WCFL in Chicago

One of the great radio stations of Chicago was WCFL--a radio station originally run by the Chicago Federation of Labor. It went on-air in 1925 and served as a means to get the union's message out to the masses.

Located at 1000 on the AM dial, WCFL operated as basically a talk and news station until 1965 when it changed to a Top 40 radio station. At the time, only WLS Radio was offering pop music.  WCFL quickly became one of the more popular stations in Chicago, and also operated on the FM dial at 104.3.

Here is some audio from WCFL from 1967-1971 (courtesy of Radiotimeline.com):



WCFL, also known as "The Voice of Labor," soon featured DJs who would become a staple of Chicago radio: Dick Biondi, Larry Lujak, and Clark Webber.  Like WLS, WCFL produced weekly "radio surveys" to highlight the most popular music being bought and sold in Chicago.

During the mid-to-late 1960s, WCFL also produced promotional record albums. Two years ago we featured Double Gold.  Recently, I purchased another WCFL album, this one from 1968.  It is called 21 Hit Icebreakers.

This album features some great tunes from the 60s, including songs by Van Morrison, Ray Charles, the Knickerbockers and many more. I uploaded the entire album to the Vinyl Voyage Mixcloud channel so you can listen to it whenever you want.  Enjoy.

New AiV--The Beat: Soundwaves of the 80s (1982)

There's a new K-Tel album on the platter for this month's Adventures in Vinyl. We are setting the K-Tel time machine back to 1982 for The Beat: Soundwaves of the 80s.  The album features mostly New Wave hits from 1981 and 1982.

This is actually a great album, with some tracks from the Go-Go's, Duran Duran, Haircut One Hundred, Split Enz, the Waitresses and more.

This album comes courtesy of Jermaine, who lives in New Jersey. He's a big fan of the show and just loves K-Tel. Thanks for the suggestion, Jermaine!

You can catch this episode throughout the month of March at the following times, Central:

Saturday: 12:30 pm (18:30 GMT)
Sunday: 4:00 pm  (22 GMT)
Wednesday: 2:00 am (8 GMT)

Or listen to it on-demand at Mixcloud.