WENR (Radio station : Chicago, Ill.)

WENR was initially owned and operated by the All-American Radio Corporation and began broadcasting in April 1925 as a 10-watt station. Soon, power was increased to 100-watts and programs could be heard as far as Cincinnati, Ohio. By August of that year, power was increased to 1000-watts and the station could be heard as far away as New Zealand.

WENR became one of Chicago's most popular radio stations, especially because of its outstanding programs. WENR offered listeners orchestral music, children's features, home service talks, string trios, comedy teams, plays, and operas. Programs included The Weener Minstrels, The Smith Family, Mike and Herman (Dutch dialect comedy team), and the WENR Derby, an original radio horse race run twice each day. Jim and Marion Jordan, before they became Fibber McGee and Molly, broadcast a children's program called The Air Scouts. Irma Glen, another popular entertainer, played the mighty WENR Wurlitzer Organ throughout the broadcasting day, as well as participating in many other shows.

WENR was acquired by NBC in 1931 and became, along with WLS, the Chicago outlets for the NBC Blue Network. This gave NBC a 50,000-watt outlet in the nation's second-largest urban area. According to the March 1931 edition of RCA News, "the move is said to be an answer to the repeated suggestion of listeners in the Chicago sector who said they were denied many outstanding air programs and features." The majority of the station personnel were incorporated into NBC, which moved the studios into the newly built Merchandise Mart. WENR soon lost its local identity and personality.

In August 1943, WENR was sold by NBC to ABC in compliance with FCC requirements regarding multiple ownership of stations in the same community. Soon after WENR and WLS made the change from 870 to 890 kc. WENR continued to share equal time with WLS on that channel but eventually the two half-time licenses were combined into one and by 1954 the WLS call letters were used full time. WENR became an ABC-FM facility on 94.7mc and by 1964 the call letters were dropped and the change was made to WLS/FM.