One of the finest Top 40 stations ever, WLS-890 in Chicago, is running the WLS Big 89 Rewind on Wednesday, July 4th. The one on Memorial Day this year was fabulous, featuring current shows from the likes of Larry Lujack.

You have three choices to listen. With commercials, you can tune to 890 KHz if you live someplace where the WLS signal can be heard. http://www.wlsam.com provides live streaming.

But, without commercials, you can hear an initially 5 hour delayed version (i.e. - beginning at a more sane hour: 9 a.m. Pacific, instead of 6 a.m. Central) streamed (i.e. - not On Demand) at http://www.reelradio.com. The combination of better audio quality and no commercials would alone be worth the $12 U.S. per year subscription price for ReelRadio, let alone the nearly 2000 airchecks on the site.

I did a lot of homework and other activities listening to WLS in the evening from Vancouver (Canada) in the 1960s. The only station I could honestly say I preferred to WLS was WBZ during the winter of 1964-65, solely because WBZ was then playing new hits first, slightly ahead of WLS.

Here in Edmonton, WLS was the last distant station I found worth listening to, for pure enjoyment. About 15 years ago, WLS switched to Talk and local CHQT switched to 880, effectively ending my interest in listening to WLS.

How about a 62-KGW Rewind???

There would have to be a 62KGW to rewind on! KEX or KXL could rewind whatever they did in the 1950s but it wouldn't be the same.

Adiant - Thanks for the heads-up!

I listened to about 7 hours of the WLS Memorial Day Rewind...and it was PHENOMENAL! I'll make plans for July 4th...and I don't care if it has commercials or not!

To this day, I remember the All-American rock-n-roll that 62KGW played on the 4th of July. No Beatles or English/overseas influence...just pure Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Steve Miller Band, Bruce Springsteen, etc. Neil Diamond's "America" NEVER sounded so good! The long drive home from the Fort Vancouver fireworks show went faster than the actual crawling traffic. (And with airborne traffic reports, no less!)

Great radio that made for great memories...

How about a 62-KGW Rewind?
There would have to be a 62KGW to rewind on!
I'm not trying to change the subject of the thread, but I think it's worth pointing out that 'Super 62 KPOJ' had some of the lowest 12+ ratings (if not the lowest) of any of the formats they've run since Super 62 KGW. Progressive Talk is probably the hottest format they've done since then. I'm not defending the switch nor praising the current format (I don't like it either, mostly due to it being tape-delayed, not content-wise), just seeing it like it is.
(Makes me want to cue up Bruce Hornsby's "That's Just the Way It Is.")

KPOJ got about the same numbers as 970 had a couple of years before. Both were going up against KISN-FM and there just wasn't enough left. If they had run KISN-AM that way, it could have been sold as a combo and have been complimentary to the FM but the time for that has long passed, even if KISN-FM were still on the air in 60s/70s mode. That said, Super 62 was an extremely enjoyable experience! They supplemented songs I knew as Oldies with others I was unfamiliar with but everything was so darned compatible, it sounded great! I actually remembered very few of these songs from their initial popularity but had heard them while growing up. It was the first time I remember enjoying a plethora of new(to me)music in many years!

We used to listen to WLS in Tulsa Ok, that is where I first heard Bill Cosby.

I'm listening to 890, and I'm hearing two stations alternately dominate the frequency: KDXU from Utah (news/talk format with Dateline Washington and Coast-to-Coast AM) and a station running a Regional Mexican format with the "La X" monicker. Does anybody know the call letters or location of the Spanish station? I cannot hear WLS in the jumble that is underneath these stations.

I'm thinking the poster named Billboise recently mentioned 890 in Meridian ID recently going Spanish, but their oldies website is still up.

Here's the complete 890 list from the FCC.

WLS was usually a difficult catch even in the days when 890 was clear, not to mention after the Utah station went on.

Here's a couple of WLS airchecks from my collection. Enjoy!

John Landecker & Fred Winston 1973-1974
http://www.divshare.com/download/1142904-424

John Landecker 1975
http://www.divshare.com/download/158523-338

The Divshare site has been down intermittently for maintenance the last couple of days, so if the above links don't work, try again later.

