chicago market northern illinois branding 89 wls slogan chicago s talk leader frequency 890 khz c quam am stereo repeater s 94.7 mhz wls fm hd2 first air date april 12 1924 1924 04 12 format news talk language s english power 50 000 watts class a clear channel facility id 73227 transmitter coordinates 41 33 21 n 87 50 54 w 41.55583 n 87.84833 w 41.55583 ; 87.84833 nad27 main tower 41 33 26 n 87 50 58 w 41.55722 n 87.84944 w 41.55722 ; 87.84944 nad27 auxiliary tower callsign meaning world s largest store original owner sears former callsigns wes april 9 11 1924 1 former frequencies 870 khz 345 meters or 344.6 meters 1 2 1924 1941 3 670 khz 448 meters pre april 12 1924 1 2 3 affiliations westwood one news the weather channel premiere networks owner cumulus media radio license holdings llc sister stations wkqx wls fm wlup fm webcast listen live via iheartradio website www.wlsam.com wls 890 khz 89 wls is a commercial am radio station licensed to chicago illinois . owned by cumulus media wls has its studios in the loop section of chicago and its non directional broadcast tower is located on the southern edge of tinley park illinois . 3 4 wls is a class a station broadcasting on the clear channel frequency of 890 khz with 50 000 watts of power using c quam am stereo . 5 the station s daytime groundwave service contour covers portions of five states 6 while at night its signal routinely reaches 38 states 7 via skywave . the station s programming is also available to listeners in the chicago metropolitan area with an hd radio receiver via a simulcast on the hd2 subchannel of sister station wls fm . despite different owners wls and abc owned and operated wls tv channel 7 maintain a strong partnership . contents 1 programming 2 history 2.1 wenr 2.2 the wls musicradio era 2.3 unique wls only versions of songs 2.4 the wls talkradio 890 era 3 references 4 external links programming edit wls has a talk radio format with its weekday programming consisting of local hosts and nationally syndicated shows such as rush limbaugh michael savage mark levin red eye radio and first light . limbaugh is syndicated by premiere networks and the rest are from westwood one a subsidiary of cumulus media . local hosts include big john howell long time chicago radio host jonathan brandmeier brandmeier s program is based at wls but is syndicated nationally and veteran chicago radio personality steve dahl . hosts afternoons . weekends feature programs on money real estate auto repair and brokered programming . syndicated weekend shows include kim komando bob brinker john batchelor ric edelman and larry kudlow . wls carries notre dame fighting irish football and basketball games 8 9 and has done so since the 2006 season . 8 9 starting with the 2016 season wls is the flagship station of the chicago white sox baseball team . in the 2016 17 season wls will be the flagship for the chicago bulls basketball team . 10 history edit in the 1920s sears roebuck and company was a major retail and mail order company . to get farmers and people in rural communities to buy radio sets from its catalogs sears bought time on radio stations and then decided to form its own station . 11 just before the permanent station was ready sears began broadcasts on march 21 1924 as wbbx with noon programs using the wmaq studios . 1 wls was one of the original 50 000 watt class i a clear channel stations which did not share its original frequency of 870 am with any other station during nighttime sunset to sunrise hours when am radio signals can travel long distances via skywave . sears broadcast test transmissions from its own permanent studios on april 9 10 and 11 1924 using the call sign wes for world s economy store . on april 12 1924 the station commenced officially using the call letters wls for world s largest store ; and on april 19 aired its first national barn dance . 1 sears originally operated its station at its chicago headquarters on chicago s west side where the company s mail order business was located . sears then moved the wls studios into the sherman house hotel in downtown chicago . 12 sears opened the station in 1924 as a service to farmers and subsequently sold it to the prairie farmer magazine in 1928 . 13 the station moved to the prairie farmer building on west washington in chicago where it remained for 32 years . 14 for a few months after abc s 1960 purchase of it and the format change the bright new sound that began in may 1960 was broadcast from the prairie farmer building . wls didn t make the move to downtown michigan avenue s stone container building located at 360 north michigan avenue until october of that year . 15 thirty years later it would move once more to its present location at 190 north state in downtown chicago . 16 17 it was the scene of the national barn dance which featured gene autry pat buttram and george gobel and which was second only to the grand ole opry itself a local national barn dance spinoff in presenting country music and humor . 18 19 the station also experimented successfully in many forms of news broadcasting including weather and crop reports . its most famous news broadcast was the eyewitness report of the hindenburg disaster by herbert morrison . 