WGLD FM in Oak Park, Illinois switched to a full time progressive rock format in January 1970. Terry Hemmert who had a long career at WXRT began her professional career at the station. The first clip above features Digby Welsh from Feb 6, 1971, during the station’s progressive era.
WGLD switched to oldies and the second clip is from the oldies era and features Ross Brooks from Oct 25, 1973. A relatively early example of the oldies format on the radio.
These excellent examples of Chicago radio from the early 1970’s were contributed to the site by Tom Konard.
Javed, I’m not sure if you know, and if you don’t, I’m sorry to break the news, but Tom Konard passed away last week in Belgium, according to his Facebook page.
That’s sad. I did not know. Had not been in touch with him for some time. He did great work and maintained a huge library of air checks.
Yes, he did. He had a collection on REELRADIO, and I bought maybe a dozen airchecks from him over the space of a year 4-5 years ago. He was always great to deal and to correspond with.
I remember in the afternoon WGLD had a “Top Five at 5” segment. I can remember a couple songs from one I listened to after coming home from school, I was a sophomore at New Trier in Winnetka – All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople, Rock and Roll Soul by Grand Funk Railroad, not sure the rest on that one though. Must have been around ’73 but you say they went to oldies in ’73, I thought they still played rock then. Could have been fall of ’72.
Bill, also Reeling in the Years I think. Wow great memories.
Do you remember “Righteous Bob Rudnick” of the Kokaine Karma Kids, who got fired in early 1970 for his radical White Panther rants? Happy to hear what anyone recalls of his broadcasts.
Who remembers D.J.s Scorpio and Gwen?
Yes! Scorpio in the evenings. I remember
I was very young at the time (9 maybe), but Scorpio and my sister, Sylvia were dating for a brief time. I remember him walking to our house with his cape blowing in the wind to pick her up.
I also recall that he played Quentin’s Theme from Dark Shadows as an acknowledgement to my mother as it was her favorite show at the time.
Gwen, yes.
Question: was wgld found at 93.1 that later became wxrt?
No. WGLD was 102.7. It began as WOPA-FM, then WGLD, then WBMX, and now WVAZ.
WXRT IS 93.1. It was originally owned by what is now Lewis University. It went on the air in 1949 as WFJL. It lost its license and went dark from 1956 to 1960, when it was acquired by Louis Lee, owner of WSBC-AM, who changed the call to WSBC-FM. In 1963 the call was changed to WXRT. After Louis Lee died, the station ownership passed to his wife, with the station managed by their son Dan. After she died, Dan became the owner. Dan Lee sold the station in 1995 to Westinghouse Group W. In 2017 Westinghouse, which through various mergers had become CBS Radio, sold the station to Entercom, which changed its company name to Audacy.
I do remember WGLD being located at 93.1 and always thought it was taken over and relicensed as WXRT. The XRT site makes no mention of this, so I don’t know they got that frequency so quickly after the demise of GLD. Loved Scorpio who would occasionally sneak in a “damn” or “what the hell” while on air – something that was very new to broadcast radio in the early 70s when you just didn’t use those “dirty words.”.
WGLD was never on 93.1. WXRT was always there. WGLD was located on the old WOPA-FM frequency of 102.7. Our first GM, Seth Mason, did work at WGLD for a short period before helping to start XRT.
As, a teenager, I listened to both Scorpio and Psyche on WOPA/WGLD. I believe John Kovacic and Gwen Johnson were their names. I also listened to Spoke (Gordon Anderson) and the old Love format on WLS-FM which featured, among others, Brother John Rydgren. If not for them and Beaker Street with Clyde Clifford on KAAY-AM from Little Rock, I’d never have gotten into radio.
Harvey thanks for the memories
Chris Wood with Brute force Cybernetics
Tom McGreevy ( he may have been with XRT ) would always end his show with Van Morrison’s Madame George.
And props to John Platt for bringing XRT along in the beginning. Who can forget featured artist when it was a classical or jazz guy?
WXFM was always the more progressive of the progressives featuring Gentle Giant, Supertramp and Pavlov’s Dog.
By the way. I still drive the Pleasuredome on Belmont
What a find! When I discoverex the FM dial
Would love to hear more old WGLD sirchecks before they went oldies format
I still have my poster one of the dj’s gave me when we visited the studio in the Oak Park Arms