Day 102: The Big 89 at 89

     At the onset of the Roaring Twenties, Sears, Roebuck and Company was a titan in the mail-order shopping industry. But it was looking for ways to target farmers with its advertising, and somebody suggested getting into the radio business. And so, on April 12, 1924, WLS-AM(which stood for World's Largest Store) went live over the airwaves, broadcasting from Sears' headquarters on the West Side. One week later, WLS broadcast the first National Barn Dance, a country music variety show that served as the inspiration for Nashville's own Grand Ole Opry.

     Over the next 30 years, WLS served as an affiliate of the NBC Radio Network and would air popular radio serials of the day(such as Fibber McGee and Molly, and Lum and Abner) and sporting events. But one of its moat momentous early moments came courtesy of its news team. In 1937, the German airship Hindenburg was drifting into its moorings in New Jersey. The flammable hydrogen gas that filled the air cells finally caught fire and ignited, engulfing the craft in a massive fireball. Present on the scene was WLS Radio reporter Herb Morrison, whose emotion filled report(decrying the humanity of the situation) has since become inextricably linked to the disaster. In 1943, NBC was forced to divest itself of some of its stations, and WLS(as a part of the former NBC Blue Network) was sold to Edward J. Noble. Two years later, the network was renamed as the American Broadcasting Company(which marked the beginnings of what we know of today as the ABC Network.)

     By 1959, ABC had assumed full control of WLS and was on the verge of changing Chicago radio forever. In 1960, WLS hired future radio legend Dick Biondi(as vital a part of Chicago History as Walter Peyton, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray, or Ron Santo) away from a station in Buffalo. On May 2 of that year, Mort Crowley welcomed Chicago listeners to a new era of Top 40 radio in the city. Just under 3 years later, Dick Biondi became the first American DJ to play a Beatles record when he spun "Please Please Me" on February 8, 1963. Another feature that WLS rolled out in the Sixties was the Silver Dollar Survey, a weekly roundup of the top tracks that were being played over the radio. By the mid Seventies, the station was starting to lose its touch as the hot and hip behemoth it used to be. The Top 40 format stayed around until the mid Eighties, when the station switched to an Adult Contemporary format. In June of 1989, WLS announced that they were going to move to an all-talk format by the end of that summer. On August 23, the Big 89 shut off the music for good, and started a program of talk radio that included Rush Limbaugh from the outset. Today, you can find WLS airing a mix of locally based and nationally syndicated programs, including shows from Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. Regardless of its current format, WLS Radio maintains its place in Chicago's story that it has held for the past 89 Years.