890 WLS
Bill Bailey, 89 WLS Chicago – 1973
Recording Date: 1973 (corrected) Station: 890 WLS Chicago (Wikipedia) (Tribute Site) (Current Website) Currently Broadcasts in C-Quam AM-Stereo. Formerly tried broadcasting in IBOC HD from 2008-2013 but abanodoned it due to interference problems. You can listen live to their current News/Talk format HERE. Format: Top 40 Branded: “The Rock of Chicago” Ownership: (then) The American Broadcasting Company (now) Cumulus Media Featured Air Personality: Bill Bailey (WWDJ/WLS/WLHT/WHYI/WDRQ) Contributor: Sandy Bailey (Widow) Associated Air Talent: Larry Lujack, Joel Sebastian, Ron Riley, John Records Landecker, Jeff Davis, Fred Winston, others Total Time: 2:05 Aircheck #1,589 A lot of perspiration went down on the court… Curator’s Notes: One of the shortest airchecks on our...
WLS 25th Anniversary Broadcast | April 08, 1985
Recording Date: 04.08.1985 Station: 890 WLS Chicago (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Top 40 Ownership: (Then) The American Broadcasting Company/Cap Cities / (Now) Cumulus Broadcasting Branded: “The Rock of Chicago” Featured Air Personality: Various Contributor: Michael J. DeLaRosa Original Post Date: 12.29.2009 Original Notes: Available in parts elsewhere, the complete, unedited broadcast as heard on WLS 890 Chicago as recorded by new contributor Michael J. DeLaRosa. He writes: Hope you are able to use this. I cannot believe we are coming up on the 25th of the 25th. I recorded this as it aired at 6:00pm April 8, 1985. I have heard similar pieces voiced by Jeff Davis and played at various WLS parties…but this is the original voiced by Tommy Edwards. Running over an hour in le...
Bill Bailey, 970 WWDJ Hackensack NJ | 1971
Date of Recording: 1971 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 970 WWDJ Hackensack NJ Format: (This aircheck) Top 40; (Now) Conservative Talk Radio (WNYM) (Wikipedia) (Website) Featured Air Personality: Bill Bailey (WWDJ/WLHT/WDRQ/WLS/others) Contributor: Sandy Bailey Associated Air Talent: Larry Lujack, Joel Sebastian, Ron Riley, John Records Landecker, Jeff Davis, Fred Winston, others Total Time: 5:08 Dean used to be a dentist before he got into radio… Curator’s Notes: From the master reel (shown above right), Bill Bailey rocks the tri-state on 97/WWDJ, the station which inspired the NINE! parody so many years later.
Bill Bailey, 890 WLS Chicago | 1972
Recording Date: 1972 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 890 WLS Chicago Format: Top 40 Branding: “The Big 89“, “The Rock of Chicago” Ownership: The American Broadcasting Company; (Today) Cumulus Featured Air Personality: Bill Bailey (WWDJ/WLHT/WDRQ/WLS/others) Contributor: Sandy Bailey Associated Air Talent: Larry Lujack, Joel Sebastian, Ron Riley, John Records Landecker, Jeff Davis, Fred Winston, others Total Time: 4:06 (Telescoped) You’re so vain, you went and named an album after yourself.. Curator’s Notes: What can a mere disc jockey such as myself write about perhaps the most awesome, legendary Top 40 radio station in all of the storied history of AM radio, and not be redundant? Probably nothing, which is why this will be short. Donated to this website b...
Joel Sebastian, Final Show, 890 WLS Chicago | February 26, 1972
Date of Recording: 02.26.1972 Station: 890 WLS Chicago, Illinois, USA Format: Top 40 Station Slogan: “The Rock of Chicago” Featured Air Personality: Joel Sebastian (WXYZ/WLS/WCFL) Contributor: Jim Hampton Total Time: 31:14 Airchexx Entry: 1,518 …You’re not gonna hustle chicks here! Curator’s Notes: Mastered from the original reel, Contributor Jim Hampton sent us a real gem here! Now, admittedly Joel Sebastian didn’t have the longest of stays at WLS. However his resume shows his longest gig in Chicago to be across the river at WCFL, “The Voice of Labor”, where he was both on air and Program Director. Sebastian was from Detroit, where he came from (and went back to) WXYX. Despite that, Joel Sebastian sounds fantastic here. Now, this was his fin...
Ron Riley, 89 WLS Chicago | October 11, 1968
Date of Recording: 10.11.1968 Station: 890 WLS Chicago, Illinois, USA Format: Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Ronald Riley (WLS/WBKB (TV), others) Contributor: Jim Hampton Airchexx Entry: 1,487 …10:31 LS most music time Ron Riley feelin outta sight baby! How ’bout YOU?! Comments: From the era before John Records Landecker & Fred Winston, the Big 89 had the edge in Chicago music radio. Here’s America’s number one Batman fan Ron Riley talking between every record and doing what so many jocks imitated over the years (to their detriment) – ‘puking’… But this is Sir Ronald Riley doing what he was best known for. There are two (incomplete) newscasts featuring WLS News Anchor Jerry Golden. Listen for a story by reporter John Schubeck (sp). New...
