You know, back when people actually wanted to get jobs in the radio business, it could be a pretty long climb to respectability. You generally had to start at the bottom of the ladder, market-wise. Start off in Bumfuck, South Dakota (you don't want to know what their high school's mascot is), maybe work your way up to La Crosse, and from there possibly Omaha, and if you don't have to serve a tour of duty in Cincinnati, then you make it to the big markets. This was daunting, especially if you were spoiled by living in Chicago, where the quality of the radio market is probably what made you want to get into the business in the first place.

So how lucky a generation of Chicagolanders were to have had a stepping stone between college radio and downtown, right in their backyard. The WYEN Experience by Stew Cohen is a book about that place. WYEN was, though certainly not designed as such, a proving ground of sorts for many future broadcasting stars in Chicago and beyond. It wasn't always easy for anyone, employers and employees alike, but for a while there, we had something special happening over at 106.7. Recommended reading if you're a Chicago radio junkie and want some memories of what mom-and-pop radio, God rest its soul, was all about -- warts and all.

Full disclosure: I know i'm opening myself up for some doxxing here, and so I'm very carefully sticking my neck out on this, but I'm shamelessly promoting this book because my parents met at this station, which my grandparents owned. And so there's the reason why I'm posting about Chicago media all the time. It's in my blood and I can't get it out. Moreover, some of the anecdotes from family members may have been "as told to" yours truly. I haven't had a chance to ascertain how it all came together just yet, but I will this week.

For more information (what an appropriate closer for this "radio ad"), visit http://thewyenexperience.com.

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WYEN used to be the home of Racing Wrap-Up with Tony Salvaro. I would tune in every night after the races. He'd have results, stretch calls, and good interviews.

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Don't take it personally.

WYEN had the Blackhawks for a year. They got dropped by WBBM or WCFL and had to find a new home. In lieu of anyone better, they found my family's home. The broadcaster they selected? Some guy named Pat Foley.

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Werent they the ones with the "Doin' it in the burbs" as their ad slogan?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I can't vouch for that, but since they were licensed to Des Plaines with their stick in Arlington Heights, it's likely.

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sounds like a cool read. Did you ever work there, CH?

No. I was born in 1986, near the end of the station's run. I just got to absorb all the stories growing up.

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I guess I no longer qualify as radio junkie, as have no memory of this.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Born in '86? Holy shit, am I old.

Bill Wirtz discovered Pat doing MSU hockey and loved him.

As soon as the old man went totally senile, Peter dumped him.

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Is that the story? I thought it had to do with halving his pay to do television only.

And as soon as the old man died, Rocky dumped Peter, Pat Foley is back, Hawks won the Cup, so it all worked out in the end. Not for Bill Wirtz, though. And not for shakes.

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There's a WYEN billboard on a bus in the Best Picture winner Ordinary People. I guess the station did have market penetration in the North Shore if the filmmakers wanted to document that.

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'82 for me. Does that make you feel better?

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-- source

Uh....no. I was born in '68.

GET OFF OF MY LAWN!!!!

ha, ha, old man

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

dad was an unwashed, late night jock and mom was a lonely groupie

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Got my autographed copy yesterday. Good breezy read. Probably the biggest thing I took from it is how much radio has advanced, technologically. A lot of people complained about how bad the equipment was when they went on the air, but like, okay, perhaps you should have started your own radio station, since apparently you had the resources to buy a time machine and bring back a NexGen for everyone. I'd say "I can't imagine how they did it manually," but when I got to monkey around as a kid in one of the stations my grandparents owned, I was, in time, running cart machines like a champ, so actually I do have an idea of how the old equipment worked. And it sucked! Damn carts never worked. On second thought, how did they do it?

