Chicago's WLUP signed on 30 years ago in March 1977. The station now celebrating their 30th Anniversary with just a ton of memorabilia available on their website - old logos, old promotions, tv spots and more.At the beginning of 1977, Programmer Jay Blackburn was hired by the Chess family (of the legendary Chess Records) to turn around then-jazz WSDM. His solution was a female-friendly AOR format.
In a email just today - Jay said it took 3 months to rebuild the facility or as he puts it "that old tube station" (under a very tight budget as I recall from a conversation with Jay years ago); and after the rebuild "it took us 7 months to become the number 1 AOR in the market", eventually running ABC (94.7) and NBC (101.1) out of the format in Chicago.
Jay hired some air talents from smaller markets who have since become legends in the business: Bill Evans, Patti Haze, Dave Logan, Les Tracy and Tom O'Toole. Yours truly was a fan of the station while I was doing radio in the suburbs.
The station was then sold to Heftel - who brought in Lee Abrams - and took it to yet another level - the rest is history. 30 years worth. Here. The history of this station is an education for any classic rock program director.
To the left: the original 1977 WLUP logo. Jay admits that by the time Heftel and Abrams came in, it was due for change.
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William Lloyd, founder of Lloydesign Associates, Chicago, was the graphic designer who created the classic 1977 LOOP logo. Working with station manager Les Elias and Heftel Broadcasting, Bill Lloyd gave WLUP a completely revamped look using brush-style letters. He created the original campaign featuring billboards of Lorelei wearing black tshirt with new logo.
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