Jim Hampton’s Radio Recall Featuring Kris Eric Stevens
Date of Recording: Unknown Station(s): 104.3 WOMC Detroit, Michigan, USA; 890 WLS & 1000 WCFL Chicago, Illinois, USA Format: Oldies Featured Air Personalities: Jim Hampton (WXYZ/WOMC, others); Kris Eric Stevens (WLS/WCFL) Contributor: Jim Hampton Airchexx Entry: 1,486 Comments: Described as perhaps one of the youngest jocks ever on WLS, Kris Eric Stevens is featured in this interview on Jim Hampton’s Radio Recall show. In it, they talk about Stevens’ career at WLS and at WCFL, as he was one of a few jocks who worked both sides of the river in one of America’s closest Top 40 battles in the early 1970s. Radio Recall was a Podcast featured on the Motor City Radio Flashbacks website, which also airs on Classic Hits radio station 104.3 WOMC Detroit. The program has itR...
Scott Childers Presents: The ORIGINAL WLS Music Montage
Submitted for inclusion into the Airchexx Archives is an original piece from wlshistory.com website curator Scott Childers is this ORIGINAL recording. The backstory of how this happened to be on airchexx.com is that several years ago, Contributor Allen Beebe sent in a recording of this montage, which was mostly correct but missing some of the original audio you hear here. What’s really missing is the description of how this montage came into being. Scott Childers, the creator of the WLS Music Montage wrote and graciously donated a copy of the original work. It is an amazing piece of audio candy that anyone who remembers WLS Chicago will certainly love. Here’s the story of The ORIGINAL WLS Music Montage from Scott Childers: The WLS Music Montage was created in 2001 as part of a ...
QuickCheck: John “Records” Landecker, WLS Chicago | August, 1975
Date of Recording: 08.xx.1975 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 890 WLS Chicago Illinois, USA Featured Air Personality: John Records Landecker (WILS, WIBG, WLS, CFTR, WLUP, WAGO, WPHR, WJMK, WZZN, WLS-FM) Airchexx Entry: 644 (Repost at 1,453) “If anyone asks you what station YOU listen to, tell them W L S!” Comments: Another too short listen to Landecker, finds him reading off the names of people who will be going to eat dinner with the Osmonds and then see them in concert. Hard to believe Donny & Marie were ever a big deal (if today’s oldies stations are any guage), but JRL sure talks it up. Listen for a great promo for the WLS Monster Bonanza as Tommy Edwards produces this piece that shows WLS giving away a Mazda! We have a similar aircheck here most likely from the sa...
The WLS Big 89 Montage – 1960-1979
As December 2015 drew to a close, ideas were flying around as to what ‘new’ programming I could come up with for my own internet radio show. The first, most logical choice, was a take on the memory of what WLS Chicago did every year after they played the Number One song of whatever particular year they were doing their Big 89 Countdown. The WLS Music Montage (it never really had a name) played immediately before Midnight of the new year. It was always timed out perfectly, so that Auld Lang Syne would air after the montage was over. And each year, WLS production would add a new assortment of song clips (I believe they were each Number One songs) for the current year. So, I amused myself and listened to the original montage in its final version for 1988, and decided I wanted to d...
Larry Lujack with Charlie Van Dyke, 89 WLS Chicago | May 4, 1985
Courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks, we head back to 1985. WLS was celebrating its 25th anniversary as “The Rock of Chicago”. Part of that celebration involved plenty of reunions. …I’ve been known as the comma between Lujack appearances. This particular morning, Larry Lujack is joined by former morning man Charlie Van Dyke, who was there in between gigs at 93 KHJ in Los Angeles. Perhaps in a different world, these two men would have been competitors in the same market. In fact, indirectly, they were for a time. Van Dyke did mornings on WLS when Lujack left to do afternoons on WCFL. This particular day, they reunite on air with a sometimes irreverent, funny and compelling show! Were it not for Chicago’s infamously cold Winters, could these two have made a powerful ...
Composite: 89 WLS Chicago | March, 1973
What did a complete broadcast day sound like in March, 1973? WLS is sporting the “Rock of Chicago” jingles – Gwinsounds cuts, if I recall. Not much in the way of commercials, but this was tightly scoped and all about the air talent. In order: Charlie Van Dyke in the morning Fred Winston J.J. Jeffrey John Records Landecker Bill Bailey This is most definitely when the jocks mattered! Music is solidly 1973 fare. Listen for a promo for “Americana Panorama”, another staple of John Records Landecker, although it was a bit too early for “Boogie Check.” Here’s an enjoyable if not unique listen to WLS in its prime! Airchecks #1,291 since May 2, 2002!
