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<\/a><\/a> WLS engineers (1932)<\/p><\/div>\n
WLS AM 890<\/a> wasn\u2019t always a Republican propaganda machine or a vomitorium for all the commercials Cumulus Media could cram into every hour. For most of its 90 years on the air, it was a pretty great radio station.<\/p>\n Nine decades to the day after Sears, Roebuck and Company began broadcasting WLS (for \u201cWorld\u2019s Largest Store\u201d) \u2014 on April 12, 1924 \u2014 Steve Darnall will devote a special edition of \u201cThose Were the Days\u201d<\/a> to the station\u2019s glorious and influential past.<\/p>\n Steve Darnall<\/p><\/div>\n This weekend\u2019s program, \"Ninety Years of WLS Radio,\u201d will spotlight some of the most famous broadcasts of its early years. The weekly old-time radio showcase airs from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays on College of DuPage\u2019s WDCB FM 90.9<\/a> and online at wdcb.org.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt occurred to me as we were putting this show together that there aren't too many stations in America, let alone Chicago, that have had the same call letters for 90 years,\u201d said Darnall, who succeeded Chuck Schaden as host and producer of \u201cThose Were the Days\u201d in 2009. \u201cThe shows we're planning to feature are a big part of why WLS was such a vital part of the \u2018Golden Age\u2019 of radio.\u201d<\/p>\n Among highlights included in Saturday\u2019s show:<\/p>\n The Hindenburg<\/p><\/div>\n Hindenburg Eyewitness Account<\/strong> (May 6, 1937<\/em>) WLS announcer Herb Morrison, at Lakehurst, New Jersey, to record the arrival of the airship Hindenburg from Friedrichschafen, Germany, ended up covering one of the biggest disasters in aviation history as the ship exploded and crashed. Recording engineer Charles Nehlsen captured the dramatic event on discs which were broadcast the next day on the full NBC network, the first recordings broadcast on the network in its 10-year history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \u201cThe history of WLS says a lot about how America changed during the 20th century,\u201d Darnall noted. \u201cIn the early years \u2014 when a lot of the Midwest was more rural than urban \u2014 it was the \u2018Prairie Farmer station,\u2019 one of the first stations in America to offer folk and country music and humor. As post-war America transformed a lot of farm country into suburbs and youth culture began to emerge for the first time, WLS became a Top 40 powerhouse.<\/p>\n \u201cIn both instances, WLS forged a path that became the model for a lot of other stations. We're very pleased for the chance to recall a few of the station's many legendary shows and personalities from both eras \u2014 along with one of the most famous news stories of all time, which wouldn't have existed had it not been for WLS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WLS AM 890 wasn\u2019t always a Republican propaganda machine or a vomitorium for all the commercials Cumulus Media could cram into every hour. For most of its 90 years on the air, it was a pretty great radio station. Nine decades to the day after Sears, Roebuck and Company began broadcasting WLS (for \u201cWorld\u2019s... Continue reading ![\"Steve](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/SteveDarnall-198x300.png\")
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