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<\/a><\/a> Darrel Peters<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cHe was the first to utilize both the Chicago and London Symphony Orchestras to produce beautiful-music \u2018cover\u2019 versions of 1960s and 1970s hit tunes, providing them to his major-market affiliates,\u201d according to Sounds of Change: A History of FM Broadcasting in America.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Bonneville Broadcasting purchased the FM 100 Plan at its peak in 1981, and named Peters president of the Chicago division of Bonneville.<\/p>\n He later formed Arlington Heights-based Darrel Peters Productions Inc., encompassing broadcast and publishing businesses.<\/p>\n Peters made national headlines<\/a> in 1983 when he bought WTCO, an FM station in Arlington Heights, and filed to change its call letters to WSEX. The FCC initially rejected the designation, saying it was in \u201cbad taste.\u201d But Peters argued that new call letters \u201cwould have nothing whatsoever to do with \u2018dirty radio\u2019; we just wanted the station to have an identity.\u201d Peters won, running WSEX FM 92.7 as a pop music station until 1989 when he renamed it WCBR (\u201cThe Bear\u201d).<\/p>\n In 1998 Peters sold WCBR for $17 million to Big City Radio. He and longtime associate Tim Disa formed Air Time Media, a consulting and production firm specializing in air-time brokering.<\/p>\n Survivors include his wife, Alaine, two daughters and two grandchildren. Visitation and a memorial service for Peters will be Saturday at Davenport Funeral Home, 149 West Main Street, Barrington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Darrel Peters, whose name was once synonymous with \u201cbeautiful music\u201d on Chicago radio, died Tuesday in Barrington. He was 84. A Chicago native and prominent broadcast executive in the city and suburbs for more than 40 years, Peters was general manager of WLOO in its heyday in the 1970s as \u201cFM 100,\u201d a top-rated easy... Continue reading