northwest indiana branding big 95.5 slogan chicago s new country frequency 95.5 mhz also on hd radio translator s 97.5 w248bb hillside relays hd2 first air date 1959 1959 as wdhf format country analog hd1 espn deportes radio hd2 erp 8 300 watts haat 358 meters 1 175 ft class b facility id 53971 callsign meaning we re big country former callsigns wdhf 1959 1959 december 1 1976 1976 12 01 wmet december 1 1976 1976 12 01 1985 1985 wrxr 1985 1985 august 3 1987 1987 08 03 wnua august 3 1987 1987 08 03 january 13 2015 2015 01 13 affiliations delilah hd2 1 owner iheartmedia amfm broadcasting licenses llc sister stations wgci fm wgrb wksc fm wlit wvaz wvon webcast listen live via iheartradio website www.big955chicago.com www.espndeporteschicago.com hd2 webg 95.5 mhz is a country music radio station located in chicago illinois owned and operated by iheartmedia formerly clear channel communications until september 2014 and branded as big 95.5 . webg has studios located at the illinois center complex on michigan avenue in downtown chicago and it broadcasts from an 8.3 kw transmitter based atop john hancock center . webg broadcasts two channels in the hd radio format . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 spanish language era 1.1.1 webg hd2 1.2 regional mexican era 1.3 conversion to country 2 references 3 external links history edit the station began operation in 1959 as wdhf owned by hi fi systems and record store owner james dehaan . the station operated out of dehaan s store in the evergreen plaza in evergreen park illinois . its transmitter and tower was in oak lawn at 97th and central . wdhf and dehaan s record store moved to 102nd and western avenue in chicago in 1961 . in the mid 1960s comedian bob newhart purchased the station and moved its studios downtown to 108 n. state st. in the late 1960s wdhf was sold again to the national science network . in the early 1970s the station s transmitter was moved to the john hancock building on the near north side of chicago . under dehaan s newhart s and the national science network s ownership wdhf aired a big band music format . metromedia would buy the station by the early 1970s and flipped the format to a full service station playing middle of the road popular music . within a few years wdhf adopted a top 40 format . on december 1 1976 3 wdhf s call letters were changed to wmet while keeping a top 40 format . several months after the format flip of wefm from classical to top 40 as we fm in 1978 metromedia flipped wmet to an aor format . ratings were good into the early 1980s . metromedia would buy field communications s tv station wfld in 1983 . in march 1986 though metromedia sold all of their tv stations including wfld tv which was later owned by fox and restructured and became metropolitan broadcasting . wmet was then sold to doubleday broadcasting which altered the format to rockradio the new wmet . in january 1985 wmet was flipped to a highly unsuccessful mid tempo ac for a short while . then the calls were briefly changed to wrxr and the format became an oldies classic hits hybrid . in the fall of 1986 a new age music show was added in evenings from 7 p.m. midnight . shortly after wrxr was sold to pyramid broadcasting . the new age music was added in overnights by the spring of 1987 . on august 3 1987 the station s call letters were changed to wnua as a full time new age broadcast began which is believed to be the source of the call letters . indeed for a time the station s slogan was music for a new age . initially the station only played new age music but by the winter of 1988 it added smooth jazz music before 7 p.m. during the day . the station at that point was still all instrumental . by the summer of 1988 the station added four vocals per hour during the day . the vocalists were r & b artists soft hits by rock artists and a few ac cuts . by 1989 the station was about half vocals and half instrumentals during the day and still all new age instrumentals at night . by 1990 the station began to grow and attract many listeners . smooth jazz and a couple vocalists per hour at nights were also added . during the day vocals were pulled back to about 1 3 . new age music was being played less than before . as a smooth jazz station wnua had become a major pioneer in the format spawning imitators in other cities such as kmyt in temecula california . kmyt used the same on air jingles as wnua which mentioned the call letters first and the frequency second sung as wnua 95.5 and kmyt 94.5 . some other former smooth jazz stations such as kksf in san francisco california wsmj 104.3 fm in baltimore maryland wsjt in tampa florida wzjz in fort myers florida and wjjz 106.1 fm in philadelphia pennsylvania also used these jingles and the new wjjz 97.5 fm also in philadelphia would use exactly the same jingles as a tribute to the old station s heyday after originally using different sounding ones that could easily be told from those of its predecessor . it should be noted though that the new wjjz s jingles used a slightly different arrangement as they were last sung as wjjz 97 5 omitting the point that was included in the 106.1 version . kyot fm 95.5 fm in phoenix arizona sometimes used the jingles as well but its identity was never sung . prior to a format change in january 2009 wjzz 107.5 fm in atlanta georgia now wamj used similar jingles that mentioned the frequency before the callsign thus