WGN Radio Timeline

1940

May - WGN presents the first broadcast of The Theater of the Air, an elaborate broadcast produced before a studio audience and heard across the country via the Mutual Broadcasting System. In 1943 the program moves to the Medinah Temple where 3,000 to 4,000 spectators would gather each week to see Marion Claire and other stars perform backed by a full orchestra and chorus. Col. McCormick would often speak during these broadcasts on topics including Revolutionary War battles. Theater of the Air would remain on the air until 1956.

July - In Chicago Tonight, the most elaborate variety show in Chicago's history, debuts for a 10 month run. The weekly series of specially written productions features guests including the Mills Brothers, the Andrews Sisters, Bob Hope, Teddy Wilson, Gary Cooper and Gypsy Rose Lee.

1941

March 1 - WGN's FM sister station, W59C (later WGNB) signs on. A junior announcer named Ward Quaal voices the first FM broadcast. The station would eventually become what is now WFMT.

Fall - WGN takes listeners to the playing field for the first time as, during a broadcast of football game between Northwestern and Michigan, a microphone is brought out on the gridiron to capture the referee's pregame instructions to the teams.

December 7 - Chicagoans are enjoying a broadcast from Soldier Field of the season-ending matchup between the Bears and Cardinals when a young studio announcer named Ward Quaal breaks in with a news bulletin. For the next 10 days (257 hours and 35 minutes to be exact), WGN presents continuous coverage of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II.

1943

July 25 - As news breaks of the overthrow of Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy, WGN's reports are played over the speakers at Wrigley Field to a crowd of 35,000 fans attending a Cubs game.

1944

July - WGN celebrates its 20th anniversary. Educational Director Myrtle Stahl, Assistant Music Librarian Fred Meinken, and WGN Symphony Orchestra Pianist Leon Benditzky also celebrate their 20th anniversaries with the company.

1946

May - In an experiment many years ahead of its time, a four page "facsimile edition" of the Chicago Tribune is transmitted over WGNB from Tribune Tower to Col. McCormick's Cantigny Farm in Wheaton, Illinois.

1948

April 4 - WGN-TV begins daily operation with a gala two hour program from the main studio of the WGN Building on Michigan Avenue. Programs transmitted to an estimated 16,000 sets (a quarter of them in taverns) would originate from studio facilities atop the Daily News Building at 400 West Madison and an auditorium in a Loop department store. Col. McCormick is ill and unable to participate in person. (For a WGN-TV history timeline, visit wgntv.trb.com/about/station/wgntv-timeline.storygallery?track=subnav)

1953

Fall - Jack Brickhouse and Irv Kupcinet begin a long term partnership as the Chicago Bears radio broadcast team.

1955

April 1 - Col. Robert R. McCormick dies at the age of 75.

1956

June 8 - WGN hires Ward L. Quaal as Vice President and General Manager. He had originally joined WGN upon graduation from Northwestern and worked in positions including announcer and Special Assistant to the General Manager. His return to WGN follows four years as Vice President and Assistant General Manager at Crosley Broadcasting in Cincinnati.

1958

February - In response to a growing national problem of highway safety, WGN premieres Signal 10, a dramatic radio series featuring Sgt. Tim McCarthy of the Indiana State Police in on-the-spot interrogations of traffic violators. The show is syndicated to points as far away as California and Europe and wins the first Alfred P. Sloan Award ever given to a Chicago station.

Spring - After being broadcast on WIND for a number of years, the Cubs begin their long-term exclusive radio broadcast partnership with WGN that continues to this day, more than half a century later.

November 24 - A new era of traffic coverage begins as Chicago Police Department Officer Leonard Baldy becomes the first "Flying Officer," reporting from WGN's trafficopter from high above rush-hour congestion.

December 1 - Just a week after its debut, the WGN trafficopter proves its worth as a newsgathering tool as it hovers over Our Lady of the Angels school, site of a tragic fire that kills 92 children and three nuns. While providing coverage for WGN listeners, Officer Leonard Baldy also helps emergency vehicles navigate to the school and to local hospitals through the congested streets in the area.

On to the 1960s...