Laying a Foundation for Greatness – WNUA in the Fall of 1989

WNUA's key hire in the fall of 1989:  Yvonne Daniels.

It’s easy to remember the glory days of WNUA, the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, when the station arguably became the standard bearer for the format.  The seeds of that success were planted almost ten years earlier, however, in 1989.

When WNUA debuted on August 3, 1987, its new format was the talk of the industry.  But, aside from the fantastic buzz the station was enjoying in the press and among listeners who were its early adopters, there were serious growing pains.  Some of you might remember that the format debuted without any announcers.  Imagine all that wonderful but totally unfamiliar music without anyone on the air telling you what it was.  I was hosting the “Sunday Lite Brunch” on WCLR at the time, working off basically the same playlist as WNUA but making sure I gave out the artist and title of every tune I played.  The hundreds of calls and letters I received thanking me for providing the information was confirmation that the format absolutely needed to have live announcers.  It took WNUA several months before it caught on to the fact that it needed to put a staff on the air.

The ratings were also problematic.  They were improving but only gradually, and there were a few backwards steps along the way.  During one particularly lean ratings period in 1988, WNUA had a 1.3 share (in listeners 12+), an abysmal number which prompted the CEO of the company which owned the station, Richie Balsbaugh to exclaim, “I’m not a 1.3 kind of guy.”  That led to immediate speculation in the industry press that a format change might be in the works. 

When it came to the playlist, the music on WNUA leaned heavily toward New Age in those early days.  That gave it a distinctive sound.  But it was a distinctly West Coast sound, with none of the urban edge and driving beat that would be the station’s distinguishing characteristics later on.  Frankly, as a listener I found it dry as a bone—and I was a New Age fan.

Then, in 1989, Richie Balsbaugh made the most astute business decision during his time at the helm of Pyramid Broadcasting, WNUA’s parent company.  He brought in John Gehron as General Manager of WNUA.  That one move would serve to point WNUA in the right direction. 

John’s first order of business was improving the product.  He reached down to Mokena, Illinois, and the Satellite Music Network for Lawrence (Lee) Hansen and installed him as Program Director.  Then, in the fall of 1989, John and Lee decided the station needed more of a local, Chicago connection.  They made three key hires for on-air.  In October they lured Charlie Meyerson, veteran broadcast journalist, to WNUA from WXRT to handle the news.  They brought me in after I had spent two years playing contemporary jazz and New Age Sunday mornings on WCLR.  And in November they signed their first big name Chicago air personality to host the new morning show:  the legendary Yvonne Daniels. 

At the same time, the Gehron-Hansen team also added promotions and marketing specialist Suzy LeClair to the mix.  Suzy ratcheted up the station’s excitement level incrementally, instituting the Get Out of Town and Listen While You Work Perk giveaways and creating innovative partnerships between the station and marquee events such as the Chicago International Film Festival and Concours d’Elegance.

Combined with tweaking the overall music mix, the Gehron plan began producing results very quickly.  Within twelve months, the ratings arrow was firmly positioned upward, revenue was increasing and all talk of a format change at 95.5 had ceased.  Looking back, a significant part of the foundation for the station’s breakthrough which could come in the mid ‘90s was laid in that five-week period back in the fall of 1989.

~Rick O’Dell ([email protected])

Our Smooth Video of the Day:  Joe Sample’s release of his landmark CD, Spellbound, coincided with the righting of the ship at WNUA, making 1989 a noteworthy year for him, too.

 

Comments

[Kris]

My husband and I LOVED those early days of WNUA when it was primarily New Age music. We loved the introduction to fabulous music and new artists. Brings back so many happy memories!

[Art B.]

Yvonne Daniels, what a Classy women and Beautiful voice. Nice tune by Joe Sample !!!

[Cyn Cooper]

Wow....you talked about Yvonne on what would have been my Dad's 89th birthday with the video of a song that is priceless to me...no wonder it turned out to be such a good day!!

I treasure the cassette I have of Yvonne & Ramsey's last show....think I will pull it out this weekend, since you brought her up!!!!