WGN (AM)

(Redirected from WGN-AM)

'WGN-AM' is a radio station on 720 kHz in Chicago. 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 offers a news and talk format and is the radio play-by-play home of the Chicago Cubs baseball games. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago.

Contents

History

Notable events

Current schedule

External links

Notes

History

WGN went on the air on June 1, 1924 from studios in the Drake Hotel as the new name for WDAP, a station which had been broadcasting since May of 1922. Its call letters stood for "World's Greatest Newspaper", a reference to the station's owner, the ''Chicago Tribune.'' [1] To underscore that, in the Tribune's radio listings, their station was listed as "W-G-N", whereas the other stations were listed without hyphens.
WGN, 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. The station also has a 24/7 Internet stream on its website, which carries the station except for during commercial breaks and Cubs games, when alternate programming and intermission music is played instead.
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 Monkey Trial from Dayton, TN. 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.
WGN is now 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, another Tribune asset. WGN is also the radio home of Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball games.
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 host Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, who was killed in a private plane crash in 2000, and Roy Leonard.

Notable events

★ In October 1985, an electronic bandit overpowered the signal of the popular Wally Phillips show on WGN-AM radio and made sexually explicit comments.

★ 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.

Current schedule

As of August 9th, 2007 (All times Central Standard (GMT -06:00) early November-mid March, Central Daylight (GMT -05:00) mid March-early November)WGN Radio - Show Schedule:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Spike O'Dell Radio Show	Morning Show - Orion & Max	Great Outdoors - Charlie Potter (5-5:30)
		Love Changes Life (5:30-6)
6-7	Mr. Fix-It - Lou Manfredini	Lutheran Hour (6-6:30)
		Sunday Papers w/ Rick Rogan (6:30-9)
7-8
8-9
9-10	The Kathy and Judy Show					John Williams	Dean Richards
10-11
11-12							Food Time
'PM' 12-1	Paul Harvey / The Noon Show with Bob Sirott					Noon Show	Let's Talk Gardening - Mike Nowak
1-2	The World of John Williams					The Money $how - Bill Moller
2-3							WGN Weekend
3-4
4-5	The Steve Cochran Show					Sports Central - Glen Kozlowski & Jim Memolo
5-6
6-7						Technology Tailor - Alex Goldfayn	The Sunday Night Radio Special
7-8	Sports Central - David Kaplan						Legally Speaking - Adamski & Conti
8-9						The Nick Digilio Show	Pet Central - Steve Dale
9-10	Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg
10-11							The Nick Digilio Show
11-12	The Steve & Johnnie Show - "Life After Dark"				Nick Digilio
'AM' 12-1						Twilight Zone
1-2						WGN Overnight - Brian Noonan
2-3					720 Rewind		The Steve & Johnnie Show
3-4
4-5

Programming notes:

★ Broadcasts of Chicago Cubs, Northwestern Wildcats basketball, and Northwestern Wildcats football games preempt the regularly scheduled programming. Sports games broadcats typically include pre-game and post-game segments prior to and after the games.

External links

★ WGN Radio

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★ Schedule

★ WGN gold - The history of WGN Radio

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Notes