SALUTE TO WVON'S HALF CENTURY OF OUTSTANDING BROADCASTING
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WHEREAS, On April 1, 1963, Leonard and Phil Chess, the legendary owners of the rhythm and blues recording company that bears their name, debuted radio station WVON, the Voice of the Negro; and
WHEREAS, WVON quickly became a success, playing R&B music, ranking consistently among the listener's top five stations in the metropolitan market despite having only 250 watts of power, just enough to reach the south and west sides of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, WVON became a "heritage" station to Chicago's black community featuring outstanding iconic on-air personalities such as Moses "Lucky" Cordell, Bruce Brown, Herb Kent "The Cool Gent", E. Rodney Jones, Cecil Hale, Joe "Youngblood" Cobb, Ed "Nassau Daddy" Cook, Bill "Butterball" Crane, Pervis Spann, Yvonne Daniels, Don Cornelius, Sid McCoy, Richard Pegue, Bernadine C. Washington, Jay Johnson, newsmen Roy Wood and Jim Moloney, a very young reporter/engineer Larry Langford and many others; and
WHEREAS, WVON played a prominent and active role in the civil rights movement by providing extensive coverage of its historic and momentous events. In addition, the station became famous outside the Chicago area when Berry Gordy, the president of Motown Records, decided to send every song he produced immediately to WVON before any other station; and
WHEREAS, When Leonard Chess passed away in 1969, the Chess family decided to sell the station. Two former WVON personalities, Pervis Spann and Wesley South, the principals of Midway Broadcasting, petitioned the FCC to resurrect the WVON call letters in 1984 at the original 1490 AM frequency. In 1986, WVON adopted its current black-oriented talk radio format; and
WHEREAS, On September 18, 2006, WVON's call letters and programming moved to 1690 AM. Today, WVON is one ofthe most talked about radio stations in the country and its reputation has grown. Now in its 50th year, WVON is honoring the legacy of Pervis Spann and his decades of committed work by having such talents like Cliff Kelley, Tracee Ellis Ross, Toni Braxton, Terisa Griffin - Kendall, Roy Ayers and a host of other celebrated personalities under one roof to salute and broadcast the best and brightest of black American voices; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED That we, the Mayor and members of the City of Chicago City Council,
gathered together this 10th Day of April, 2013 AD, do hereby salute WVON for its half century of
dedicated service to the African American community and extend our very best wishes for ^ o
another half century of successful broadcasting. 1
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED That a suitable copy of this resolution be prepared and^nSentetS
to WVON. -<fy ck i§
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