WIND (AM)
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WIND-AM "News-Talk 560" is a radio station based in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasting its talk radio format on 560 kHz. Its current owner is Salem Media, a Christian radio company.
History
WIND first signed on in 1927. It was later sold to Westinghouse in 1956. WIND had general entertainment until the late 1950s when it evolved into a popular music format. By the 1960s, though WIND, along with other Westinghouse stations employed a Top 40 music format, WLS did much better in the ratings. Several Westinghouse stations went to an all-news format. Others like WIND evolved into adult contemporary formats by the 1970s. Instead of competing against WLS they opted to compete against WGN and its MOR/talk format. By 1975 WIND played music during the day along with local news until 6:00 p.m. when they would switch to call-in talk programming. Similar formats were on Westinghouse sister stations like WBZ in Boston, Massachusetts and KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
WIND and WGN had similar formats except the latter played less music. By 1978 WIND switched to a news/talk format and opted to add local talk shows in the morning, midday, and afternoon. By 1981 WIND dropped all the music and added all-news blocks between 6:00-9:00 a.m. and 3:00-7:00 p.m.. The station did not perform as well as sister stations. In 1985 Westinghouse sold WIND to Tichenor Radio for $6 million and left the Chicago market. Westinghouse later returned to the area by purchasing WMAQ-AM from NBC in 1987. The station became all-news on March 1, 1988, giving Westinghouse hope that WMAQ's 50,000 watt signal would create serious competition for CBS-owned WBBM.
In 1985 WIND became a Spanish AC music station, including Spanish-language news and talk shows. WIND evolved to Spanish news and talk by the 1990. In 1993 WIND was sold to Heftel Broadcasting. In 1996 Clear Channel Communications bought non-voting stock in Heftel, but in 1998 Heftel was restructured where Clear Channel no longer owned interest and became known as Hispanic Broadcasting.
In 2005 Hispanic Broadcasting made a deal with Salem Media, resulting in Salem owning WIND while Hispanic Broadcasting got WPPN. Salem dropped the Spanish format for the talk radio format. The line-up includes Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, Bill Bennett, Dennis Prager, Michael Savage, and Hugh Hewitt.
Effective July 1, 2005, WIND entered into a three-year agreement with the University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics to carry Illinois Fighting Illini football and men's basketball games, as well as the coaches shows, through the Illini Sports Radio Network.
External link
- [WIND]
| AM Radio stations in the Chicago market''' | |
|---|---|
| By frequency | 560 | 670 | 720 | 750 |780 | 820 | 850 | 890 | 950 | 1000 | 1080 | 1110 | 1160 | 1200 | 1240 (WCRW / WSBC) | 1270 | | 1300 | 1390 | 1450 | 1490 | 1570 | 1590 | 1690 |
| By callsign |
WAIT | WBBM | WBGX | WCPT | WCRW | WEDC | WGN | WGRB | WIND | WLS | WMBI | WMVP | WNDZ | WNTD | WNWI | WONX | WPNA | WRDZ | WRLL | WRTO | WSBC | WSCR | WVON | WYLL
|
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