THE W-G-N STORY

By:  Col. Robert R. McCormick February 28, 1954

(Chicago Tribune) - Drake Hotel facilities leased to the Tribune Company in 1924 included studio space, a 1,000 watt transmitter, and antenna.  By December of 1925, the Drake station [W-G-N] and the Elgin station [now called WLIB] divided full broadcasting time on the channel of 990 kilocycles.  The Drake station’s power of 1,000 watts was inadequate and early in 1926, W-G-N was permitted to use the Elgin station’s higher powered transmitter of 2,500 watts.

Thereafter, the programs of W-G-N and WLIB were broadcast over the Elgin transmitter, and the Drake Hotel transmitter was an auxiliary.  The principal studios of W-G-N, however, remained in the Drake Hotel until 1935.

In 1926, the Tribune Company bolstered its investment in broadcasting by purchasing all studio equipment in the Drake Hotel and completing the construction of a new transmitter building and antenna towers at the Elgin site.

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