Scott,

WLS AM is the “comfort food” of radio. a home base no matter where one is located in the United States.

I first picked up WLS in Memphis when a girlfriend told me about it. After I was drafted, I was stationed at NAS Glenview, where many days, night and years, WLS kept me in touch with the “rest of the world” and I kept up with the radio wars between the different stations in Chicagoland.

Bob Sirott and John Landecker took me through many of the cold long Chicago nights. JJ Jeffrey, Fred Winston, Tommy Edwards and Larry Lujack filled in what otherwise would be dead air during my mornings and afternoons on my days off in the navy. Like many, I had dreams and consideration of one day working as part of the staff of WLS in broadcasting.

Listening to WLS on New Years Eve became a tradition in my life. No matter where I would be, I would tune in to WLS at 12 midnight to listen to the timesweep montage of songs of the past years to reflect the memories of the year just completed and of the earlier transistor radio days in rock and roll. Sometimes making it a music trivia game of naming as many title of songs, the artist and year of the songs from the timesweep montage.

When i visited and later moved to Houston, I continued to pick up and listened to WLS. During my 2 weeks active duty in the Navy Reserves, I even picked up WLS at NAS Corpus Christi.

WLS is truely an “Americana Panarama” in the back pages of our minds but always in the front cover of our hearts that the millions that listened and experienced a small part if WLS history.

WLS is “America’s Radio Station.”

I’m just another “ear wax” of the millions of ears that listened to WLS.

– Larry Chow
Houston, Texas