Jason Elliot Benda's Home Page Department of Frivolity and Diversions, Broadcasting Office

Jason Elliot Benda's Useless Files: Radio

Listen to the radio. Watch TV. Get a life. This page is not devoted to getting a life.

WLRW 94.5 FM, Champaign. When I was in Urbana-land, this was my favorite radio station. It was still the #1 preset FM station on my car radio until not too long ago, even though I had to fight to pick it up with a Milwaukee station. The morning team of Jerome and Melissa is still my favorite morning radio show, and afternoon man Mike Blakemore was always worth listening to.

Where are my favorite WLRW personalities now? (Hint: None of them are still at WLRW!)

I tracked down Melissa Forman in January 2001 at ENERGY 92.7 and 92.5 in Chicago, where she was solo host of the morning show (with two producer guys). (See the link to WDEK below). She had been working at the station as a Top 40 station; I found her three days after they changed to a dance format. A native of Northbrook, Melissa spent some time at WWNK in Cincinnati before coming back to her home market. I had once again lost her, but I managed to find her again, thanks to this web page. Tony "Tim" Lossano found my outdated links to Melissa's former position, and he was kind enough to direct me to WLIT-FM in Chicago. I immediately turned on my radio, and when the song ended, there was Melissa! Thanks again to Mr. Lossano for putting me back in the list of Melissa Forman's listeners. Read more about her current post and supporting cast at WLIT here.

Jerome Ritchey is now at WICS-TV in Springfield as the weatherman on the 5:00 newscast. He left WLRW in 1997 for the weather maps at WICS's Champaign satellite, WICD, before going back to meteorology school. Click here for his bio from the WICS web site. He is allegedly married to half of WLRW's current morning team, Popeye and Marge. (Let me put it this way: neither WICS-TV nor WLRW actually say that on their web sites. However, WICS says that Jerome's wife, Margie, is also in broadcasting, and each station says their own personality has two children, Hannah and Ian. I don't think it's much of a stretch to put the two together, although it is pretty weird.)

Mike Blakemore is now program director and midday man at KMXD Des Moines. Mike was also the PD at WLRW; he went directly to the Des Moines outlet from Champaign. (I wish I had known that when I went to Ames last April; I would have listened. Then again, maybe I did; that station's frequency is preset #5 in my car.)

WKTI 94.5 FM, Milwaukee. See the notes on WLRW. I found WKTI on some nights at Elmhurst while looking for WLRW. It was also a good station, I thought.

WBBM 780 AM, Chicago. For over 30 years, WBBM has been Chicago's all-news station. I listen to WBBM almost every day; the radio in the kitchen and the one in the bathroom are both locked on AM 780.

WKIE 92.7 FM, Arlington Heights; WKIF 92.7 FM, Kankakee; WDEK 92.5 FM, DeKalb. The first (and only) time I ever heard the Dr. Demento Show, it was on WDEK, which was a local station in DeKalb. Now WDEK has been taken over by an amalgam of radio stations known as ENERGY 92.7 and 5. I was willing to listen to this station in the morning to hear Melissa Forman, and after doing that for a while, the music grows on you (even if they did play a few songs six times in five mornings; their playlist isn't too long over there, and often the same song will play twice during the morning show). I still prefer the music that played on WLRW when Melissa was there, but oh well. Now that I've found Melissa at WLIT, I'll likely not listen to this station again.

WONC 89.1 FM, Naperville. The radio voice of North Central College.

While I was compiling this list of radio stations and web sites, I came across a lot of information about some '60s-era radio and the demise of AM music radio, including the toppling of giant Musicradio 77 WABC in New York at noon on 10 May 1982. I never listened to WABC, of course, but the end of anything in radio is a sad affair. I do remember the end of WMAQ here in Chicago; that was at midnight, 31 July 2000. I also remember, although I wasn't listening, the end of WNBC in New York. That happened, I have learned, at 5:30 in the afternoon on 7 October 1988. I never listened to WNBC, either (these New York stations are such a pain with the Chicago clear-channels only 10 kHz lower in frequency), but I remember the station. Mostly I remember the traffic report. I'm amazed I found a sound file for it; I can still hear those last twelve words as clearly today as I could the day I saw them on the WWOR-TV news, as clearly as they sounded to millions of New Yorkers listening to the Joey Reynolds show on afternoon drive on an otherwise normal Wednesday afternoon. The table below links to some history sites for specific radio stations, as well as their current sites (where I can find them).

