WGRB
Encyclopedia
WGRB, 1390 AM
, is a radio station
in Chicago
owned by Clear Channel Communications
. It airs a gospel music
format targeted to Chicago's African-American religious community. On Sundays it broadcasts the services of several African-American churches in the area.
The station began in 1923 as WTAY in Oak Park, Illinois
and was originally operating on 1360 KC, sharing the frequency with WSBT (owned by the South Bend Tribune
) and WJKS (which went on to become WIND (AM)
). It was owned by a community newspaper called Oak Leaves
. In 1925 Coyne Electrical School purchased the station and moved it to their campus on Chicago's north side. They changed its call letters
to WGES, standing for Coyne's slogan, "World's Greatest Electrical School."
In the late 1920s, the station moved to the Guyan Hotel on the West Side of Chicago. The station aired big band music from the nearby Guyan's Paradise Ballroom. Louis Guyan, owner of the hotel and ballroom, purchased the station from Coyne with an idea of serving those in the community by offering many foreign language programs. It broadcast several hours a day of programming in Italian
, French
, German
, Spanish
and Polish
.
Gene T. Dyer purchased the station in the early 1930s, eventually moving it from the Guyan Hotel to 2400 W. Madison Street, where co-owned WSBC (AM) and WCBD (AM) were located. In 1941, WGES moved to 1390 kHz and went from 500 watts power to 5,000 watts power, moving its transmitter location from the roof of the Guyan Hotel to an antenna farm at 86th and Kedzie in Chicago. In 1944 the FCC ruled that radio station owners could only own one AM and FM station per market. Gene Dyer sold WGES to his brother, Dr. John Dyer, and WSBC to Julius Miller, a broadcaster at the station. WGES moved from 2400 West Madison to a converted mansion at Washington Boulevard and Washtenaw Street. The station added African American programming to its daily schedule in the mid 1940s with a daily blues and jump music program conducted by Al Benson, a former minister whose church services were broadcast on WGES. By the 1950s, more hours of African-American programming were added, with the addition of disk jockeys Richard Stamz, Ric (Stan) Recardo, Sam Evans, Herb Kent, Franklin McCarthy and Sid McCoy.(McCoy would later go on to be the voice of Soul Train
.) WGES's foreign language programming was cut back to only four hours a day.
Had he kept the station, Dr. Dyer said WGES would have become Chicago's first all black radio station, but instead he sold it to Gordon McLendon
in 1962.
The callsign changed from WGES to WYNR on . McLendon fired all of its foreign language announcers and black disc jockeys, and hired black disc jockeys from radio stations in other cities for the top 40 format.
As WYNR, "Winner", 1390 was owned by Gordon McLendon
of Dallas, Texas
. The station was hosted primarily by black disc jockeys from 1962 thru 1964 when it became America's first 'all-news' radio station, W-NUS on September 3, 1964. Announcers included Big John Evans, Dick Kemp (The Wild Child), Luckey Cordell, Bruce Brown, Floyd Brown. and Yvonne Daniels
There were complaints to the United States Federal Communications Commission
that the station had eliminated foreign-language programming. The FCC held a hearing to investigate the complaints at which some politicians testified.
The station switched to rhythm and blues
in 1963, then abruptly changed to all-news with the new call letters WNUS. McLendon bought WFMQ (107.5 FM), changed its call sign to WNUS-FM and began to simulcast the all news format on the FM frequency. In 1969, McLendon changed the stations' format to beautiful music as more powerful WBBM (AM)
switched to all-news. In 1975, Globetrotter Communications, owners of soul music station WVON
, purchased WNUS-AM-FM from McLendon and moved WVON from its 1000-watt allocation on 1450 kHz to the 5000-watt transmitter on 1390 kHz that had been occupied by WNUS. WNUS-FM was also changed to a soul music format, with a change of call letters to WGCI-FM. A few years later, Globetrotter was purchased by the Gannett media conglomerate.
As music listeners switched from AM to FM in large numbers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1390 tried several formats including all talk, urban oldies and simulcasting WGCI (FM). The call sign was changed to WGCI (AM) in 1984. The format changed to gospel music in the early 2000s under Clear Channel ownership. Its call letters were changed to WGRB (Gospel Radio Blessings for Chicago) in 2003 to differentiate it from its sister FM station.
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
, is a radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. It airs a gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
format targeted to Chicago's African-American religious community. On Sundays it broadcasts the services of several African-American churches in the area.