It's a funny paradox: the radio business collectively laments the death of "mom-and-pop radio" and how the same five corporations own everything, but they certainly aren't without their complaints about the old days, either. Part of "mom-and-pop radio" is that Mom and Pop didn't have infinite funds to procure an FCC license (in WYEN's case, the last open frequency in the Chicago market) and top-of-the-line equipment. No, employees didn't make as much as perhaps they should have, but I suspect they often didn't realize or didn't care that when that was the case, Mom and Pop weren't feeding Son and Daughter. And yeah, family members got jobs there. That's because it was, after all, a family business. People want it both ways: they want to go about their cool DJ jobs unmolested by corporate overlords, but if their corporate overlords wouldn't perhaps mind furnishing their studios with technology we once would have thought unimaginable and also paying them a lot of money, that'd be sweet, too. Yeah, see, it doesn't really work that way (except for XRT, which CBS pretty much leaves alone, but if some of their jocks work seven days a week and don't seem to be voice-tracking their weekend shifts, they can't be making that much). I'm glad the people interviewed for the book were honest about the adversity they faced early on, because to have whitewashed that would've made it a dishonest and worthless history, but I just hope they retained some perspective about just how uphill it was to have had that station exist, and that what they learned at WYEN under less than ideal circumstances (except for the part about getting entry-level radio work in the #3 market) made them into accomplished broadcasters who finally earned what they deserved.


Yeah, they mentioned him in there, sure enough.

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Wheres the ebook?

Rocky Wirtz made an off the cuff dig to the "year we were on WYEN" when he stopped by to chat with Pat Foley about his 30 years with the Hawks.

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Return To The Chicago Radio Timeline

WYEN – Des Plaines, IL

12/3/1971


9/1/1986


106.7mHz


Walt-West Enterprises


In FM's early days the 106.7mHz frequency was occupied by WKRS-FM from far north suburban Waukegan. The station would go silent by 1951 and the frequency would remain vacant for the next 20 years. When the FM dial was re-organized the channel was allocated to Waukegan but local station WKRS wasn't interested in restarting the station. In the early 60s several groups would finally apply for the license for the last Class B FM signal in the Chicago area. In 1963 WEFA began operations from Waukegan but the 106.7 frequency would remain up for grabs as several applicants looked to move the station into the city. This effort would become a problem as any new station would have to avoid interfering with WLNR-FM operating from south suburban Lansing.

The license battle would finally end with the channel being awarded to Ed Walters and Jerry Westerfield. They were able to get their station licensed to northwest suburban Des Plaines with a 50,000 watt transmitting facility located on Dundee Road in Arlington Heights. Walters, the former General Manager of WFMF, would bring in Ray Smithers to program the new station that debuted as WYEN on December 3, 1971. The strong stereo signal covered much of the Chicago area as well as the southern suburbs of Milwaukee.

WYEN's studios in the Devon-O'hare Office Plaza


Initially WYEN featured a Beautiful Music format that not only had to compete with major Chicago stations such as WFMF, WCLR and WLAK but also nearby WEXI. The station would move towards more contemporary music but with a twist...the format would be based on listeners requests. In late 1972 WYEN would become “Request Radio”; a mixture of soft contemporary hits with popular music and oldies. Walters and Smithers would bring in a staff of young talent including Rob Reynolds, Gil Peters and Matthew Meier (later known as Garry).

WYEN would be the last of the locally-owned stations in the Chicago area. Walters family would be involved in all aspects of its operation. Despite its large coverage the focus remained on the northwest suburban area. It rarely showed up in the Chicago ratings and relied on local advertising. The station would try variations on the Adult Contemporary format including a mixture of urban and then county artists.

Walters would run into legal problems when the station was cited in violation of new EEOC or Equal Opportunity hiring violations. Throughout the 80s the station would face on-going proceedings that would eventually lead Walters to sell the station. By 1986 the Adult Contemporary format was dominating the FM dial and WYEN was getting lost in the shuffle. Walters would strike a deal with Satellite Music Network to provide the station with a new format. On September 1st the Adult Contemporary music would be replaced with Hard Rock as WYEN would become WZRC, the first affiliate of the new Z-Rock network. Within a year Walters would sell the station to black businessman Vernon Merrit.

Mike Bashem behind the controls in the final days of WYEN

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Hi,
I thought WSBR was the last of local FM stations. I think WSBR had an antenae off Arlington Hts. Road & Dundee or am I crossing the two stations up?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Correct! I used to pass the 92.7 stick all the time. It was in a little industrial section off Dundee, south of that strip mall with Portillo's and, long ago, a Belden Deli. University Drive, I want to say?

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I don't remember that but I did buy my first dog at Kaye's animal shelter down the street on Arlington Hts. Road. That is still there.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Arl Hts and Hintz, right?

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You are correct sir!

That pooch cost us like 48 dollars and lived 19.5 years!

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."