WVON/Chicago To Lease WRLL Signal From Clear Channel

Making The Move To 1690

MELODY SPANN-COOPER's MIDWAY BROADCASTING has inked a five-year lease deal (with purchase option) to take over programming on CLEAR CHANNEL Oldies WRLL-A/CHICAGO, which will flip on SEPTEMBER 18 to carry MIDWAY's African-American Talk programming presently heard on a shared-time basis on crosstown WVON-A. The move restores 24/7 status to WVON, which moved to share 1450 AM with brokered Ethnic WCEV-A several years ago and presently airs first-run programming from 5a-1p and 10p-Midnight weekdays.

CLEAR CHANNEL's WGCI-WGRB-A-WVAZ OM ELROY SMITH will serve as OM for the station and CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO SALES will represent the station for national advertising while SPANN-COOPER's company will program the facility. The station will expand its talk programming around the clock but will drop music programming, including SPANN-COOPER's father PERVIS SPANN's long-running Blues show.

The move displaces the "Real Oldies" format on the 1690 frequency, CLEAR CHANNEL's WRLL. The station's team of legendary CHICAGO jocks - including LARRY LUJACK, SCOTTY BRINK, TOM MURPHY, LEN O'KELLY, RON SMITH, KATHY WORTHINGTON and PD TOMMY EDWARDS - have exited. The station will run jockless prior to WVON's debut.

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