“I’ve always wanted to be the PD of WCFL … and now I ARE one!”
So says programmer J.R. Russ.
You can do that kind of thing with the Internet. Russ, a voiceover talent and consultant with various radio endeavors under his belt, tells us that his website www.roadmasterrock.com has flipped format to www.WCFLchicago.com. The station can be heard on its site or via TuneIn, Shoutcast and several other platforms.
To be clear, this audio service is not formally related to the radio station that aired for many years on 1000 kHz out of Chicago; nor is it related to the current holder of those call letters on FM, nor to the Chicago Federation of Labor. Rather it seeks to honor the historic WCFL through its name. Russ says he wants to give new meaning to the call letters, namely “Where Chicago’s Favorites Live.”
“The late, great AM station from Chicago was once owned by a union and identified itself as ‘The Voice of Labor,’” he writes. While that era ended in the 1970s, Russ says that recapturing the station’s earlier sound “became a ‘Labor of Love’ so, what better time of the year to launch a new ‘Voice of Labor’ but on Labor Day weekend?”
According to the announcement, WCFLchicago “won’t be a typical ‘tribute station,’ musically trapped in a decade or two,” but a fresher, classic hits format that will feature five decades of hits. Kris Earl Phillips will handle liners, and the audio runs on the servers of Hy Lit Technologies of Philadelphia.
J.R. Russ adds that he is offering veteran or novice DJs a chance to do the station’s Top of the Hour ID. Email him to inquire.
