commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
and broadcasting a
conservative talk
Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...
. It is owned by the
Salem Media Group
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Irv ...
with studios on NW Point Boulevard in
Elk Grove Village
Elk Grove Village is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 32,812. Located northwest of Chicago along the Golden Corridor, the Village of Elk Grove Village was incorpora ...
.
WIND is powered at 5,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
tower array
A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...
, in
Griffith, Indiana
Griffith is a town in the Calumet and St. John townships in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 16,331 in 2021.
History
The Griffith State Bank, E.J. and E. Griffith Interloc ...
, near the
Little Calumet River
The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the ...
. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, transmitter power, and the surrounding region's flat land, WIND's daytime signal covers much of Northeast Illinois, Northwest
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and Southeastern
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. Its nighttime pattern concentrates its signal in the Chicago and
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
areas.
Programming
WIND carries the
Salem Radio Network
Salem Radio Network is a United States-based radio network that specializes in syndicated Christian political talk, music, and conservative secular news/talk programming. It is a division of the Salem Media Group.
Network information
Salem Ra ...
line up of hosts, including
Dennis Prager
Dennis Mark Prager (; born August 2, 1948) is an American conservative radio talk show host and writer. He is the host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show ''The Dennis Prager Show''. In 2009, he co-founded PragerU, which creates five- ...
,
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and an attorney, academic, and author. A conservative, he writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is ...
Sebastian Gorka
Sebastian Lukács Gorka ( hu, Gorka Sebestyén Lukács) (born October 22, 1970) is a British-born Hungarian-American media personality (currently with Salem Radio and NewsMax TV), military and intelligence analyst, and former government off ...
,
Jay Sekulow
Jay Alan Sekulow (; born June 10, 1956) is an American lawyer, radio, television talk show host and politically conservative media personality. He has been chief counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) since 1991. As a member of Pr ...
Premiere Networks
Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. ...
, WIND also carries
The Sean Hannity Show
''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is sometimes ...
. WIND airs two local shows on weekdays, ''Chicago's Morning Answer'' with Amy Jacobson and Dan Proft, and Shaun Thompson in afternoons. Most hours begin with an update from Townhall News.
Much of the weekend is devoted to specialty talk shows on money, health and real estate, some of which is paid
brokered programming
Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot comm ...
Carl Amari
Carl Amari (born August 20, 1963) is an American film and television producer, actor, director and syndicated radio host, creator of ''When Radio Was''.
Biography
Amari was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Triton College and Columbia Colle ...
and Lisa Wolf's nationally syndicated nostalgia & showbiz program "Hollywood 360" which airs Saturday evenings. "Beyond The Beltway" with Bruce DuMont is also heard on Sunday evenings.
Northern Illinois Huskies
The Northern Illinois Huskies are the athletic teams that represent Northern Illinois University (NIU). The Huskies are a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The athleti ...
The station began broadcasting on August 16, 1927, holding the call sign WJKS, and was originally licensed to
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
.
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
. 1927. Retrieved March 23, 2019. It initially operated at 1290 kHz, and shared time with
WSBC
WSBC (1240 AM) is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, which broadcasts brokered programming. It is owned by Newsweb Corporation.
History
WSBC began broadcasting in 1925 and originally broadcast at 1430 kHz. Its studio and transmitter were located in the Gay Mill Ballroom, in Gary's
Miller Beach
Miller Beach (also commonly known as Miller) is a neighborhood of Gary, Indiana on the southernmost shore of Lake Michigan. First settled in 1851, Miller Beach was originally an independent town. However, the "Town of Miller" was eventually annexe ...
neighborhood. The station was owned by the ballroom's owners, Thomas Johnson and Frances Kennedy.
In 1928, its frequency was changed to 1360 kHz, where it shared time with WGES. Ralph Atlass purchased a 50% stake in the station in 1931. In 1932, WJKS's studios were moved to the Gary State Bank Building.
The station moved to its present 560 kHz frequency in 1933, after Chicago stations WIBO and WPCC, which had been operating at 560 kHz, were shut down. The station began full-time operations, and ran 1,000 watts. Its call sign was changed to WIND the same year. In 1934, the station's daytime power was increased to 2,500 watts and in 1935 its daytime power was increased to 5,000 watts. Its nighttime power was increased to 5,000 watts in 1941.
From the 1930s until 1985, WIND played " The Whiffenpoof Song" every night at 2 a.m.
In the fall of 1937, the station was one of several Chicago radio stations to donate airtime to
Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles.
...
distance education
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
amid a
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
outbreak-related school closure.
In 1944, WIND's studios were moved to Chicago's Carbide & Carbon Building, and in 1947 its studios were moved to the South tower of the
Wrigley Building
The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located at 400–410 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago's Near North Side. It is located on the Magnificent Mile directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower. Its two towers in an elaborate style wer ...
.
