Scott:

My daughter came up with this site. The Johnson sisters were my 2nd cousins. Ruth Johnson married Dolph Hewitt. When one of the sisters passed away, Mary Jane and Ruth wanted my sister to fill in, but she was too shy. In some 
of your letters - one from Terri - talked about her Uncle Dolph, and about her two aunts still living in Florida, which indeed they do. Very interesting indeed.

 

-Tom Hawkins


   

Scott,

Like lots of kids who grew up in the Chicago area in the 60's, some of my fondest memories have WLS playing in the background. One of my favorites though was when I went into the service and while stationed in Texas and Oklahoma, 
before being shipped off to Vietnam, I was able to listen to WLS at night when the signal was the clearest. It brought a little bit of home to me and lots of other "kids" who were in the military and away from home for the first time. I thank WLS for that and you for preserving a lot of those great memories with this website.

 

-Dan Roche

 

 

 

I grew up in a small town in Northern Ontario up here in Canada and there was no such thing as a local radio station. As a young lad of 12, my parents bought me this cool radio that introduced me to WLS. One night I was just kinda "cruisin the dial" and there you were, and I never left.

I can still remember listening to John Records Landecker at night and thinking, man, that's what I want to do. Well, I'm doing it and I have WLS Radio to thank for it. Thanks for being there!

 

-Wade Blair

 

 

   

What to say about WLS that hasn't been said. I first started to listen to the Big 89 back in 1980 or so. I have very vivid memories of listening to the Show that they would broadcast from Ed Debevic's (at the corner of Ontario and Wells, in Chicago) - I remember listening to Uncle Lar when he hung up his headphones for the last time, and him completely breaking down on the air after expressing his 
complete bewilderment about the outpouring of support over the loss of his son. I remember when my mom and I were driving up to Chicago, and Catherine Johns announced that they were going to "Juice the Spruce." Names such as John Records Landecker, Jeff Hendrix, Fred Winston (my favorite), Don and Roma, Uncle Lar and his sidekick Little Tommy, Chuck Britton, and the list goes on and on.

I still listen to the Big 89; 25+ years later. My dad turned me on to WLS back in 80, hopefully I'll have a kid soon to pass on the Big 89.

-Douglas Snow

 

 

 

  

Scott, 

I just found this site and have enjoyed it. I grew  up on WLS and WOKY in the late 50's. I happened to work with Gary Gears in vietnam radio. I would like to know if 
you have any recording of a parady song"Me and my doggie named Leroy". I'm sure I only heard it on WLS so assume it was a gag song. It goes on to say, 'we can beat your dog, any ole time, me and my doggie named Leroy, were just 2 of a 
kind."  I  did see the picture of Gary, probably after 1969.
thanks much

-David Gale

Always been a broadcast engineer..

 

 

   

Hi Scott,

I lived in the Fox Valley burbs my whole life. I recently moved to Tyler, Texas and occassionally look at the area newspaper web sites to see what's happening around my old home. 

I used to listen to WLS-89 while growing up, too. I loved the same DJ's that you mentioned and was even interested in becoming a DJ. But, it never happened.

I even met Jeff Davis at Oktoberfest in Aurora when I was about 11 years old (my friend and I won 2nd place in a dance contest that WLS was sponsoring).

I took a Communications course at WCC in Sugar Grove, but never made anything out of it (except a short internship at WFXW in Geneva).

Take care and happy holidays!

-Shelly Cruz

 

 

 

 

Scott:

Your passion and interest in the history of WLS is appreciated -- and shared!
And your website is clearly an example of art as living history. You are indeed a member of the 'extended family'!!!

THANKS...both as a fan and the current coach!



-Kipper McGee
WLS Program Director

 

 

   

Hello Scott,

Love your site on the history of WLS, so informative and really very interesting, love the photographs and memorabilia.

In 1984 I commissioned and operated a radio station in Galway in the west of Ireland with a project working name of the West Local Station. The station was the first to introduce an FM stereo music based service in the west with a high powered FM transmitter, and the first 24 hour stereo station.

Just before official launch date of the station and while we were arranging to take on Casey Kasem's AT40 from Watermark, my contact suggested that our name was a bit of a mouthful for Casey, why not abbreviate the name to WLS and go forward that way, but make sure ABC was cool with that. I was given a contact number and the ABC person I dealt with were happy for us to use the name, not only that, they sent various ID jingles to us later that month which we used.

When American Top Forty launched on our station, Casey Kasem only had to announce the new Irish member of the AT 40 family as 'WLS Music Radio Galway Ireland', a great day for us.

We created a logo and image for the station, and after test transmissions had proved effective we switched into our new music radio programming in February 1985. From the beginning, WLS Music Radio in Galway was the market leader and dominant throughout its region, even the national outlet, RTE, was way behind in surveys. Our success was driven as much by our image as our air sound, our FM signal being heavily processed to give us a 'solid' impact when a listener tuned past our spot at 102.7 FM, and on our 846 am outlet we used an Orban Optimod to firm the output.

As WLS in Chicago went talk in 1989, so too did WLS in Galway change, becoming, in 1988, Coast 103 after a change of ownership which proved to be fatal and the whole station ceased in 1989.

If you would like some images and items of this funky little 'homage' station to the great WLS Chicago I would be more than happy to send you these.

Once again, the site is great Scott and I'll get Hans Knot to mention it in Radio Report from The Netherlands. Please find a photo of the WLS HQ in Galway plus a studio shot.

Peace and Long Life,

-Don Stevens.

And we have included one of Don's photos...

 

 
 

 

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