sung as 107.5 wjzz . the jingles were used for the smooth jazz network until 2012 . in 1994 pyramid sold wnua to shamrock broadcasting which would merge with chancellor in 1995 and then merge with evergreen in 1997 . wnua was then owned by chancellor which restructured as amfm inc. in 1999 . in 2000 amfm merged with clear channel communications making wnua a clear channel station . wnua was the home of the now defunct ramsey lewis morning show and it was also where he recorded his syndicated show legends of jazz which showcased the music of instrumentalists charlie parker oscar peterson and miles davis as well as vocalists louis armstrong billie holiday and ella fitzgerald for distribution to other smooth jazz stations across the nation . the show lived on in chicago on wlfm lp during that station s run and continues on smooth jazz stations across the country . in late 2006 three smooth jazz personalities wnua s ramsey lewis annie ashe and dave koz were tapped by broadcast architecture to syndicate their respective shows on its smooth jazz network . lewis s morning show aired in other parts of the country for the first time . ashe hosted the night time show known locally as the now defunct lights out chicago for approximately two months ; however in december 2006 the show reverted to its local format as danae alexander was moved back to the 7 p.m. 12 a.m. slot after being in the afternoon slot for the past year . as of the first of the year the afternoon slot was hosted via syndication by dave koz the well known saxophonist regularly featured on smooth jazz radio stations . wnua won r & r smooth jazz station of the year from 1998 2005 and was a recipient of the marconi award for smooth jazz station of the year 2004 . full time on air staff included ramsey lewis karen williams rick o dell danae alexander dave koz bill cochran and scott adams . domingo castillo was the only part time on air host . rick o dell was the program director until mid january 2009 . 4 glenn cosby was his replacement . spanish language era edit on may 22 2009 at 9 50am after the station played david sanborn s chicago song wnua stunted for 5 minutes with a ticking clock and an announcer saying in minutes 95.5 reaches its big mega event . along with the clock sound they aired a recap of jingles and moments from its history as wdhf wmet wrxr and wnua . 95.5 then had a countdown from 10 to 1 switching in the middle from english to spanish . at 9 55 am wnua flipped formats to spanish contemporary as mega 95.5 to cater to chicago s hispanic community . it competed with wppn for the younger spanish speaking hispanic audience in addition to its english sister station wksc which is heavily targeted towards the hispanic population . the downslope of smooth jazz stations popularity nationwide likely contributed to the flip . the smooth jazz format was picked up a few hours later by television station wlfm lp channel 6 by audio available through a technical quirk within chicago proper on 87.7 fm but in october 2010 the format was tweaked to a smooth ac hybrid . smooth 87.7 featured several former wnua smooth jazz hosts during the day on weekdays and aired broadcast architecture s smooth ac network the remainder of the time . on april 30 2012 merlin media llc took over the station changed the format to a simulcast of merlin s all news station wiqi followed by a call sign change from wlfm lp to wkqx lp and another format change to alternative rock . on may 3 2012 merlin added a satellite fed version of broadcast architecture s smooth jazz network format on the hd3 subchannel of its wlup fm 97.9 hd3 . 5 on november 12 2012 rick o dell launched online radio station smoothjazzchicago.net 6 7 which ran until midnight on january 1 2016 . webg hd2 edit since 2012 wnua hd2 has carried espn deportes radio programming which is translated by hillside licensed w248bb at 97.5 fm a station owned by the educational media foundation a frequent collaborator on iheartmedia s translator operations . 8 9 regional mexican era edit on june 19 2012 wnua shifted to a regional mexican format known as el patr n 95.5 to more directly compete with wley and wojo . the shift was affected by low ratings from the previous spanish language hot ac format . however the ratings still remained at a 1.0 to 1.5 over the tenure of el patron lower than mega . in the december 2014 nielsen audio ppm ratings wnua registered a 1.9 share albeit on an upward trend from 1.5 in october . conversion to country edit on january 5 2015 at noon wnua flipped to country as big 95.5 taking direct aim at wusn who has been unrivaled in the format since wkxk now wls fm in 1996 . the first song on big 95.5 was this is how we roll by florida georgia line . 10 on january 12 2015 wnua changed call letters to webg to match the big branding . 11 references edit all stations delilah http hdradio.com station guides widget.php id 25 deeb gary november 11 1976 . chicago tribune . p. a12 . missing or empty title help wnua fm s rick o dell ousted as clear channel starts cutting ; ceo confirms elimination of around 1 850 jobs chicago tribune january 20 2009 smooth jazz alternative returns to chicago air . radio online . may 3 2012 . retrieved may 6 2012 . feder robert november 12 2012 . cue the sax rick o dell launches smoothjazzchicago.net . time out chicago . retrieved december 6 2012 . rick o dell streams jazz back to chicago . all access music