20 morrison and engineer charles nehlsen had been sent to new jersey by wls to cover the arrival of the hindenburg for delayed broadcast . their recordings aired the next day on may 7 1937 21 the first time that recordings of a news event were ever broadcast . starting in the 1930s wls was an affiliate of the blue network of the national broadcasting company nbc and as such aired the popular fibber mcgee and molly and lum and abner comedy programs both produced at the studios of chicago s nbc owned stations wenr and wmaq during their early years . when the federal communications commission forced nbc to sell the blue network wls maintained its affiliation with the network under its new identity the american broadcasting company abc . under this affiliation some programs from the network that were not commercially sponsored or which were scheduled to cross the time that wls and wenr shifted its use of the same frequency such as baseball or football games were transferred to air on a third blue network abc affiliate in chicago wcfl . blue abc network broadcasts of addresses by labor leaders were also shifted away from wls and wenr to wcfl which was owned at the time by the chicago federation of labor . wenr edit wenr became active in late 1924 and early 1925 the creation of e. n. rauland whose company manufactured the all american brand of radios . rauland started with 10 watts on 1030 khz in 1924 ; on march 19 1925 he received his license for wenr at 100 watts . by late 1925 wenr was using a 1 000 watt transmitter designed by rauland himself . 22 the station quickly entered into a time sharing agreement with wbcn owned at that time by the chicago southtown newspaper . the two stations changed frequencies to 1040 khz a year later . 23 by 1927 chicago investor samuel insull had taken serious interest in both stations . a founding partner of kyw he sold his interest in it and had started great lakes broadcasting . insull purchased both stations paying 1 million for wenr alone . 23 24 under insull s management the two stations once more changed frequencies this time to 870 khz when the combined stations became the first chicago radio station operating under 50 000 watts of power from a new transmitter in downers grove illinois in 1929 . insull s great lakes broadcasting holdings also included a mechanical television station w9xr which went on the air after the downers grove transmitter was installed . 24 25 26 insull moved his stations first into chicago s strauss building and then to his own civic opera house . 23 24 27 the investor s fortune began dwindling by 1931 ; insull then sold the licenses of both stations to national broadcasting company . by early 1933 wbcn s call letters had left the airwaves and the frequency was occupied by wenr which became part of nbc s blue network and by wls . nbc shut down w9xr by 1933 just as it had done with wx9ap which it acquired in its purchase of radio station wmaq . 12 23 24 28 29 changes were made regarding am frequencies in 1941 as a result of the north american regional broadcasting agreement ; this moved wenr and wls from 870 to 890 khz . 24 in august 1943 nbc was ordered to divest itself of the blue network and its stations ; wenr and blue were sold to edward j. noble . in 1945 the blue network would be renamed as the american broadcasting company . 30 the 1931 sale of the station to nbc moved wenr from the civic opera house to the merchandise mart nbc s chicago headquarters . the station continued on at the mart until 1952 by becoming nbc s tenant moving back to the civic opera house in that year . 31 paul harvey s chicago broadcasting career began at wenr . 32 wenr and wls used the same frequencies in a time sharing arrangement until 1954 when abc then known as american broadcasting paramount theatres bought a 50 percent interest in wls and combined the stations . 1 33 in november 1959 abc announced its purchase of the prairie farmer and its half of wls giving abc full ownership of the station . 34 the wls musicradio era edit on may 2 1960 at 6 a.m. wls went full time rock and roll top 40 . mort crowley 35 was the first on air voice of the new wls ; the first song played was alley oop by the hollywood argyles 36 four full weeks before it debuted on the hot 100 . the first djs were sam holman and ralph beaudin . wls then quickly hired bob hale gene taylor mort crowley jim dunbar and star disc jockey dick biondi a 1998 inductee of the national radio hall of fame 37 from webr in buffalo new york . 38 39 40 other notable disc jockeys who worked at wls in the 1960s include clark weber art roberts 41 42 43 ron ringo riley . 44 late in the 1960s then into the 1970s and beyond came larry lujack 45 dex card 46 clark weber chuck buell kris erik stevens joel sebastian gary gears jerry kay bob sirott john records landecker yvonne daniels 47 steve dahl garry meier brant miller tom kent steve king jeff davis and tommy edwards . 15 some of the production directors responsible for the sound of wls were ray van steen hal widsten jim hampton bill price and tommy edwards . in the 1960s wls was a major force in introducing new music and recording artists . wls weekly silver dollar survey distributed free via record stores was retitled silver beatle survey during the height of beatlemania the first us airplay of a record by the beatles please please me was on dick biondi s show on february 8 1963 . 48 49 50 wls was voted by broadcasters nationally as the station of the year in 1967 1968 and 1969 . john rook was named program director of the year in 1968 and 1969 as wls was estimated attracting 4.2 million listeners weekly by pulse research . 51