WDNL Danville

WDNL(FM), 102.1, Danville, History

The Northwestern Publishing/First Danville Radio, Inc. Years

The station began as WDAN-FM, then in the early 70’s as WMBJ. The call letters WMBJ stood for the first initials of the primary owners of First Danville Radio, Inc. M for Max Shafer(the GM), B for Bill Shoup(Engineer) and J for John Eckert(GSM). Not much effort went into programming the original FM station of WDAN. Many locales referred to the station's call letters as “We Must Be Joking.” Programming was run by a very simple Gates SP8-10 automation system with a “55” stack cart machine, 2 Scully reel to reel playback decks and a couple of cart machines. WMBJ was simply a nighttime extension of sister station WDAN(1490-AM) with an "automated juke box" format of MOR music, and was used primarily as a vehicle to broadcast play by play sports to area communities unreachable with WDAN’s then 250-watt nighttime signal. Most of the play by play games broadcast on WDAN-FM or WMBJ were from Western Indiana schools. Danville High School sports were broadcast by WDAN(AM). The station was originally owned by Northwest Publishing, which put WDAN-FM on the air in 1967 and started sister station WDAN(1490AM) in 1938. The combo was purchased by First Danville Radio, Inc. in the early 70's. The station in the beggining was a simulcast of WDAN during the mornings before 9am, then separated to broadcast an easy listening format. By 1976 a move was made to give the station a more contemporary format, but with very little sales effort, very little attention to programming other than running the music, the station's format fell on deaf ears.

WDAN.....70th Anniversary Broadcast....1938-2008

On October 28, 2008, WDAN hosted a special broadcast which took place from it's original home, the Wolford Hotel, which is now housing for seniors. Neuhoff Broadcastings Mike Hulvey along with former WDAN/WDNL staff members gathered to reminisce about their time with WDAN and/or WDNL.
Those former employees included Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer, John Kesler now with Emmis Broadcasting in Indianapolis(WIBC-FM), Ted Baer and me. Others there included a woman, who is the grand mother of a current employee who performed at WDAN as a young girl in the 1940's, State Representative Bill Black, Fowler Connell and others.

The 70^th Anniversary Broadcast originated in the street level lounge of the housing complex, but the real treasure was just a few feet below where we were, in the original studio of WDAN from 1938 to 1948. It was during a break in this broadcast which we were able to tour a good portion of the original floor plan of the studio which was left to us, some 70 years later to examine like a broadcast time capsule! Below are pictures which I took at the event of the actual WDAN studios, which are currently being used as storage, but the artifacts of a broadcast studio are still visible.

The master control studio which faces a window that looked into Studio A at the south was connected by an air lock passageway that ran along the west wall of the master control into studio A. That same airlock also opened up to Studio B which was located just to the north of the master control room. Yet another window was on the north side of Studio B which looked into the general manager's office. The airlock hallway also had a window on it's west wall which looked into the lobby of the station.

There were other rooms in the original floor plan, but the walls were eliminated to open the space to a large storage area used by the maintenance staff of the complex.

The Danville Commercial News of Oct 28, 1938 announcing the new local radio station. Courtesy of Neuhoff Broadcasting.

Also, there were wires hanging from over the studio doors which formerly were connected to “On Air” lights. These lights were more than likely transferred to the WDAN studios on Washington Street. There are also pictures taken in 1938 of Studio A which included distinctive large wall clock that is still in use today at the current studios! With the transfer of that clock being evidence of a probable transfer of other radio station appliances, it's reasonable to assume the “on air” lights probably went to the 1948 location as well.

The perforated wall panels for sound absorbsion were removed during the remodeling of the building for senior apartments. It was probably done as part of the removal of asbestos, as these wall panels hid bags of asbestos which was used as sound absorption material. Even though the panels and the sound absorption material was removed the walls were still solid with a concrete or plaster surface. Most of the glass between the studios were removed sometime in the last 60 years, but there were a couple which remained. Each glass window contained two panels of glass, one panel vertically mounted, then another which was at a slight angle to deflect sound away from the opening, making it more sound proof. In the one or two remaining openings which still had glass, the angled glass was removed from each.

