WGN (AM) - History

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.

On May 12, 1923, Zenith Radio Company began broadcasting with the callsign WJAZ from the Edgewater Beach Hotel. However, after this brief period, the Tribune switched its operations to WDAP, and the Zenith station became WEBH, eventually being deleted from the license rolls on November 30, 1928. 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. Flying Officer Baldy was killed in a helicopter crash May 2, 1960 while on duty. Eleven years later, WGN suffered another helicopter-related tragedy. On October 10, 1971, Flying Officer Irv Hayden and his pilot were killed when their helicopter struck a utility pole in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood.

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, Spike O'Dell, Paul Harvey and Roy Leonard. Orion Samuelson has been the station's farm reporter since 1960. Late-night hosts over the years have included Franklyn MacCormack, Chicago Ed Schwartz, Don Vogel and the husband-and-wife team of Steve King and Johnnie Putman.

The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign holds the WGN Radio Station Studio Orchestra Music Library and Records, 1925-1956, which consists of scripts, programs, production notes, correspondence, music library rental records, sheet music manuscripts, and music scores with annotations that document the WGN Studio Symphonic Orchestra from the 1925 to 1956.