In 1946, Ralph Atlass sold his stake in WIND to newspaper publisher
John S. Knight
John Shively Knight (October 26, 1894 – June 16, 1981) was an American newspaper publisher and editor based in Akron, Ohio.
Early life and education
Knight was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, to Charles Landon Knight and Clara Irene Shivel ...
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...
''. February 4, 1946. pp. 17, 74. Retrieved March 25, 2019. Atlass remained station manager of WIND.
Popular music era
Eddie Hubbard
Charles Edward "Eddie" Hubbard (August 29, 1917 – March 26, 2007) was an American easy-listening/MOR disc jockey and radio personality in Chicago, at such radio stations as WIND and WGN. At WGN he co-hosted a popular show with Jack Brickhouse ...
began hosting a
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
program called the ''ABC Club'' in 1945.Disk Jockey Hooper Ratings , '' Billboard''. Special Disk Jockey Supplement. October 2, 1948. p. 74. Retrieved March 24, 2019. By the late 1940s, much of the station's schedule was devoted to contemporary music.Weber, Clark (2008). ''Clark Weber's Rock and Roll Radio: The Fun Years 1955-1975''. Chicago's Books Press. p. 37. WIND was Chicago's leading hit music station in the 1950s.
Howard Miller was WIND's program director from 1945 to 1949.Chicago's Top DJ: 18th Year at WIND , '' Billboard''. April 11, 1964. pp. 12, 82. Retrieved March 24, 2019.DJ Miller Denies WIND's Charge , '' Billboard''. May 18, 1968. p. 26. Retrieved March 24, 2019. In 1950, Miller started a longtime run as Chicago's top rated morning DJ. Miller would remain Chicago's top rated radio personality until leaving the station in 1968. Other WIND personalities during its music years included
Jim Lounsbury
Jim Lounsbury (February 24, 1923, in Colo, Iowa – January 8, 2006, in Tucson, Arizona) was an early pioneer in rock and roll music and a radio news anchor.
Lounsbury hosted many of the first rock and roll radio programs (WIND and WJJD, Chicago ...
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
''. December 13, 1985. Retrieved March 30, 2019. Jay Trompeter, Bernie Allen, Lee Rogers, Dick Williamson, Perry Marshall, Bruce Lee, Kassidy, Joel Sebastian,
Robert W. Morgan
Robert Wilbur Morgan (July 23, 1937 – May 22, 1998) was an American radio personality best known for his work at several stations in Los Angeles, California, in particular KHJ-AM.
Morgan also did morning drive at KMPC-AM, KIQQ-FM and KMG ...
, Chuck Benson and Kurt Russell, Ron Britain, Bob Del Giorno, and Connie Szerszen. WIND's Top 56 of 74 '. WIND. 1974. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
From 1945 to 1957, WIND held the exclusive local rights to broadcast Chicago Cubs baseball. Sportscasters on WIND during this period included Bert Wilson,
Milo Hamilton
Leland Milo Hamilton (September 2, 1927 – September 17, 2015) was an American sportscaster, best known for calling play-by-play for seven different Major League Baseball teams from 1953 to 2015. He received the Ford C. Frick Award from t ...
, and Jack Quinlan.
In 1956, the station was sold to
Westinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
for $5.3 million, which at the time was a record amount for a radio station. At the time of the purchase, WIND had no news department, though the station subscribed to
wire service
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
s. Westinghouse established a news department at the station, and it aired 5 minute newscasts every hour. Earl Finckle was the station's meteorologist for a period.
In the 1960s, WIND shifted to a middle of the road, pop contemporary/
pop standards
Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standard ...
format.Stations By Format , '' Billboard''. October 16, 1965. p. 62. Retrieved March 31, 2019.Stations By Format , '' Billboard''. November 19, 1966. p. 38. Retrieved March 31, 2019. In 1967, the station began adding some harder tracks to its playlist. Phil Nolan became general manager of WIND in 1969.
In 1971, WIND evolved into an
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...
-heavy
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
format, playing hits from 1955 to present day.Paige, Earl. At WIND, It's Music, Talk of Today , '' Billboard''. March 6, 1971. pp. 34, 36. Retrieved March 30, 2019.Paige, Earl. Moomey's 'Absolute Hits' Formula , '' Billboard''. January 1, 1972. p. 10. Retrieved March 30, 2019. In addition to the music played on the station, WIND aired ''Contact'', a nighttime talk show hosted by Dave Baum. Larry "The Legend" Johnson hosted overnights.Ed Schwartz served as a substitute host for Johnson, before replacing him as overnight host in 1973.Dahl, Bill. Eddie Schwartz , ''Radio Chicago''. Spring 1991. p. 32-33. Retrieved March 30, 2019. Schwartz had previously held several behind-the-scenes positions at WIND. Schwartz continued as overnight host on WIND until 1981, when he moved to 720 WGN.
In 1973, WIND won the
George Foster Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for their series "From 18th Street: Destination Peking."
