WCGO (1590 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, and serving the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. ...

's northern suburbs. The station is owned by Jorge Rodriquez through licensee Ambiente Clasico LLC. WCGO has a

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

where hosts buy time on the station and may use their shows to advertise their services or seek donations. On weekday mornings, the station airs

Korean-language Korean is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the national language of both South Korea and North Korea. In the south, the language is known as () and in the north, it is known as (). Since the tur ...

Christian radio Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

programming.

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

shows are heard in the afternoon. Evenings and weekends, WCGO airs brokered talk and ethnic shows. Overnight, it carries the

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

'' from

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

. By day, WCGO is powered at 10,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s non-directional. To protect other stations on

1590 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1590 kHz: 1590 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRI434 in Dolores, Buenos Aires. * Serodino in Serodino, Santa Fe. * Stentor in Bue ...

from interference, at night it reduces power to 2,500 watts and uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a four-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on North McCormick Boulevard near West Howard Street in Skokie. Programming is also heard on 250-watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

W240EH at 95.9

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

in Evanston.

History

WNMP

The station began broadcasting on September 29, 1947, and held the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

WNMP. WNMP operated during daytime hours only, with a power of 1,000 watts.

Block programming Block programming (also known as a strand in British broadcasting) is the arrangement of programs on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united. Overview Block programming involves scheduling a ...

was aired in its early years. In 1959, the station adopted a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

light music Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and ...

format. In 1960, the station was sold to Harry H. Semrow and his brother Otto Semrow for $325,000. The station aired an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

format in the 1960s and carried

Northwestern Wildcats football The Northwestern Wildcats football team represents Northwestern University as an NCAA Division I college football team and member of the Big Ten Conference based near Chicago in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern began playing fo ...

. In December 1969, the station was sold to Alan H. Cummings and Buddy Black for $875,000.

WLTD

The station's call sign was changed to WLTD on November 2, 1970. WLTD aired easy listening music,

old-time 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 ...

shows, and specialty talk shows. On May 2, 1970,

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 ...

's first ''Those Were The Days'' program aired on WNMP.TWTD Archive – May 2, 1970
, Speaking of Radio. Retrieved March 22, 2019. It continued on WLTD until 1975, when the station changed format. In 1975, the station was sold to Kovas Communications for $400,000, and adopted a beautiful music format.
Broadcasting Yearbook 1976
',

Broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

, 1976. p. C-59. Retrieved March 22, 2019.

WONX

On April 9, 1979, the station's call sign was changed to WONX. The station switched to a

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

format.
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1981
',

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and ...

, 1981. p. C-70. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
Broadcasting/Cablecasting Yearbook 1985
',

, 1985. p. B-82. Retrieved March 22, 2019. Programming in other languages were also aired over the years.
The Broadcasting Yearbook 1990
',

, 1990. p. B-98. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1995
',

, 1995. p. B-123. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2000
',

, 2000. p. D-136. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2008
',

, 2008. p. D-185. Retrieved March 22, 2019. In 1982, the station added nighttime operations, running 2,500 watts. It used a four-tower

directional array An antenna array (or array antenna) is a set of multiple connected antennas which work together as a single antenna, to transmit or receive radio waves. The individual antennas (called ''elements'') are usually connected to a single receiver ...

at night.AM Query Results: WCGO
fcc.gov. Retrieved March 22, 2019. In 1997, the station's daytime power was increased to 3,500 watts.

WCGO

On April 10, 2009, the previous WCGO on 1600, also owned by Kovas, was taken off the air. On April 13, 2009, WONX's call sign was changed to WCGO. With 1600 now vacant, the new WCGO was able to increase its daytime power to 7,000 watts. In 2014, the station's daytime power was increased to 10,000 watts. WCGO began airing talk programs in September 2014, with local shows hosted by Franklin Raff and Geoff Pinkus, as well as

Dana Loesch Dana Lynn Loesch ( ; ; born September 28, 1978) is an American radio and television host, TV host. She is a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for ''Breitbart News''. Loesch was the television ho ...

's syndicated program. On April 6, 2015, Milt Rosenberg began hosting a program on the station. As of 2023, its programming is multilingual: Weekend programming includes ''Legal Eagles'' with William Pelarenos, '' The Dave Ramsey Show'', ''The Assyrian Cultural Foundation: The Guiding Voice'' with Ninos Nirari, The Chicago Wine Report with Chip Dudley, Tom Hall, and Lainie Petersen, Domingo Felices with Frank Camacho, and Dialogo Politico with Robert Ameneiro. Weekdays features Korean Christian programming weekday mornings, Russian language programing via Radio NVC weekday afternoons, and Multiformat Network show highlights in the evenings. Overnight programming is ''

'' with

. In 2017, the station was sold to William Pollack for $3 million.WCGO Being Purchased By William Pollack
, ''Chicagoland Radio and Media''. May 11, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2019.Application Search Details – BAL-20170512AAE
fcc.gov. Retrieved March 23, 2019. In 2019, WCGO became the flagship station of the national SmartTalk Radio Network. Pollack sold WCGO to Jorge Rodriguez's Ambiente Clasico LLC for $675,000 in 2023; Ambiente Clasico had been leasing the station's overnight programming. WCGO's real estate was separately sold to Rodriguez in a $150,000 deal.

Translator

References

External links

{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Illinois CGO Talk radio stations in the United States Korean-language radio stations in the United States Evanston, Illinois Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Illinois