The master control floor was raised about 8 inches or so to allow wiring to run in troughs to both studios, while being connected to a control board which would have been in master control. The floor was of course concrete, but still had the intricate tiles which would have given the lobby area a terrific elegant look. The floor tiles elsewhere were either 9 or 12 inch squares and were peeling up from their former resting place in the studios.

In the late 1940's, the studios were moved to the current location, a newly designed studio(see WICD-TV page). Many of the same features, design elements were carried over to the new facility which was built around the original transmitter building. Sometime during the 1950's, WDAN was moved downtown to the Commercial-News building. Although it's not known exactly why, in could have been either a cost cutting move, or to make room for the new TV facility which went on the air from the Washington Street location in late 1953.

The letter above from WDAN was sent to Clarence "Bud" McMasters and Harold Arnett after they won the "Penry Amateur Hour"(Penry's was a local furniture store which was in business through the early 1970's). This letter was sent by Bill Adams from WDAN to the pair, pictured above. Harold is the dark haired boy, while Bud is the blond haired boy. (Scan of the original letter courtesy of "Bud" McMasters)

(Above-left) A sample of a daily detailed description of what was to be featured on WDAN radio, published each day in the Danville Commercial News, the owner of WDAN radio. (Above-right) Local sports has always been the back-bone of local news-sports coverage on WDAN. This is an advertisment of a basketball game between Effingham, Illinois' St. Anthony's High School playing the Danville Catholic High School, Schlarman High School.

WDAN continued to operate from the Commercial-News building through the very early 1970's, when the radio property was sold to a number of the employees, operating as First Danville Radio. At that time, the initial 1940's studio was revitalized and was used until the purchase of the company and the radio stations by Sangamon Broadcasting in 1977. For more on the events with the former WDAN-FM, later WMBJ and eventually WDNL, look below.

WDAN continued to be the radio voice for the older generation of Danville area listeners. Local sports, particularly Danville High School, St. Louis Cardinal Baseball were an important part of the revenue generation of the stations, but programming also included that of the CBS Radio Network. Music was usually a middle of the road easy listening, but there was evidence of some block programming with a younger slant, but never a true top 40. Since the late 1970's, music formats included an adult contemporary(Drake-Chenault Contempo 300) which was was voice tracked on a Gates SP 8-10 sytem, which was a crazy quilt made of up older elements from automations used by sister station WDBR and elements from WBNQ in Bloomington. Later in the early 80's, the staton went country to compete with local FM'er WIAI. By the late 1980's, it returned to a middle of the road adult contemporarly and eventually to talk with the Rush Limbaugh Show as a mid day anchor. It remains as a talker, without Limbaugh, but still very a very conservative slant.

WDAN remains the only true AM full service local radio station in the market.

(Click on the photos for a better look)

Harry Eisenhauer and John Kesler touring the former WDAN studios

This shows the tiles of the master control room, with a step down into the lower level floor of one of the studios.

One of the windows still in place between the airlock hallway and what was the lobby. Now, there is a newly built wall just to the west of the window dividing the former studio to another storage area.

The window between Studio A and master control still containing the verticle glass. The molding which held the missing angled glass is still evident.

This was taken from the master control studio looking into studio B, which then overlooks the general managers office.

Here is the general Manager's office. It's clear of all storage items becuase the original door has been covered and the only way into the space is through the opened studio window. The chair rail molding and the baseboard is still in place along with the deteriorating plaster walls. The tile floor is still in place.

This is the view from studio A into the backside of the newly built wall. It formerlly overlooked the lobby of WDAN.

Check out the intricate tile flooring which is still on the floor of the basement studios.

Pictured here is Mike Hulvey, Scott Eisenhauer, John Kesler and Doug Quick at the WDAN 70th Anniversary Broadcast

From the
WDAN 70th Anniversary Broadcast with Mike Hulvey, John Kesler, Scott Eisenhauer, Bill Black and Sue Richter from the Vermilion County Museum.

A lighter momemt, and there were plenty from the WDAN 70th. Pictured here are Bill Black, Sue Richter, Ted Baer and Mike Hulvey.

