am alert

WGN (AM)

WGN (720 AM) is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The station offers a news and talk format and is the flagship station of the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Blackhawks, Northwestern University football & men's basketball and Paul Harvey. WGN is usually the top rated radio station in Chicago and is one of only a handful of American talk radio stations to have all of its programming originating locally.

WGN-AM, is responsible for activation of the Chicagoland Emergency Alert System when hazardous weather alerts, Disaster area declarations, and child abductions are issued.

History

WGN went on the air on March 29, 1924 from studios in the Edgewater Beach Hotel which previously broadcast with the call sign WJAZ. In May, 1924, the Chicago Tribune ended its ties with the Edgewater Beach Hotel station (which changed its call letters to WEBH) and began an association with WDAP. WGN went on the air again on June 1, 1924 from studios in the Drake Hotel as the new name for WDAP, a station which had been broadcasting since May of 1922. Its call sign is a reference to the Chicago Tribune which at the time branded itself the "World's Greatest Newspaper". To underscore that, in the Tribune's radio listings, the station was listed as "W-G-N", while other stations were listed without hyphens.

WGN is a high-powered clear channel AM station (50,000 watts), which during nighttime hours is often audible over much of the USA, parts of Canada, and sometimes as far away as Australia and South America. The station also has a 24/7 Internet stream on its website, which carries the station's broadcast programming except for commercial breaks and Cubs games, when public service announcements, station promotions, host-read commercials and alternate programming, is played instead.

Early programming was noted for its creativity and innovation. It included live music, political debates, comedy routines, and some of radio's first broadcasts of sporting events, including the Indianapolis 500 automobile race, and a live broadcast of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial from Dayton, Tennessee. In 1926, WGN broadcast Sam & Henry, a daily serial with comic elements created and performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. After a dispute with the station in 1927, Gosden and Correll took the program's concept and announcer Bill Hay across town to WMAQ and created the first syndicated radio show in history, Amos 'n' Andy.

WGN was a founding member of the Mutual Broadcasting System.

In November 1958, WGN became the first radio station in Chicago to broadcast helicopter traffic reports featuring Police Officer Leonard Baldy. WGN is now mainly a news and talk radio station. WGN broadcasts news, weather, traffic and sports every hour. Pat Hughes and Ron Santo serve as the play-by-play team for all games of the Chicago Cubs, and the broadcasts are known as the Pat and Ron Show. WGN is also the radio home of Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball games. On April 30, 2008, the Chicago Blackhawks and WGN announced a partnership to broadcast games for the next three seasons.

Over many decades, WGN was a "full service" radio station. The station played small amounts of music during mornings and afternoons, moderate amounts of music on weekends during the day, had midday and evening talk shows, and sports among other features. The station's music was easy listening/MOR-based until the 1970s, when the music was more of an adult contemporary-type sound. The music played at the station was phased out during the 1980s, and by 1990, the station's lineup mainly consisted of talk shows.

Some former well-known personalities on the station include longtime morning host Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, and Roy Leonard. Orion Samuelson has been the station's farm broadcaster since 1960.

Notable events

In 2005, Tom Langmyer joined WGN as Vice President and General Manager. Langmyer was previously Vice President and General Manager of KMOX Radio in St. Louis and Vice President-Programming of CBS Radio's 10 News/Talk Stations.

On April 30, 2008, the station announced a three-year deal making WGN radio "The Voice of the Chicago Blackhawks," bringing NHL hockey to the station through the 2010-2011 seasons.