I doubt that there is a rock and roll loving Boomer within 1000 miles of Chicago who doesn't have fond memories of a bedroom AM radio with the dial set to 890. The first pushbutton on the car radio was likely also set to this position.
If you wanted to hear rock and roll on the radio, your options were limited circa 1972. In my location, FM was hard to come by. Besides, it was Country Music Central. The two stations that DID play rock and roll left something to be desired. One was strictly Top 40, with the harder stuff filtered out, so it was more like Top 27. And those songs were endlessly repeated until you hated them. I still can't listen to "Let Em In."
The other station required you to be within about 500 yards of the tower to pick it up in stereo (only slightly exaggerated).
Thank heavens for sundown. That meant that WLS was cranking up their power, and we finally had state-of-the-art R&R.
WLS was simply magic. You could tell if a song was good or not by seeing if they played it. And the music they played ran the full gamut, from the sweet soul of Smokey Robinson to the raunch of Black Oak Arkansas, with everything that is Rock in between. And NO disco (that I recall, anyway)!
We knew the jock's names, too. Dick Biondi, Larry Lujack, John Records Landecker (that was his real middle name, BTW), Fred Winston, and Art Roberts seemed like old friends. It didn't matter which one was on, they were ALL great.
The little town I lived in at the time was Pea Ridge, Arkansas. One unforgettable night a schoolmate called in a request, and the DJ had a lot of fun making fun of the town's name. We absolutely loved it! After all, we made fun of it too.
I listened to WLS up until I got a tape player for my car. I preferred listening to my own stuff after that. I was a fool.
WLS didn't last forever, as I assumed it would. On August 23, 1989, the last song was played. It was "Just You and Me" by Chicago. After that, Sally Jesse Raphael's talk show followed it, and WLS became a talk radio station.
However, salvation has come to Boomers who miss the greatest rock and roll station that ever existed. Go to http://www.reelradio.com/ and sign up for a year. It only costs twelve bucks for a year's access, and it will be the best twelve bucks you ever spent. They have hours and hours of classic WLS shows, along with practically every other radio station in North America. You'll think it's 1972 again.
Also, check out http://www.wlshistory.com/ for ALL of WLS's history, including the Hindenberg crash broadcast. And thanks to them for the graphic!
Comments (6)
Surprised to read that the only good rock and roll you could get was WLS.
I grew up in Northern Illinois and listened to WLS but what we lived for was KAAY out of Little Rock. BEAKER STREET.
This is the first station I recall playing whole albums.
One of the on air personalities you forgot to mention was"snot nosed tommy" he did the drive time show with lujack. Still have a vinyl album of "animal stories"
Goggled Lujack sevral weeks ago and he is back on the air in Arizona or Nevada.
Posted by al | February 6, 2007 2:46 PM
Posted on February 6, 2007 14:46
You guys didn't get *real* music until the mid 70s, if ever.
In the Philly area, it was WMMR and WYSP for "The Marconi Experiment" and "underground" rock/heavy metal which brought us most of the groups now considered "classic rock". Those groups didn't get air time on the top-40 stations until MMR and YSP "broke" them. (and when they "broke", MMR and YSP stopped playing them and found the next great groups.)
The Philly sound migrated to NYC in the early 70s via WQIV, "The Quad-father", which blew away WABC in a very few months.
That was an amazing experience, hearing what was going to sweep the nation before anyone else.
--
Jere
Posted by Jere Lull | February 18, 2007 3:10 AM
Posted on February 18, 2007 03:10
I believe payola must have reached its height in the 70's, hor how else to explain all the retched songs in the top 40? I mean, I sure hope DJ's were scoring some green for cueing up
such excrement. Some artists were some bad that their entire career output could be tied to payola. Again, How else to explain Helen Reddy, the Osmonds, Air Supply,
Christopher Cross, Bay City Rollers, and the like?
Posted by scott | July 20, 2007 5:40 AM
Posted on July 20, 2007 05:40
We listened to WLS after sundown only because most cars had only AM radio and no tape player. It was all we could get after sundown. But I still can hear that jingle "WLS - Chicago". I remember it being predominately Top 40 type stuff, but then Top 40 in the late 60's was mostly real good stuff. However, as soon as we got FM in the car it was Rock 100 out of Memphis. REAL rock and NO "Donny and Marie" filler crap!
Posted by Howie | May 16, 2008 7:47 PM
Posted on May 16, 2008 19:47
I really didn't listen to much radio as a kid. Living in the DC Market, we had radio stations that filled the mark for Rock and Roll. It wouldn't be well until my early adulthood that I would learn and savor the broadcast radio of faraway places after sunset. WLS was one of those stations. Not hard to pickup here in DC, WLS was one of the loudest stations on the dial. I even have a QSL letter. From a station engineer in my QSL collection. I would imagine broadcast band qsling is not popular anymore. But it was neat to put on my shortwave radio and tune into WLS! After WLS, I would listen to WBZ Boston and WCCO Detriot! Of course at sunset, it wasn't uncommon for the NY, Philly stations to blast in over our main stations, but we were close to them! And of course, pirate radio was always intertaining! I remember Dick Biondi! He is features on the Original Crusin Albums way back in the day! Our local FM sounds was WPGC and WWDC! For Baltimore it was WBAL!
Posted by Rivers End | May 27, 2009 10:25 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 22:25
Growing up in northeast Missouri, nowhere close to anything, we picked up KXOK St. Louis on our transistors and in our cars in the daytime; after sundown we were thrilled to be able to tune in KAAY (Little Rock) and WLS.
Posted by Kansas Country Girl | June 18, 2009 12:46 PM
Posted on June 18, 2009 12:46