The Sangamon Broadcasting Years
	Sangamon Broadcasting of Springfield, Illinois purchased the stations in mid 1977. Sangamon Broadcasting owned and operated WTAX/WDBR there. I started my employment with the stations in September of 1977. By October 27, 1977, WMBJ, became WDNL(FM) operating a locally produced top 40 format, similar to WDBR in Springfield utilizing what was then a state of the art Harris System 90.
Here is the revised original logo of WDNL, D-102 from 1977. It was slightly modified by straightening the bottom "tail" on the D. The original D looked more like a P, so we all agreed to change the logo.	I was one of the original air personalities with my shift from 5:30am to Noon, Mike James (Noon-6pm) and PD, Marc Phillips(6pm-1am), newsmen Reed Pence and Bill Pickett, Sales Manager Rich Moore(along with account executive Mike James) and General Manager Joe Jackson.

Some of the other jocks over the Sangamon years(1977-1987) include Keith Mason, Bob Taylor (who did mornings from ‘79 to ‘87, and served as GM during the mid 80’s), Kerry West, Paul St. John, Ken Carson, John Kessler, Darrin Ellis, Mark Smutz, Scott Medlin, Jason Cain and Bill LaCombe among others. News people include Bob Iverson, Tina Bunell, Carol Vorell, Pat Thompson, Bill Raack and Jim Knoblauch. The sales department included Rich Moore, Mike James, Dan Chenoweth, Jean Dalbey, Bill LaCombe, Susan Frick, Mark Erwin, Tim Buick and myself. The station was programmed by a Harris System 90 state-of- the-art automation system. The original jingle package used in 1977 was the JAM “Positron” package modeled after WABC’s package and included the “Best Music, Best Station” positioning statement. Other JAM jingle packages followed until 1987.

After I left in mid 1979, Marc Phillips left, and ex-WDBR morning jock Bob Taylor took over the morning duties and Keith Mason was made PD. After a 3 month hiatus at WDZ/WDZQ in Decatur I had offers to go back to WDBR in Springfield or go back to WDNL in Danville. I made the choice to return to Danville in late 1979 and continued with the station, doing afternoons through the 80's, and later mornings in the early 90’s, while serving as a station account executive, sales manager and eventually as station manager.

1978 WDNL Staff, front row l to r: Marc Phillips(Gonzer), Dan Chenoweth, GM Joe Jackson, Ken Carson(Kalthoff), back row l to r: Sales Manager Rich Moore, News Director Reed Pence, Me and Keith Mason(Brent Wookey

The station very quickly went to number one in the market in the late 70’s beating local competition WITY(980AM) and major market competition WLS (890AM). WDNL enjoyed 60 shares in the 18-34 and 18-49 demos during that time through the mid 80’s. D-102 was also one of the first stations to pick up "Solid Gold Saturday Night" with RKO Radio's (and WFYR-Chicago dj)Dick Bartley back in the early 80's and other "oldie" syndicated shows which aired on Saturday nights through the late 90's. The station was also involved in many popular successful promotions including "The Hold On Marathon"(in which a car was awarded to the last person holding on), "The D-102 Half Price Fairs", "The D-102 Bridal Shows", "Great American Graffiti Night" and "The Backyard Bash."

WDNL Staff, front row l to r: Reed Pence, Marc Phillips(Gonzer), Doug Quick, back row l to r: Keith Mason(Brent Wookey), Dan Chenoweith and Rich Moore in front of the 1978 Plymouth Horizon which was awarded at our first big promotion "The Hold On Marathon" at the Village Mall.

The Harris System 90

The Harris System 90 was on the assembly line at Harris when I first saw it. I was at the Quincy plant with future PD Marc Phillips(Gonzer) for training on the system in September of 1977. The training system was one decked out with several different pieces of hardware we didn't get, and it was quite intimidating. My only experience with automation was with an IGM(see WTIM-FM) and WDBR's Gates SP8-10. I could get both of those systems to fix coffee for me, if I wanted them to, but the 90 was really quite incredible.

When the 90 finally made it to the studios at 1501 North Washington in Danville we had to make some building modifications to get it in the future master control room. Doors had to be expanded and the floor leveled. Ironically enough, the 90 fit the hole where the transmitter of WICD-TV, channel 24(my present employer) was located from 1953-1968.

