SALUTE TO WVON'S HALF CENTURY OF OUTSTANDING BROADCASTING
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 ...
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