WJBC Kicks Off 90th Birthday Tomorrow

WJBC-AM 1230 in Bloomington will kick off its 90th birthday celebration tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1st) with throwbacks featuring many of the on-air personalities that have shared the airwaves with listeners over the years.

In early May 1925, Lee Stremlau launched WJBC from the Hummer Furniture Store in LaSalle, about an hour north of Bloomington. Early broadcasts were shared with three other radio stations on the same frequency.

Due to financial difficulties operating the station, Stremlau moved WJBC to Bloomington, first operating from studios at Illinois Wesleyan University, with other studios across the city.

With the arrival of television in the 1950's, and with Bloomington-Normal not having a television station of its own, WJBC expanded its presence in the community by building a lineup of live and local personalities and shows. Gibson City native Don Munson joined WJBC in 1965, and during a period when morning radio was in its infancy, he made WJBC a part of many people's morning routine. During his time as operations manager, the station adopted its slogan "Spirit of McLean County", while also starting such elements as the Pet Hotline, Forum, and Problems and Solutions.

Among the many personalities to grace the 1230 frequency over the years include former Bloomington mayor Judy Markowitz, IWU sports information director Stew Salowitz, farm director Art Sechrest, news media Alan Sender and Howard Packowitz, and Twin Cities sports media icons Dick Luedke and Art Kimball.

Beginning tomorrow morning, WJBC will begin its countdown towards the 90th birthday of the station's founding. Regular programming will be interrupted for special segments featuring some of the WJBC personalities over the years. Here is what tomorrow's schedule will look like:

5-9 a.m. Scott Laughlin and Colleen Reynolds
9-12 p.m. Ken Behrens
12-1 p.m. Paul Harvey
1-2 p.m. Beth Whisman
2-4 p.m. Elizabeth Estes "Ebus"
4-6 p.m. Dan Irvin
6-7 p.m. Sports Talk
7-9 p.m. Dan Swaney

Other celebrations will continue throughout this month.

2015 Chicago Cubs Broadcasts

For decades, Chicago Cubs regular season broadcasts have been seen on-air in Chicago and throughout the rest of the state and surrounding areas. Originally on WGN-TV (Channel 9), the broadcast rights have expanded over the years to include Comcast SportsNet and others.

This year, things will be dramatically different.

In case you may not have been aware of what's been happening with the Cubs media contracts off-season, some new broadcast partners have been announced, while others have released limited schedules of when they will air the games.

Probably the biggest change this season is that WGN America is no longer airing Cubs broadcasts. Actually, that's all Chicago sports broadcasts, including those of the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks. Due to its reorganization last summer into separate newspaper and broadcasting companies, Tribune Media has been conjuring ideas of which to transform its national superstation (WGN America) into a basic cable channel. Last fall, local news broadcasts were taken off nationally, first with the station's flagship 9:00 news. Beginning this season, all Chicago-centric programming has been removed from WGN America.

This does not mean that WGN-TV is done airing Cubs broadcasts. In fact, they still are. Channel 9 and WGN America are separate entities and have been since the early 1990's. WGN-TV still broadcasts sporting events, and has multiple hours of news shows a week. The popular WGN Morning News, for example, has never aired outside of the Chicago market.

Because of the change, WGN broadcasts will be seen on other channels. WAND-TV (17) has picked up the rights to air three games, with 19 others to be seen on its digital subchannel, CoziTV (17.2). The first WAND Cubs broadcast will be the second game of the season on April 7th. CoziTV will air its first matchup on April 15th.

Comcast SportsNet will continue to air Cubs broadcasts this season, as it will air the largest amount of Cubs games (80). The first CSN broadcast will be on Tuesday. April 14th. Due to conflicts, some games will be pushed to "extra" channel CSN+.

The north siders have also announced an agreement with WLS-TV in Chicago to air 45 Cubs games this year. Many of these will be weekend matchups. Locally, WCIX Channel 49 will air the WLS-designated broadcasts. Due to problems with the station's transmitter, none of the games will be shown in HD.

Where does this leave the remaining 14 games? Currently, no official announcement has been made. It has been reported that WBUI (23) will air some games, though that has not been confirmed. Time will tell where the mess of the Cubs TV broadcasts will end up.
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The radio broadcasts are another story to tell. Last June, WGN 720 announced that they would not air any more Cubs broadcasts after the 2014 season. Reasons for the decision have been speculated, with most centering around the dismal performance and sales problems for WGN.

The Cubs have instead signed a new contract with WBBM-AM 780 to air all of the Cubs games beginning this season. WBBM is a 50,000 watt blowtorch (though not nearly as powerful as WGN) that also carries Chicago Bears broadcasts. This will take awhile to adjust to, as many Cubs fans will have to change their routine for listening to the broadcasts. WGN carried the Cubs for almost 90 seasons, so it is a major one indeed. Locally, no changes have been made with the Cubs Radio Network. Games can be seen in Champaign on WJEK-FM 95.3. New network host Mark Grote joins Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer in the booth.