The "stock" System 90 had two carousels, 5 single play cart decks and 4 ITC reel to reel decks. Eventually it was modified to contain 5 reel to reel decks. The portable keyboard was disconnected and reconnected every morning from the master control room to the "live assist" studio and back after morning drive. Since I did morning drive during that time, I was always lobbying for another keyboard fearing I would either drop it or it would quit working just by being moved around. Unfortunately, that was the only way to communicate with the brains of the system. Sometimes, when it would freeze up, a gentle rise from the table top and a short "drop" would bring it back to it's senses.

WDNL Harris System 90

There were 4 mono cart decks in the system. The "1" machine was for the news/weather, "2" was the talk track produced by the jocks and "3" and "4" were the time announcement decks. There was a single stereo cart deck for jingles and a recorder/player for the recording of network news "from the NBC/Source Network." The top reel to reel deck was the "6" which was used for current chart climbers/fallers, the "7" was the top 13-15 current selections, the "8"(which by the way I have in my garage) was for the top gold selections, the "9" was secondary gold and the "10" were album cuts or daytime extras. Each category was dayparted and only the "7's" and the "8's" were talked over announced selections. The "10's" were back announced. Through a very ingenious system developed back at former sister station WDBR we talked up the songs and could hear the intros as we were doing it!! The over all sound of the station was very "ALIVE." We had consultants who could not tell the station was automated from their first impression.

WDAN/WDNL Engineer Don Russell with the Harris System 90. He's inserting a talk track cartridge into the "2" machine. The one next to it to the left, was the newscast player, the ones across the bottom were the time announcement playback machines. The record/player machine behind Don was the network news recorder/player/eraser cart machine which recorded a new hourly newscast every hour, without hand erasing the cart. The single play deck below that was the only stereo cart deck for station jingles, re-entry after commercials.

Secrets of the Talk Track System

Now, the secret of the "talk track" system and the way we could hear the song intros for the first time anywhere!! I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. It was developed by Joe Jackson and his crew back at WDBR in Springfield in the early 70's. Essentially, each reel to reel that was to be "talked up" would have a corresponding cart with the song intros recorded on it in the same order. There were two different categories of songs that were talked up (top currents and the super gold) so you would have two different "simulator" cart machines which the output would be mixed with the board output(and your mike) for your headphones. So as you laid down your track on your "talk track" cart, you would hit the start on the cart machine which contained your talk up song at the same time you "eom'ed" the talk track. Got it??

Your talk track contained each of your talk positions in order and would be called on as the format required. The major drawbacks.....if you forgot one or the cart wasn't in record, you could fall "out of synch" and be talking up the wrong song, or worse yet, talking up the commercial at the next spot set. Later when I was setting up the SMC system for WDNL, I used two talk track carts, one for talk ups and the other for the pre-spot breaks. That at least ended the problems of falling out of synch and talking up the spots. At least if it should fall out of synch, it wouldn't be quite as noticeable. The system forced you to plan your shows, an organizational plan in which I used up to my last day of radio, and recommend to all jocks, live or automated! The time announcements were inserted in the format, from the two time announce cart decks. Each jock would have a pair of carts, in which they would record each time announcement for every minute of their respective shifts. They would be changed when their talk tracks were changed. This way of telling the time, sounded very "live" and would fall, usually during a "fill" sequence between two songs and ahead of a segue jingle. Something like "Good Morning, Doug Quick, and the Best Music at 9:34" followed by a jingle..."D-102."

Now, the answer to another question....why automate in this way??? It made sense! Being a small market, the idea of paying for major market talent was going to be impossible. We were competing with WLS, the number one station in our market at the time! The idea of paying some jock, to sit and play records, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes was ridiculous and just not possible. So to be able to bring in great talent, which we always had during the early days, we used the talk track system and gave them the chance of selling. Jocks would spend most of their day on the streets and spend an hour or so each day in the studio doing the talk track. Each jock received a "talent fee" plus commission. It was a great opportunity, and we did pretty well, compared to jocks in other medium and even larger markets.

Doug with daughters in production room WDNL

WDNL air staff with a Chicago Honey Bear Cheerleader, part of the "Backyard Bash" promomotion. l to r: Bob Taylor, HoneyBear, me, Bill LaCombe and Keith Mason(Brent Wookey).

