THE WVON RADIO STORY
But it did.
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You’d think there would be no way to botch a play about WVON, 1450 AM. Probably the most important radio station in Chicago history, this 1000-watt operation on South Kedzie owned by blues impresarios Leonard and Phil Chess was the number-one station in the city from 1963 into the early 70s. With a memorable roster of deejays that included Pervis Spann (“The all-day all-night bluesman”), superhip Herb “Cool Gent” Kent, and sweet-talking Lucky Cordell, WVON turned Chicago on to the music of Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler and the Impressions, and the Chi-Lites. WVON was also a pioneer in talk radio. Present general manager Wesley South hosted Hotline, on which pivotal figures in the African American community like Dick Gregory and Elijah Muhammad appeared live. When Martin Luther King came on South’s show cars lined up for miles on Kedzie, full of people waiting to catch a glimpse of him. King delivered an impromptu address in the WVON parking lot. In the 80s WVON’s talk shows were credited with turning out the vote for Harold Washington.
The first hour is almost all taken up by the deejays introducing themselves, giving us a taste of their shtick and the sort of rote information usually found in high school oral reports. “I had a highly successful show,” says Lucky Cordell. “I climbed quickly up the ladder.” Bernadine Washington tells us, “I was the first black woman vice president of a major radio station.” Good. Fine. But this is not the most interesting way of giving information.
