the USA, parts of Canada, and sometimes as far away as Australia and South America.^{[citation needed]} The station also has a 24/7 Internet stream on its website, which carries the station's broadcast programming except for commercial breaks and Cubs games, when public service announcements, station promotions, host-read commercials and alternate programming, is played instead.

WGN is responsible for activation of the Chicagoland Emergency Alert System when hazardous weather alerts, disaster area declarations, and child abductions are issued.

History

The predecessor to the current WGN was WDAP, which was started on May 19, 1922, by Thorne Donnelley and Elliott Jenkins. Starting in the Wrigley Building, they moved the station to the Drake Hotel in July.^[1]

On May 12, 1923, Zenith Radio Company began broadcasting with the callsign WJAZ from the Edgewater Beach Hotel. From March 29 to May 9, 1924, this was the first station operated by the Chicago Tribune, and the first to carry the call sign WGN, which the Tribune had obtained from a Great Lakes ship station^[1] to match its slogan, "World's Greatest Newspaper".^{[citation needed]} However, after this brief period, the Tribune switched its operations to WDAP, and the Zenith station became WEBH,^[1] eventually being deleted from the license rolls on November 30, 1928.^[2]

The Tribune took control of the Drake Hotel station in May, 1924; and on June 1, 1924, WDAP officially changed its callsign to WGN, which has remained since.^[1] To underscore the relationship in the Tribune radio listings, the station was listed as "W-G-N", while other stations were listed without hyphens.^{[citation needed]}

Early programming was noted for its creativity and innovation. It included live music, political debates, comedy routines, and some of radio's first broadcasts of sporting events, including the Indianapolis 500 automobile race, and a live broadcast of the 1925 Scopes Trial from Dayton, Tennessee. In 1926, WGN broadcast Sam & Henry, a daily serial with comic elements created and performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. After a dispute with the station in 1927, Gosden and Correll took the program's concept and announcer Bill Hay across town to WMAQ and created the first syndicated radio show in history, Amos 'n' Andy.

WGN was a founding member of the Mutual Broadcasting System.

In November 1958, WGN became the first radio station in Chicago to broadcast helicopter traffic reports featuring Police Officer Leonard Baldy.

Over many decades, WGN was a "full service" radio station. The station played small amounts of music during mornings and afternoons, moderate amounts of music on weekends during the day, had midday and evening talk shows, and sports among other features. The station's music was easy listening/MOR-based until the 1970s, when the music was more of an adult contemporary-type sound. The music played at the station was phased out during the 1980s, and by 1990, the station's lineup mainly consisted of talk shows.

Some former well-known personalities on the station include longtime morning hosts Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, and Spike O'Dell, Paul Harvey and Roy Leonard. Orion Samuelson has been the station's farm reporter since 1960.

Recent events

This section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (April 2009)

In 2005, Tom Langmyer joined WGN as Vice President and General Manager. Langmyer was previously Vice President and General Manager of KMOX Radio in St. Louis and Vice President-Programming of CBS Radio's 10 news/talk stations.^{[citation needed]}

In the same year, WGN hired a new program director, Len Weiner, who held the same title with WMVP-AM, the Chicago affiliate to the ESPN Radio network. Not long after his arrival to WGN, the station added a new slogan, "the voice of Chicago," which is still used today. Previously, WGN had branded themselves as "Chicago's News and Talk, Radio 720, WGN." Weiner's tenure with the station lasted about a year, before leaving to head the Boston ESPN Radio affiliate.

Not long after Weiener's departure, WGN added "news/talk" to their name, and began identifying themselves as "The Voice of Chicago, News/Talk 720, WGN." WGN now identified themselves as "The Voice of Chicago, News/Talk 720, WGN."

On April 30, 2008, the station announced a three-year deal making WGN radio "The Voice of the Chicago Blackhawks," bringing NHL hockey to the station through the 2010-2011 seasons.^[3]

In October 2008, after a ten year partnership with The Weather Channel to provide the station's weather forecasts, the station began to air forecasts prepared by Tom Skilling and other members of WGN-TV's weather staff.^[4]

WGN morning host, Spike O'Dell retired from radio, and WGN moved then midday host, John Williams to mornings. William's old spot, 1-4 p.m. was now vacant. WGN opted to leave that spot vacant for several months, while having other WGN hosts fill-in on a rotating basis, including weekend host Nick Digilio, and Bob Sirott, who hosts "The Noon Show" on the same station, in addition to a weekend program (he also was a prominent news anchor, formerly working for NBC 5 Chicago).

In March, long-time Chicago radio host, Garry Meier was given an audition for the 1-4 p.m. slot. Meier hosted four shows, which is believed to have caused a surge of excitement for the station among younger people, who traditionally never listened to that station. Chicago media message boards exploded with traffic and posts, many excited over a possible permanent Meier presence on the Chicago talk station. After the four Meier auditions, Jerry Springer was given four days to "guest host" as well as Rita Cosby a few weeks later.

On April 2, WGN announced that Garry Meier would now be the permanent host of the 1-4 p.m. slot, weekdays. Meier's first official show was Friday, April 2, 2009. Meier's show will air each weekday when not pre-empted by Chicago Cubs broadcasts.

On May 22, 2009, WGN announced that the Kathy and Judy Show was being canceled at the end of that day's show. The final show was largely a retrospective of the 20 years that the show was on WGN radio. This follows shortly after the replacement of much of the station's weekend lineup.

On June 15, 2009, the station announced that Greg Jarrett would be joining the station on June 22, 2009 as its new morning-drive host, with John Williams being shifted to Kathy and Judy's old time slot.^[5]

Current Lineup

Monday - Thursday
5-9am Greg Jarrett
9am-12pm John Williams
12-1pm The Noon Show - Bob Sirott
1-4pm Garry Meier
4-7pm Steve Cochran
7-9pm Sports Central - David Kaplan
9-11pm Extension 720 - Milt Rosenberg
11pm-5am Steve & Johnnie: Life After Dark

Friday
5-9am Greg Jarrett
9am-12pm John Williams
12-1pm The Noon Show - Bob Sirott
1-4pm Garry Meier
4-7pm Steve Cochran
7-9pm Sports Central - David Kaplan
9-11pm Extension 720 - Milt Rosenberg
11pm-2aa Nick Digilio
2-5aa WGN Overnight - Brian Noonan

Saturday
5-6am Morning Show - Orion Samuelson & Max Armstrong
6-9am Mr. Fix-It - Lou Manfredini
9am-1pm Jerry Agar
1-5pm News Junkie - Shawn Wasson
5-9pm Jerry Agar
9pm-1am Nick Digilio
1-5am WGN Overnight - Brian Noonan

Sunday
5-5:30am The Great Outdoors - Charlie Potter
5:30-6am Loves Changes Life
6-6:30am The Lutheran Hour
6:30-9am The Sunday Papers - Rick Kogan
9am-12pm Dean Richards' Sunday Morning
12-4pm Jerry Agar
4-6pm News Junkie - Shawn Wasson
6-9pm Simon Rendezvous - Simon Badinter
9-10pm Legally Speaking - Greg Adamski, Karen Conti
10-11pm The Sunday Night Radio Special - Bob Sirott, Marianne Murciano
11pm-2am Nick Digilio
2-5am Steve & Johnnie: Life After Dark

Note: Live sports (Cubs baseball, Blackhawks hockey, Northwestern football/basketball) may be preempt scheduled programming.

References

External links

• WGN Radio — official website
  • WGN Radio schedule
  • wgngold.com: The History of Chicago's WGN Radio 720 — history and archive site owned by the radio station
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WGN
• Radio Locator Information on WGN
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WGN

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