Me with daughters Miranda and Mindi in the WDNL production/air studio in 1985.

I started out in morning drive and acted as a sales assistant and Production Director. The PD was the only person who didn't have anything to do with sales. The mid day and afternoon jocks were both AE's. The only person on staff who wasn't on the air, besides traffic/accounting was the Sales Manager. Being on track also allowed jocks to be on the air 6 or 7 days a week, keeping the quality consistent from day to day. We would adjust the air shifts on weekends for variety. Later we did allow some of the weekend operators an opportunity to do a track, but only after some pretty extensive training and practice. It was always my idea that voice tracking in the manner make a mediocre jock sound pretty good, and a good jock sound great! My years with Sangamon were the best radio years of my career. I only wish I could've known it at the time!

This aircheck goes back to 1987, during the last couple of months of Sangamon Broadcasting. I was doing a Noon to 6pm shift, which was unusual even at the time. Now keep in mind, this was a talk track(or voice track) and was pre recorded. It was also during our "high personality" period. This allowed me to work as Sales Manager, Account Executive and still remain on the air. Our automation was the Harris System 90, and we were using the "cart with the song intros" on it. In fact if you listen real close, you'll hear me fast cueing the cart, as it was picked up on mike during a short silent period from my headphones as I was talking.

The Majac Years
	On August 1, 1987, the station was purchased by Majac, Inc., owned by Jack and Marc Steenbarger (father-son). This was the beginning of the worst days of my radio career. The automation was eliminated in favor of live programming, and the air staff was cleared of all of the long time jocks, Bob Taylor(who left in February 1987), Keith Mason, Bill LaCombe, Kerry West and myself. Bill LaCombe and I remained in our sales jobs, as we were already successful account execs with the station. Majac eliminated the “Best Music, Best Station” logo and used “WDNL, the Power Station”, even though the station was still at 9K-horizontal(11K-verticle). They brought in a new air staff consisting of a morning jock Glen Hill, Lane Delkar, Kate Summer and Jeff Delfield. Within a very short period of time, the morning jock was fired and I temporarily took over the duties of morning drive until the arrival of Mike Rogers.
WDNL, "The Power Station" air staff: l to r: Doug, Lane Delkar, Mike Rogers	For a time, the programming and music selection was disoriented and some shifts were covered by beginners which, probably shouldn't have been on the air. In 1988 the station finally went to 50,000 watts and Majac tried unsuccessfully to market the station as a Champaign-Urbana station. Later, though, after Jack and Marc had left the operation to concentrate on another property in Flint, Michigan I tried to return 102.1 back to it's more structured format and return to D-102, now with 50,000 watts. I was made GM during that time and worked with an air staff which included Russ Miller and Kerry West(who returned at the time, and remains with the station) as "The Breakfast Flakes," Dave McCracken, "Tiny Tom" Christy(formerly of WAZY-Lafayette, Indiana), Scottie Lee(Burns), Greg Binshish, Greg Laird, Mike Knoblett, Dean Wendt(one of the founders of Disney Radio, and currently the voice of "Barney" the Dinosaur) and others.

The Neuhoff Broadcasting Years
In 1992, Neuhoff Broadcasting of Springfield, Illinois purchased WDAN/WDNL. A management team was put into place with, at one time or another, Mike Hulvey, along with Lynn Halterman, Jeff Cosgrove and Doug Quick. During the early Neuhoff years, WDNL was re-automated using an SMC analog automation system with a locally produced Hot AC format and “like live” jocks once again. They included Quick, Jim Ducey, Jeff Delfield and Kerry West among others. It was during the early 90's that the station began an association with the Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois and broadcast the event live from the Vermilion County Airport. In October of 1992 I was dismissed at WDNL in favor of another sales manager. In 1993 I was in place at the new station in town WWDZ"Z-95"(94.9FM-now WRHK"K-Rock") as sales manager. But after leaving Z-95, I was back at WDNL as afternoon drive DJ. Mike Hulvey took the office of GM after I left in '92. In the mid 90's, the morning jocks were PD Scott Eisenhauer(now Danville Mayor) and "Mother Benson's Boy" Bob "Benson" Harshbarger. In the late 90’s, the station installed a digital system and went to a soft AC format, dropping the “D-102” logo in favor of “102.1FM, WDNL, with continuous music of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today.”
The station also added University of Illinois sports, broadcasting men's Football and Basketball games and the Saturday night syndicated oldie show was canceled. PD, and morning jock during the late 90’s to the point of my leaving in 2002 was Carol Wade. Jocks during that time included Wade, Quick, West along with Chad Christopher and Tim Fisher. The station's consultant during that time took the station to a "love songs" format and minimized the jock's participation which, in my opinion, took the station to being "audio wall paper" and probably lost audience to the other more "up front" and aggressive programming of the outside market stations WLRW, WIXY and WKIO.	WDNL SMC Automation was utilized after the Majac 'Live Radio Debacle" A really great system, utilizing digital elements within an analog playback scheme. The Harris System 90 was then used for programming WDAN(AM). The SMC was designed with my guidelines and built by the company from their small plant in Bloomington, Illinois.


