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WVON
File:WVON1690.jpg
Broadcast areaChicago metropolitan area
Frequency1690 AM (kHz)
(HD Radio)
BrandingAM 1690 WVON
Programming
FormatUrban Talk
Ownership
OwnerClear Channel Communications
WGCI-FM, WGRB, WKSC-FM, WLIT, WNUA, WVAZ
History
First air date
2003
Call sign meaning
"The Voice Of the Negro", "The Voice Of the Nation." (WVON)
Technical information
ClassB
ERP10,000 watts (day)
1,000 watts (night)
Links
Websitewww.wvon.com

WVON (1690 AM) is a radio station licensed to Berwyn, Illinois, serving the greater Chicago area, airing an African-American-oriented talk format. WVON is managed by Midway Broadcasting Corporation, via a local marketing agreement with frequency owner Clear Channel Communications. Civil rights leaders the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Jackson's daughter, Santita, host talk shows on the station.

History

WVON began as WHFC in 1926, broadcasting from the Hotel Flanders in Chicago. Like many small stations of the time, WHFC was squeezed into a shared-time frequency, with as many as five stations taking turns on 1310.

In 1930, they were given permission to move to 1420 with two other stations. WHFC bought out the other two in 1936 and changed its city of license to Cicero, Illinois. WHFC was shifted to 1450 in 1941.

In 1963, WHFC became WVON when it was purchased by Leonard and Phil Chess, the owners of Chess Records, a successful record label specializing in blues music. WVON debuted on April 1, 1963 and quickly became a success playing R&B music, ranking consistently among the top five most listened to stations in the market. Despite having only 250 watts of power, WVON's non-directional signal was engineered well enough to blanket the south and west sides of Chicago.

WVON was a "heritage" station to Chicago's black community featuring great Black air personalities like "Lucky" Cordell, Bruce Brown, Herb Kent "the cool gent",[1][2][3][4], E. Rodney Jones, Cecil Hale, Bill "Butterball" Crane, Pervis Spann, Yvonne Daniels, Don Cornelius, Sid McCoy (who would accompany Cornelius when he formed ''Soul Train''), newsman Roy Wood and a very young reporter/engineer Larry Langford and many others. WVON became well-known outside the Chicago area as well. Berry Gordy, the president of Motown Records, sent every song he produced immediately to WVON before any other station. Other similar stations across the country took inspiration from WVON's format. The station also had an active role during the Civil Rights Movement, covering it extensively.

After Leonard Chess died in 1969, the Chess family decided to sell WVON to Globetrotter Communications, owned by George Gillette and Potter Palmer. In 1975, Globetrotter bought WNUS-AM-FM from the McLendon interests; they moved WVON from 1450 to the 5000-watt former WNUS signal on 1390 on February 5 of that year at 3:30 p.m.[5], which increased WVON's coverage area significantly. The 1450 frequency was left silent for a time; eventually, FM classical music station WFMT was allowed to simulcast on 1450 as an interim operator while the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) evaluated applications for a new license for the frequency.

The FCC process resulted in a shared-time situation on the 1450 frequency, as applicants Midway Broadcasting Corporation and Migala Communications reached an agreement to split the broadcast day. Two former WVON personalities, Pervis Spann and Wesley South, were the principals of Midway Broadcasting. They accepted the random issue call sign WXOL. Migala chose WCEV (We are Chicago's Ethnic Voice) as their call sign. Under the agreement WCEV would operate from 1PM to 10PM Monday through Friday, with WXOL taking the rest of the hours. Both stations were on the air by 1980; they shared a transmitting tower but used different transmitters and processing chains. the 317 foot tower was located at the old WVON site at 3350 South Kedzie Avenue. WXOL broadcast from studios at that location, while WCEV built its own facilities on the northwest side of Chicago and used phone lines and later 950 MHz S.T.L. to feed the transmitter elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in 1977 Globetrotter sold WVON to Gannett along with WGCI-FM, the former WNUS-FM that Globetrotter had picked up when it acquired the 1390 frequency. WGCI was also programmed to appeal to black audiences, and it and other FM stations won away many of WVON's listeners. WGCI became so successful that Gannett changed the call letters of 1390 from WVON to WGCI(AM) in 1984. Midway Broadcasting immediately filed a request with the FCC to change WXOL's call sign to WVON, thus returning the WVON call letters to their former home at 1450.

In 1986, WVON adopted its current Black-oriented talk radio format.

On September 18, 2006, WVON's call letters and programming moved to 1690 AM, with Midway Broadcasting taking over management of a station on that frequency licensed to Berwyn, Illinois and owned by Clear Channel Communications. The move displaced the oldies format of Clear Channel-operated WRLL on 1690. The WRLL call letters were assigned to Midway's half of the time-share on 1450.

See also

References

  1. ^ Columbia College-Inside the Radio Studio with Dick Biondi & Herb Kent-100 Years On the Air-April 10, 2010
  2. ^ Forgotten Hits.com April 2, 2010-transcript of Robert Feder's Chicago Sun-Times column about the event
  3. ^ Herb Kent-Radio Hall of Fame
  4. ^ Kent, Herb; Smallwood, David, eds. (2009), The Cool Gent: The Nine Lives of Radio Legend Herb Kent, Lawrence Hill Books, p. 272, ISBN 1556527748, retrieved 2010-04-27
  5. ^ Deeb, Gary (February 6, 1975). Chicago Tribune. pp. B10. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)


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