WLS History

If you were a kid anywhere from Ontario to Texas, from Colorado to North Carolina in the 1970's, odds are you had a radio in your room or in your car that was set to tune in 890 on the AM dial. That was the home of WLS radio out of Chicago.

When I was freelancing, I wrote a piece on WLS that I sold several times. You can view it here. I have received a ton of feedback from various sources who shared my magical experience of hearing great rock and roll every night, when the station would crank up the output on their transmitter.

Today's FamilyFirst site celebrates the history of this great radio station, from its earliest Sears/Roebuck owned days (WLS – World's Largest Store – get it?) through its Prairie Farmer days (Red Foley, Gene Autrey, George Goebel and Pat Buttram appeared live, among others) to the day when these immortal words were uttered:

“It's crashing. It's crashing terrible. Oh, my...get out of the way, please. It's bursting into flames. And it's falling on the mooring mast. All the folks agree this is terrible, one of the worst catastrophes on the world. Oh, the flames, four or five hundred feet in the sky, it's a terrific crash ladies and gentlemen. The smoke and the flames now and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers.”

Yep, that's right. Those immortal words, later applied to dropping turkeys on WKRP in Cincinnati, were originally broadcast on WLS.

But the greatest legacy of the station, IMHO, was its broadcasting of incredible rock and roll during the 1960's and 1970's.

Read about familiar names like Dick Biondi, Larry Lujack, and the immortal John Records Landecker. Boogie check, anyone?

This was a magical time, friends, long before MTV, RIAA lawsuits, and speculation of Beatles reunions being made moot by the deaths of former members.

“89, W L S !” Enjoy today's site, and let the comments roll.

http://www.wlshistory.com

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