Here are the same airchecks on MediaFire.

John Landecker & Fred Winston 1973-1974
http://www.mediafire.com/?8ntmdtfjogg

John Landecker 1975
http://www.mediafire.com/?cxwzngwiw4t

Thanks for the 'checks, Steve. While I appreciate the nostalgia for re-creating the WLS music sound, it just doesn't feel the same for this listener. Radio was, and still remains today, a medium for "the moment". That moment is most important. Sadly, we are losing those moments.

Paul: listening to this WLS Rewind, I have the opposite reaction that you do listening to the airchecks. This is the finest Oldies format you'll ever likely to hear this century. Oldies, of course, suffers from no truly fresh material. At least half the answer is DJs with the strength of personality you hear here. The other half is not to play the same 350 songs over and over again.

I'm surprised at Randy's comments about WLS being a difficult catch. I surprised myself a decade ago by unearthing a tape I'd made from Vancouver (Canada) of Kris Stevens doing 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on WLS in late August of either 1968 or 1969. Very listenable with one or two short fades caused by two different multi-skip skywaves being out of phase with each other. A little bit of slop from a 10,000 watt station on 900 KHz a short distance away (Victoria). But the main problem was lightning strikes between Vancouver and Chicago. No storms brewing in the Pacific Northwest that night so likely somewhere East of the Rockies.

My point is that I had forgotten that DX was very possible in the summer months, too, so I would guess that WLS was heard year-round by me, if I stayed up late enough, in the 1960s. Winter was better, of course, but I'm still amazed at what you could hear even in the summer.

I was unsure at the time I posted the first item in this thread, but, yes, this is a repeat of the Memorial Day broadcast day.

Adiant, maybe I wasn't clear on my point. The airchecks are much more valuable to me as a listener than a 2007 re-creation. The airchecks are the "moment"!

>>I'm surprised at Randy's comments about WLS being a difficult catch.

I was using a typical Sony portable AM/FM with it's internal antenna, which was somewhat less sensitive than a current GE SuperRadio.

I do enjoy the jocks reflections and reminiscences on the "Rewinds" but as the classic Coke commercial goes, "...ain't nothing like the real thing."

Adiant - Your first paragraph is dead-on right. I've never heard personality this strong in years. In spite of being a repeat from Memorial Day, I got to hear some stuff this morning I missed the first time around...and the rest of the stuff I've heard sounded mighty fine the SECOND time around!

Textbook stuff... THIS is the kind of radio we'll not likely hear much more of...and it's a shame. You turn off the Rewind, and you KNOW you're going to miss something!

If you missed it...or even if you heard it, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/WLS890

It's a wonderful retrospective of the whole day...too short, but you can buy the video! (It was put together by "Radio's Best Friend," Art Vuolo, and is quality stuff.)

Hey Mark, heard you guys in Phoenix were 116 degrees today! That's just too rich for my blood! We were a cool 90.

Yeah, Craig...but it's a "dry" heat! At least until this weekend, when the winds shift and moisture from Old Mexico invades the desert...That means "Monsoon" time, and desert thunderstorms. When that moisture hits, the temps go down to a seasonal 106, but it feels more like weather I felt in Oklahoma...Ugh! It only takes six weeks of dry desert heat before you wuss out on humidity...

I remember those 90+ days when we lived in Beavercreek...without A/C! I'm spoiled today, but I have the high power bills in July and August to prove it!!

For anyone at the Oregon Coast, please say "hi" to a seagull for me!

"this is a repeat of the Memorial Day broadcast day."

Here are some un-scoped airchecks of the the WLS Memorial Day Rewind.

WLS Rewind 5/28/07 9am
http://www.divshare.com/download/767823-ad6

WLS Rewind 5/28/07 7am
http://www.divshare.com/download/767606-81e

WLS Rewind 5/28/07 5am
http://www.divshare.com/download/767321-7fb

THANK YOU STEVE!!! This fills in a couple of holes I missed both times around!

wls is the home of larry lou jack