Doug at Green Chevrolet during one of the many live remotes which were done from the dealership in 1987.	A group of employees from 1991...."I'm the short one in the middle!" Others include Cassie Keister(now at WICD-TV), Kerry West, Warren Hershberger and Tom Barnes.	Doug interviewing WCIA personalities Kevin Gregory(now Chief Meteorologist at WRTV-Indianapolis) and Jerry Slabe at the Big R Golf Tournament held at Harrison Park in Danville in 1988.

In the late 90's, Neuhoff purchased the former Rollings station WWDZ-94.9FM in Danville. Neuhoff then changed the call letters to WRHK(FM) and began using the K-Rock logo. Meanwhile, In late 1999, WDNL was once again was using the “D-102” logo, and beefing up the presence of the jock in the format and leaning more toward a Hot AC/Mix format. The station also aired a locally produced 70's show hosted by Doug Quick on Sunday afternoons.

"On October 18, 2002 I left D-102 right before the 25th Anniversary of the station. My final show included audio clips of the last 25 years and lastly signed off with a Proclamation for "Doug Quick Day" in Danville on that date presented by Danville Mayor Bob Jones. There was also an on-air phone call from Geoff Neuhoff, owner of the Danville radio stations, WDAN/WDNL/WRHK. Off air I also received calls from State Representative Bill Black as well as former long time morning DJ, Bob Taylor."

Doug in WDNL studio during one of the talk track sessions of "Sunday at the 70's."

This is where my tracing of the History of D-102 ends. Since I'm no longer with the station, it will be nearly impossible for me to continue. I leave it for some other broadcast historian. Good luck.

Now for the first time since 2002, hear segments from Doug's Last Show onWDNL(D-102). Each part includes air checks from as far back as 1977. Of course, not everyone associated with WDNL is included in these brief segments, that would be impossible. Each segment is 5-10 minutes in length. You'll get a taste of what was happening in Danville during those years, including old commercials, a remote from the GM Central Foundary during it's 75th Anniversary and more. Enjoy! Click on the "Play" Button to hear each segment. You'll need Real Audio.
	Part 1	Part 4
	Part 2	Part 5
	Part 3	Part 6

	WDAN and WDNL staffers at the broadcast of my final day. These people were there over much of my 25+ years. From left to right: Mike Hulvey(station mgr), Pat Swanson, Scott Medlin, Gene Cosgrove, me, Don Russell, Tom Barnes, Danville Mayor Bob Jones and Bill Pickett

In Memory Of....

Bill LaCombe

In 2003 Bill "Boober" LaCombe passed away. Along with being one of Danville's most popular radio jocks over the years(WITY, WDAN, WDNL, WPFR-Terre Haute), he had several non-radio jobs such as host at O'Leary's Pub and as a travel consultant at Williams Travel. His many appearances with the "Prime Cuts Road Show" at events over the last 15 years made him one of the area's most popular disc jockeys. He was a real fun loving guy who is missed by all of his friends.

Dan Chenoweth

In October of 2005, former Account Executive Dan Chenoweth passed away in Oregon. Dan was a gentleman in every aspect of the word. A dedicated dad, and a friend. We lost contact after he left WDNL in the early 80's when he moved to the west coast, but he will always be remembered for being the great guy he was. (Dan is pictured above in the section "The Sangamon Years").

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