WGN (AM)

From Free net encyclopedia

WGN is a radio station on 720 kHz in Chicago. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns 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. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago.

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 the normal way 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. 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. 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 is now mainly a news and talk radio station. WGN broadcasts news, weather, traffic and sports every hour. Ron Santo and Pat Hughes serve as the play-by-play analyst team for all games of the Chicago Cubs, (another Tribune asset).

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 (the station is the longtime home of Chicago Cubs baseball games), 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 on during the 1980s, and by 1990, the station's lineup consisted of mainly talk shows.

Some former and current well-known personalities on the station include longtime morning host Wally Phillips; Bob Collins, who was killed in a private plane crash in 2000; farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson and Roy Leonard.

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 WGN radio shows include hosts Spike O'Dell, Kathy and Judy, Steve Cochran (radio host), John Williams, David Kaplan and Tom Waddle, Milt Rosenberg, Nick Digilio, and Steve and Johnnie.

In June 2005 WGN Radio changed its slogan from "Chicago's News and Talk (and Cubs!)" to "The Voice of Chicago."

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