First talk era
In September 1978, WIND switched to a news/talk format. Local personalities included
Clark Weber
Clark Weber was an Americans, American radio personality in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. He also ran his own radio advertising consultancy, Clark Weber Associates. In July 2008 he published a book, ''Clark Weber's Rock and Roll Radio: The Fun Years ...
Jimmy Piersall
James Anthony Piersall (November 14, 1929 – June 3, 2017) was an American baseball center fielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five teams, from 1950 through 1967. Piersall was best known for his well-publicized ba ...
. Chicago Radio Guide '. Vol. 1, No. 1. May 1985. Retrieved March 31, 2019. Syndicated personalities heard on WIND included British-American talk show host
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
and Dr.
Toni Grant
Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name.
In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni.
In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegia ...
. The ''
Larry King Show
The ''Larry King Show'' is an American overnight radio talk show hosted by Larry King which was broadcast nationally over the Mutual Broadcasting System from January 1978 to May 1994. A typical show consisted of King interviewing a guest, then t ...
'' was heard overnight.
Spanish era
In 1985, Westinghouse announced that they would sell WIND to Tichenor Radio for $6.85 million. On December 12, 1985, at 1:03 p.m., on the same day of the closing of the sale to Tichenor, WIND officially signed off the air by playing "The Whiffenpoof Song" and "
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
". Soon thereafter, WIND signed back on the air, with a
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...
ranchera
Ranchera () or canción ranchera is a genre of traditional music of Mexico. It dates to before the years of the Mexican Revolution. Rancheras today are played in virtually all regional Mexican music styles. Drawing on rural traditional folk musi ...
music and was branded "La Tremenda". Chicagoland Radio Waves ', MediaTies. Summer 1988/Spring-Summer 1989. Retrieved March 31, 2019. By the late 1990s, the station was airing a Spanish talk/romantica format.Format Changes & Updates , ''The M Street Journal''. Vol. 16 No. 3. January 20, 1999. p. 2. Retrieved March 31, 2019. In 1997, Tichenor Media merged with Heftel Broadcasting to form the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, which merged with Univision Communications in 2004. In October 2003, the station's talk programming moved to AM 1200 WRTO, and it began airing a Spanish adult contemporary format.
Second talk era
In 2004, Univision Radio announced a multi-station swap with
Salem Communications
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Irv ...
Business Wire
Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...
WPPN
WPPN is an FM radio station licensed to Des Plaines, Illinois that targets the Chicago metropolitan area. WPPN broadcasts on 106.7 MHz with a Spanish AC format. The station's studios are located at 625 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago ...
Bill Bennett
William Richards Bennett, (April 14, 1932 – December 3, 2015) was the 27th premier of British Columbia from 1975 to 1986. He was a son of Annie Elizabeth May (Richards) and former Premier, W. A. C. Bennett. He was a 3rd cousin, twice removed ...
,
Laura Ingraham
Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1963) is an American conservative television host. Gale Biography In Context. She has been the host of '' The Ingraham Angle'' on Fox News Channel since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette ...
,
Dennis Prager
Dennis Mark Prager (; born August 2, 1948) is an American conservative radio talk show host and writer. He is the host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show ''The Dennis Prager Show''. In 2009, he co-founded PragerU, which creates five- ...
,
Michael Medved
Michael Saul Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is syndicated via G ...
,
Michael Savage
Michael Alan Weiner (born March 31, 1942), known by his professional name Michael Savage, is a far-right author, conspiracy theorist, political commentator, activist, and former radio host. Savage is best known as the host of '' The Savage Na ...
,
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and an attorney, academic, and author. A conservative, he writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is ...
, and Mike Gallagher.
In July 2005, WIND entered into an agreement with the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
to carry
Fighting Illini
The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports.
The University operates a number of athletic faci ...
football and men's basketball games, as well as the coaches shows, through the Illini Sports Radio Network.Fighting Illini Basketball & Football Broadcasts Returning To WSCR-AM , ''Chicagoland Radio and Media''. April 17, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2019. Those broadcasts continued through the 2013 football season, with the Illini moving back to their longtime Chicago affiliate,
WSCR
WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwa ...
. WIND was formerly the alternate station of the
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...
and the
Northwestern Wildcats
The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...
Crain's Chicago Business
''Crain's Chicago Business'' is a weekly business newspaper in Chicago, IL. It is owned by Detroit-based Crain Communications, a privately held publishing company with more than 30 magazines, including ''Advertising Age'', ''Modern Healthcare'' ...
''. August 11, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
On January 21, 2013, WIND rebranded as AM 560 The Answer, to follow suit with other Salem Communications-owned stations.
In 2014, WIND became the Chicago radio home for
Northern Illinois Huskies football
The Northern Illinois Huskies football team are a college football program representing Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. NIU football plays its home games at Huskie Stadium on the ...