Former	Current	Other Notes
	No longer exists (as of 07 October 1988)	My transcript of Jane Dornacker's final traffic report for WNBC 66
	No longer exists (as of 31 July 2000)	www.wmaqradio.com now links to WBBM Newsradio 780's site
Top 40 (7 December 1960-10 May 1982)	Talk
Top 40	News
Top 40 (2 May 1960-23 August 1989)	Talk

While we're on the subject of radio, one of my hobbies many years ago was listening to faraway radio stations. Using my old GE clock radio in my room in Downers Grove, I would strain to pull in whatever stations I could on the AM broadcast band. My dial would light up with stations from Philadelphia, Detroit, Des Moines, Cleveland, and even Boston, much to my amazement. This month (February 2001) I've done some searching again, trying (and failing miserably) the New York stations, but finding a few others, mostly on the radio in my mother's Nissan. The following is a list of stations I have heard this month:

WJR 760 Detroit
CFRB 1010 Toronto
KDKA 1020 Pittsburgh
WBZ 1030 Boston
WHO 1040 Des Moines
KYW 1060 Philadelphia
WTAM 1100 Cleveland (frequency used to be WWWE; I don't know what happened)

Got a bone to pick? Click the bone to mail me directly, or "HIDE ME! HIDE ME!" to let me know incognito.
Lost? Click the magic 9 ball to go back to the front page of JEBHP 9.
This page last modified 06:50 30May01.

	WLRW 94.5 FM, Champaign. When I was in Urbana-land, this was my favorite radio station. It was still the #1 preset FM station on my car radio until not too long ago, even though I had to fight to pick it up with a Milwaukee station. The morning team of Jerome and Melissa is still my favorite morning radio show, and afternoon man Mike Blakemore was always worth listening to.
	Where are my favorite WLRW personalities now? (Hint: None of them are still at WLRW!) I tracked down Melissa Forman in January 2001 at ENERGY 92.7 and 92.5 in Chicago, where she was solo host of the morning show (with two producer guys). (See the link to WDEK below). She had been working at the station as a Top 40 station; I found her three days after they changed to a dance format. A native of Northbrook, Melissa spent some time at WWNK in Cincinnati before coming back to her home market. I had once again lost her, but I managed to find her again, thanks to this web page. Tony "Tim" Lossano found my outdated links to Melissa's former position, and he was kind enough to direct me to WLIT-FM in Chicago. I immediately turned on my radio, and when the song ended, there was Melissa! Thanks again to Mr. Lossano for putting me back in the list of Melissa Forman's listeners. Read more about her current post and supporting cast at WLIT here. Jerome Ritchey is now at WICS-TV in Springfield as the weatherman on the 5:00 newscast. He left WLRW in 1997 for the weather maps at WICS's Champaign satellite, WICD, before going back to meteorology school. Click here for his bio from the WICS web site. He is allegedly married to half of WLRW's current morning team, Popeye and Marge. (Let me put it this way: neither WICS-TV nor WLRW actually say that on their web sites. However, WICS says that Jerome's wife, Margie, is also in broadcasting, and each station says their own personality has two children, Hannah and Ian. I don't think it's much of a stretch to put the two together, although it is pretty weird.) Mike Blakemore is now program director and midday man at KMXD Des Moines. Mike was also the PD at WLRW; he went directly to the Des Moines outlet from Champaign. (I wish I had known that when I went to Ames last April; I would have listened. Then again, maybe I did; that station's frequency is preset #5 in my car.)
	WKTI 94.5 FM, Milwaukee. See the notes on WLRW. I found WKTI on some nights at Elmhurst while looking for WLRW. It was also a good station, I thought.
	WBBM 780 AM, Chicago. For over 30 years, WBBM has been Chicago's all-news station. I listen to WBBM almost every day; the radio in the kitchen and the one in the bathroom are both locked on AM 780.
	WKIE 92.7 FM, Arlington Heights; WKIF 92.7 FM, Kankakee; WDEK 92.5 FM, DeKalb. The first (and only) time I ever heard the Dr. Demento Show, it was on WDEK, which was a local station in DeKalb. Now WDEK has been taken over by an amalgam of radio stations known as ENERGY 92.7 and 5. I was willing to listen to this station in the morning to hear Melissa Forman, and after doing that for a while, the music grows on you (even if they did play a few songs six times in five mornings; their playlist isn't too long over there, and often the same song will play twice during the morning show). I still prefer the music that played on WLRW when Melissa was there, but oh well. Now that I've found Melissa at WLIT, I'll likely not listen to this station again.
	WONC 89.1 FM, Naperville. The radio voice of North Central College.