WCPT-FM - History

History

The 92.7 FM frequency has a long history of various formats. After signing on the air in the late 1950s as WNWC ("North West Communities"), by 1968 it became the pioneer rock-music outlet in the Chicago area, including top 40 hits, as WEXI ("Stereo Excitement"). But as the format spread to other area stations, WEXI adopted an easy-listening and talk format by 1970 ("Spreading Clean Air over Chicagoland") that same year. WEXI station personalities included Ray Smithers, Lou Rugani, Stan Adams, Pat Cassidy, Jon Morgan, Bud Jeffries, and Jonathan Kingsley (the latter hosting "Love in the Afternoon", a first-name-only call-in show about romantic fantasies and experiences). By the early 1970s the call letters became WWMM and later WTCO, with a country-and western format.

In 1983, the station made national headlines when the call letters were changed to the provocative WSEX with an adult contemporary format called "Love Songs & More". Later that decade, the station, still WSEX, carried a "Top 10" format only playing songs from the '80s that had made Top 10 according to Billboard Magazine. One DJ was "Doctor-X". He had started his career in the early 1980s on WMTH 88.5 with "The Doctor-X All Request Radio Show", continuing when the station changed frequency to 90.5 FM, then Doctor-X started the low power station WDRX 91.9 FM and eventually went on to commercial radio under another name on WSEX 92.7 FM where he continued when the station became WCBR-FM.

The station became "Chicago's Bear", with the WCBR-FM call letters in 1989. As the 1990s progressed, the station's programming consisted of a mixture of brokered and AAA programming. One of the most known brokered programs was "Cyber Radio" which featured dance music on the weekends.