WGN (AM) Totally Explained

Everything about Wgn Am totally explained

WGN-AM is a radio station on 720 kHz in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The station offers a news and talk format and is the flagship station of the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Blackhawks, Northwestern University football & men's basketball and Paul Harvey. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago and is one of only a handful of American talk radio stations to have all of its programming originating locally.

History

WGN went on the air on March 29, 1924 from studios in the Edgewater Beach Hotel. (External Link

)In May, 1924, the Tribune ended its ties with the Edgewater Beach Hotel station (which changed its call letters to WEBH) and began an association with WDAP. (External Link

) WGN went on the air again on June 1, 1924 from studios in the Drake Hotel as the new name for WDAP, a station which had been broadcasting since May of 1922. Its call letters stood for "World's Greatest Newspaper", a reference to the station's owner, the Chicago Tribune. (External Link

) To underscore that, in the Tribune's radio listings, their station was listed as "W-G-N", whereas the other stations were listed without hyphens.
   WGN is a high-powered clear channel AM station (50,000 watts), which during nighttime hours is often audible over much of the USA, parts of Canada, and sometimes as far away as Australia and South America. The station also has a 24/7 Internet stream on its website, which carries the station's broadcast programming except for commercial breaks and Cubs games, when alternate programming and intermission music is played instead.
   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 Monkey 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. WGN is now mainly a news and talk radio station. WGN broadcasts news, weather, traffic and sports every hour. Pat Hughes and Ron Santo serve as the play-by-play team for all games of the Chicago Cubs, another Tribune asset. WGN is also the radio home of Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball games. On April 30, 2008, the Chicago Blackhawks and WGN announced a partnership to broadcast games for the next three seasons.
   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 host Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, and Roy Leonard.

Notable events

In October 1985, an electronic bandit overpowered the signal of the popular Wally Phillips show on WGN-AM radio and made sexually explicit comments.

In 2005, Tom Langmyer joined WGN as Vice President and General Manager. Langmyer was previously Vice President and General Manager of KMOX Radio in St. Louis and Vice President-Programming of CBS Radio's 10 News/Talk Stations.

On April 30, 2008, the station announced a three-year deal making WGN radio "The Voice of the Chicago Blackhawks," bringing NHL hockey to the station through the 2010-2011 seasons.

Current schedule

As of August 9th, 2007 (All times Central Standard (GMT–06:00) early November–mid March, Central Daylight (GMT–05:00) mid March–early November):

	Monday	Tuesday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Spike O'Dell Radio Show	Morning Show - Orion & Max	Great Outdoors - Charlie Potter (5-5:30)
Spike O'Dell Radio Show	Morning Show - Orion & Max	Love Changes Life (5:30-6)
6-7	Mr. Fix-It - Lou Manfredini	Lutheran Hour (6-6:30)
6-7		Sunday Papers w/ Rick Kogan (6:30-9)
7-8
8-9
9-10	The Kathy and Judy Show			John Williams	Dean Richards
10-11					Dean Richards
11-12					Food Time
PM 12-1	Paul Harvey / The Noon Show with Bob Sirott			Noon Show	Let's Talk Gardening - Mike Nowak
1-2	The World of John Williams			The Money $how - Bill Moller	Let's Talk Gardening - Mike Nowak
2-3					WGN Weekend
3-4					WGN Weekend
4-5	The Steve Cochran Show			Sports Central - Glen Kozlowski & Jim Memolo
5-6				Sports Central - Glen Kozlowski & Jim Memolo
6-7				Technology Tailor - Alex Goldfayn	The Sunday Night Radio Special
7-8	Sports Central - David Kaplan			Technology Tailor - Alex Goldfayn	Legally Speaking - Adamski & Conti
8-9	Sports Central - David Kaplan			The Nick Digilio Show	Pet Central - Steve Dale
9-10	Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg				Pet Central - Steve Dale
10-11	Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg				The Nick Digilio Show
11-12	The Steve & Johnnie Show - "Life After Dark"		Nick Digilio
AM 12-1				Twilight Zone
1-2				WGN Overnight - Brian Noonan
2-3			720 Rewind		The Steve & Johnnie Show
3-4
4-5

Programming notes:

Broadcasts of Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, Northwestern Wildcats basketball, and Northwestern Wildcats football games preempt the regularly scheduled programming. Sports games broadcasts typically include pre-game and post-game segments prior to and after the games, and Chicago Cubs and other some other sports are not streamed via the web; alternate programming or a looping disclaimer is aired instead.Further Information

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