Mal Bellairs (born November 9, 1919 – July 12, 2010) was a well-known Chicago-area radio and television personality during the second half of the 20th century. He was named a

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

Regional Pioneer by the Illinois Broadcasters Association.

Early Days

Mal was born in

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Wyoming, most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Laramie County, Wyoming, Laramie County, with 65,132 reside ...

in 1919, the only son of Keith Bellairs and Gertrude Sackett of Telluride, Colorado. In his teen years he was raised on the ranch of his uncle Thorwald Sackett in Colorado. He recounted being enthralled by the wonder of radio on a visit to Denver as a boy. He also recounts a family trip to Chicago to attend the 1933 Worlds Fair.

Radio History

Mal's career in radio began at

WCFL (AM) WMVP (1000 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports radio format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metropolitan area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship sta ...

in Chicago in 1947. He left WCFL to do freelance radio and television in the Chicago market. Mal then spent most of the 1950s and 1960s at

WBBM (AM) WBBM (780 kHz) – branded ''Newsradio 105.9 WBBM'' – is a commercial all-news AM radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Audacy, Inc., its studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza in the Chicago Loop, while the station' ...

radio in Chicago Illinois. His history with WBBM is recounted in an oral history interview from 1987. Mal's contributions to WBBM were highlighted in a subsequent history of that radio station, ''WBBM Radio Yesterday & Today''. In 1969 Mal and his wife Jo purchased WCLR radio in

Crystal Lake, Illinois Crystal Lake is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. Named after a lake southwest of the city's downtown, Crystal Lake is northwest of Chicago. The population was 40,269 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Crystal L ...

and changed the call letters to WIVS. They later purchased an FM station in Woodstock, Illinois and used the call letters WXRD. Subsequently, WIVS became

WAIT (AM) WAIT (850 Hertz, kHz) was an AM broadcasting, AM radio station City of license, licensed to Crystal Lake, Illinois, and serving the Chicago metropolitan area. It was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a List of broadcas ...

. The Chicago Tribune reported on Mal's "semi-retirement" in 1992. The article quotes

Chuck Schaden Charles Leroy "Chuck" Schaden, born June 29, 1934, is a Chicago-area broadcaster and historian who hosted the program ''Those Were the Days'' on local radio from 1970 to 2009. Schaden played recordings of classic old-time radio shows and remini ...

, Chicago radio history buff and host of ``

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

`` programs on WBBM-AM and WNIB-FM 97.1 saying "Mal Bellairs was, and still is, as far as I`m concerned, a giant in Chicago broadcasting."

The Christmas Show

In 1955 Mal presented a Christmas Show that became a Chicago tradition. He did a Christmas Show every year after that, continuing at

and then at his own station, WIVS. The recording of the Christmas Show that is available online was made from a live broadcast in 1997. A copy of the clearances for the playlist of the 1961 Christmas Show is in the National Archives.

Later Years and Ireland

In his memoir, ''Now Why Is It Ye're Comin ta Ireland'', Mal discussed his decision to leave WBBM radio for much smaller stations of his own—WIVS, Crystal Lake, Illinois and WXRD, Woodstock, Illinois—and his subsequent purchase of Liscrona House in Doonaha near Kilkee in County Clare Ireland.

Honors

The Illinois Senate adopted a resolution in his honor citing "his 50-year legendary broadcasting career". The Chicago City Council adopted a resolution in tribute to Mal Bellairs in 2014.

References

External links

Tim Miller recalls working for Mal at WIVS

Mal narrates White Fence Farm TV spot

Old recordings of Mal -- interviews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellairs, Mal 1919 births 2010 deaths Radio and television announcers Radio personalities from Chicago People from Cheyenne, Wyoming People from Woodstock, Illinois