WCFL Radio and Television
Welcome to the Carpentersville Memories WCFL Radio and TV Page. Our goal is to bring back some fun memories of growing up in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
We bring back Memories you didn’t know you had
Do you remember BJ and Dirty Dragon?
This was the first, and longest running, labor radio station. In the 1940’s, it became more commercially oriented. Sports was the theme in the 1960’s. 1966 – 1976, WCFL challenged WLS as the top rock station. Other formats were adult music, and then religion. WCFL ceased operations in 1987.
The original call letters were W9XAA and it was the first television station in Chicago. This was in the 1930’s. Its owner was also the Chicago Federation of Labor. It used WCFL’s radio transmitter.
During the 1940s, the Federation’s thoughts turned once again to television, and in 1953 it applied for VHF channel 11 in Chicago. The Federation lost the bid to the city’s educational groups, who would put WTTW on the air in 1955. An early 1960s try netted the Federation a license for Chicago UHF channel 38. In June 1968, plans were made for building a transmitter and antenna atop Chicago’s John Hancock Center, as well as other construction needs to get WCFL-TV on the air. By late 1970, the Federation had begun to look at other uses for the station’s license which didn’t involve the organization. Christian Communications purchased WCFL-TV in August 1975, with the FCC approving the license transfer in early 1976. At the time of the sale, WCFL-TV had yet to be on the air; it became WCFC-TV and, later, WCPX-TV.
One of the highlights of WCFL’s TV programming were programs featuring Bill Jackson and his crew of puppets, like Dirty Dragon.
Various Images from WCFL Radio
Bill Jackson
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