WLBK (1360 AM) is an American

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 radio ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

DeKalb, Illinois DeKalb ( ) is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 according to the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated Franconian- French war hero Johann de Kalb, who died ...

. The station, established in

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

, is owned and operated by DeKalb County Broadcasters, Inc. The station was assigned the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

"WLBK" by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC).

Programming

WLBK broadcasts a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

DeKalb County, Illinois DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 100,420. Its county seat is Sycamore. DeKalb County is part of the Chicago-Naperville- Elgin, IL- IN- WI Metropolitan Stati ...

, and surrounding communities. Weekday broadcasts , include local news, weather forecasts, and community information, plus agribusiness updates, business news from

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

, and hourly news reports from CNN Radio. WLBK also airs a tradio program titled ''Trading Post''. Weekday syndicated shows include ''

Dr. Joy Browne Joy Browne (born Joy Oppenheim; October 24, 1944—August 27, 2016), also known as Dr. Joy, was an American talk show host, specializing in advice counselling. She hosted a nationally syndicated call-in talk show for several decades, heard ...

'', '' The Dave Ramsey Show'', and

Yahoo! Sports Radio SportsMap is a sports radio network that is distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplies its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, through ...

. Weekend programming , includes repeats of ''

'', ''Animal Planet'', SportsMap Radio, religious services, plus talk shows about politics, antiques, home improvement, and suicide prevention. In season, WLBK broadcasts local

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

, the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

(

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

), Chicago Bulls (

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

), and

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

(

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

). WLBK is the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...

for Northern Illinois University Huskies football, men's basketball, and

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

History

Early days

In 1946, DeKalb Radio Studios, Inc., applied to the FCC for a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

for a new broadcast radio station to operate with 500

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 Wa ...

s of power on a frequency of 1360

kilohertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

. The new station was assigned

"WLBK". After construction and testing were completed, the station signed on December 5, 1947. WLBK was originally co-owned by Roland Wallem and T.A. "Ted" Lanes. Wallem served as the new station's business manager and Lanes was both commercial manager and program director. Charles Green was WLBK's original chief engineer. By 1950, Robert C. Brown was both station manager and program director with Donald Whitman as sales manager and Clayton DeWitt as chief engineer.

1950s

In 1951, George Spitz became president of DeKalb Radio Studios, Inc. Robert C. Brown continued as general manager and added both sports director and farm director duties. Zenophon Beake was the chief engineer, Don Ulery the news director, and Lois Montgomery as women's director. In 1952, Ted Beauchamp took over the program director duties with Robert Senne as chief engineer, Don Ulery as sports director, and Lois Montgomery Still, women's director. In 1953, George C. Biggar took over as president of DeKalb Radio Studios, Inc. Biggar also took the general manager and farm director roles. Richard Meier moved up to commercial manager, Robert C. Brown remained as program director and added promotions manager duties, with Robert Zirk as chief engineer and Herb Carroll as both news director and sports director. This lineup would remain stable through the 1950s with the additions of Russell Pigott of news director and W. Dean Clayton as chief engineer.

1960s

Seeking to expand its coverage area and to be able to deliver programming outside its legally mandated daylight-only operation, WLBK applied to the FCC to create an FM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

to be known as "WLBK-FM". The new station received its broadcast license on December 17, 1961, and

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

the AM station's programming during the day while originating its own programming at night. As the FM band grew more popular, WLBK-FM began originating more of its own programming. By 1970 only 30% of its content was a WLBK simulcast and by 1976 the total was down to 15%. The FM station was spun off with fully independent programming and a new call sign ("WDEK-FM") in 1977. , the former WLBK-FM is licensed as WCLR. Concurrent with the launch of the FM station, WLBK received authorization from the FCC to double its own power output from 500 to 1,000

s. The 1960s saw other changes for the station. In 1963, Richard M. Hubbell became WLBK's commercial manager and Roger L. Belke took over the chief engineer role. The biggest change came on August 30, 1965, when Jerome F. Cerny acquired DeKalb Radio Studios, Inc. He also took on the titles of president and general manager. Ralph Sherman became the new station manager while Russell Pigott remained as news director and Robert C. Brown kept his job as program director. This lineup of key players remained steady through the rest of the 1960s.

1970s-1980s

The station maintained its long-time

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

/ middle of the road format through the 1970s and 1980s. As a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * F ...

station, WLBK also broadcast local news, up to a dozen hours of farm reports each week, plus national news from

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

. The 1970s also saw Bill Cerny take the reins as station manager while Jerome F. Cerny remained company president and Robert C. Brown shifted to farm director duties. In 1980, Jerome F. Cerny added chief engineer to his list of duties and resumed his role as the station's general manager. Bill Cerny became both program director and music director while Dick Kliesch was named news director. With Jerome F. Cerny's retirement to Sarasota, Florida, Paul B. Christensen became WLBK's chief engineer in 1981. In 1984, Dianne Leifheit assumed the role of general manager with Jay Burt as news director and Jeff Glass as chief engineer. In April 1985, WCFL Chicago weekend talent Mark Powell was hired as program director and midday host. Powell would take a leave of absence in 1986 and run a protest write in effort in the March 1986 GOP congressional primary. Powell would return to the station until the following year when he was elected 7th Ward Alderman in the City of DeKalb.

1990s-2000s

1990 saw the end of music programming on WLBK as it shifted to a

all-news radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

format full-time. Mark Charvat joined the station as program director with Geoff Gillette as news director and Jim Casey as chief engineer The news/talk format would persist through the rest of the 1990s. After more than five decades of continuous ownership, DeKalb Radio Studios, Inc., agreed to sell WLBK to Big City Radio-Chi, LLC, in April 1998. The FCC approved the sale on June 18, 1998, and the transaction was formally consummated on February 25, 1999. This would prove short-lived as in December 1999 Big City Radio-Chi, LLC, (Charles M. Fernandez, president and CEO) applied to transfer WLBK and its broadcast license to WPW Broadcasting, Inc., (David T. Madison, president and CEO). The deal gained FCC approval on February 8, 2000, and formal consummation occurred on April 12, 2000.

2010s

In September 2010, WPW Broadcasting, Inc., (Don Davis, president) contracted to sell WLBK to DeKalb County Broadcasters, Inc., (Larry Nelson, president) for $575,000. The deal was approved by the FCC on November 10, 2010, and the transaction was formally consummated on December 24, 2010.

References

External links

WLBK official website
* * {{SportsMap Radio stations LBK News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1947 DeKalb County, Illinois 1947 establishments in Illinois