WVON 1450 Chicago – Bill “Butterball” Crane – August 1967
This aircheck featured Chicago’s longtime R&B station, 1450 WVON.
WVON was a “heritage” R&B station serving Chicago’s black community, launching in 1963. WVON featured great air personalities like Moses “Lucky” Cordell, Herb Kent “The Cool Gent”, E. Rodney Jones, Joe “Youngblood” Cobb, Pervis Spann, Don Cornelius (Who later went on to Host Soul Train), Ed “Nassau Daddy” Cook, Bill “Butterball” Crane, Sid McCoy & the jock on this aircheck, Bill “Butterball” Crane.
After a gig at WYNR, Crane became a Chicago celebrity at WVON. Butterball was one of the WVON Good Guys in the 60s & 70s. He would often create humorous moments as he talked back to the records and station IDs, and picked on the other jocks at WVON.
Bill later left radio, and went on to become an engineer at Chicago’s WGN-TV 9. -Ellis
