WGN Radio Timeline

1986

January 26 - Wayne Larrivee, Dick Butkus and Jim Hart are in the WGN booth in the Louisiana Superdome as the Chicago Bears beat the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.

July 7 - In a heavily promoted schedule change that includes a live television broadcast, Wally Phillips and Bob Collins switch shifts, with Bob taking over the morning show and Wally moving to afternoons.

August 3 - WGN returns to the old neighborhood yet again, as the radio station departs from the shared facility on Bradley Place and moves back to Tribune Tower. The new space includes the Showcase Studio on Michigan Avenue, where spectators can gather to watch WGN's talent in action through large street-level windows.

1987

May 18 - The Spike O'Dell Radio Experiment premieres on WGN, airing weekdays 3:00-7:00pm.

1989

June 21 - Roy Leonard broadcasts from Moscow, inside what is still, at the time, the Soviet Union.

1990

August 28 - Steve Bertrand and Rod Sierra provide eyewitness accounts of the devastation caused by a massive tornado in Will County that destroyed large parts of Plainfield.

September 7 - The WGN family organizes a five-hour benefit concert event at Joliet's Rialto Square Theater to help the victims of the Plainfield tornado. Over $130,000 is raised from the live Tornado Aid event and home video.

1991

October - WGN hosts its first annual Pumpkinfest food drive, a day-long event featuring a live broadcast. The event would continue for several years, raising money and food for Chicago's needy.

1995

August 26 - Sam Weinstein broadcasts the final edition of his Tenpin Tattler bowling program. The show, sponsored by Weinstein's "Universal Bowling and Golf Specialists" shop, had aired on WGN since 1966, after originating on WCFL in 1935.

1996

November - WGN goes online for the first time with the debut of "The Spike O'Dell Web Experiment." Over the next year, development of the complete wgnradio.com website would continue.

1997

September - John Williams joins WGN as the new afternoon host.

1999

March 26-27 - Hundreds of Girlfriends gather at the Chicago Hilton & Towers for the first annual Kathy & Judy Convention. The event, hosted by Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey, includes seminars, entertainment and a chance for fans of the show to meet one another.

December 31 - WGN staff members gather at WGN's downtown studios and the suburban transmitter site in anticipation of possible chaos caused by the Y2K computer bug. Midnight passes without any major glitches anywhere in the world, so the extra staff enjoys a bit of champagne from paper coffee cups and then heads home.

On to the 2000s...