The station began in 1923 as WTAY in Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
and was originally operating on 1360 KC, sharing the frequency with WSBT (owned by the South Bend Tribune
South Bend Tribune
The South Bend Tribune is a newspaper distributed in the Michiana region. There are five editions for distribution in southwestern lower Michigan, Mishawaka , Marshall County, and the South Bend Metro area. The South Bend Tribune has a daily circulation of 70,703 and Sunday circulation of...
) and WJKS (which went on to become WIND (AM)
WIND (AM)
WIND "AM 560" is a radio station based in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasting its talk radio format on 560 kHz.Its current owner is Salem Media, a company specializing primarily in Christian radio...
). It was owned by a community newspaper called Oak Leaves
Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. It is known for its prior association with controversial Canadian businessman Conrad Black.-History:...
. In 1925 Coyne Electrical School purchased the station and moved it to their campus on Chicago's north side. They changed its call letters
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
to WGES, standing for Coyne's slogan, "World's Greatest Electrical School."
In the late 1920s, the station moved to the Guyan Hotel on the West Side of Chicago. The station aired big band music from the nearby Guyan's Paradise Ballroom. Louis Guyan, owner of the hotel and ballroom, purchased the station from Coyne with an idea of serving those in the community by offering many foreign language programs. It broadcast several hours a day of programming in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
.
Gene T. Dyer purchased the station in the early 1930s, eventually moving it from the Guyan Hotel to 2400 W. Madison Street, where co-owned WSBC (AM) and WCBD (AM) were located. In 1941, WGES moved to 1390 kHz and went from 500 watts power to 5,000 watts power, moving its transmitter location from the roof of the Guyan Hotel to an antenna farm at 86th and Kedzie in Chicago. In 1944 the FCC ruled that radio station owners could only own one AM and FM station per market. Gene Dyer sold WGES to his brother, Dr. John Dyer, and WSBC to Julius Miller, a broadcaster at the station. WGES moved from 2400 West Madison to a converted mansion at Washington Boulevard and Washtenaw Street. The station added African American programming to its daily schedule in the mid 1940s with a daily blues and jump music program conducted by Al Benson, a former minister whose church services were broadcast on WGES. By the 1950s, more hours of African-American programming were added, with the addition of disk jockeys Richard Stamz, Ric (Stan) Recardo, Sam Evans, Herb Kent, Franklin McCarthy and Sid McCoy.(McCoy would later go on to be the voice of Soul Train
Soul Train
Soul Train is an American musical variety show that aired in syndication from October 1971 to March 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared.As a nod to Soul Trains...
.) WGES's foreign language programming was cut back to only four hours a day.
Had he kept the station, Dr. Dyer said WGES would have become Chicago's first all black radio station, but instead he sold it to Gordon McLendon
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
in 1962.
The callsign changed from WGES to WYNR on . McLendon fired all of its foreign language announcers and black disc jockeys, and hired black disc jockeys from radio stations in other cities for the top 40 format.
As WYNR, "Winner", 1390 was owned by Gordon McLendon
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
of Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. The station was hosted primarily by black disc jockeys from 1962 thru 1964 when it became America's first 'all-news' radio station, W-NUS on September 3, 1964. Announcers included Big John Evans, Dick Kemp (The Wild Child), Luckey Cordell, Bruce Brown, Floyd Brown. and Yvonne Daniels
There were complaints to the United States Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
that the station had eliminated foreign-language programming. The FCC held a hearing to investigate the complaints at which some politicians testified.
The station switched to rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
in 1963, then abruptly changed to all-news with the new call letters WNUS. McLendon bought WFMQ (107.5 FM), changed its call sign to WNUS-FM and began to simulcast the all news format on the FM frequency. In 1969, McLendon changed the stations' format to beautiful music as more powerful WBBM (AM)
WBBM (AM)
WBBM is an all-news CBS radio station in Chicago, Illinois broadcasting on the AM dial at 780 kHz. It is owned by CBS along with WBBM-TV....
switched to all-news. In 1975, Globetrotter Communications, owners of soul music station WVON
WVON
WVON 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...
, purchased WNUS-AM-FM from McLendon and moved WVON from its 1000-watt allocation on 1450 kHz to the 5000-watt transmitter on 1390 kHz that had been occupied by WNUS. WNUS-FM was also changed to a soul music format, with a change of call letters to WGCI-FM. A few years later, Globetrotter was purchased by the Gannett media conglomerate.
As music listeners switched from AM to FM in large numbers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1390 tried several formats including all talk, urban oldies and simulcasting WGCI (FM). The call sign was changed to WGCI (AM) in 1984. The format changed to gospel music in the early 2000s under Clear Channel ownership. Its call letters were changed to WGRB (Gospel Radio Blessings for Chicago) in 2003 to differentiate it from its sister FM station.
External links
- Inspiration 1390 — official site