Licensed initially as WENR-FM, WLS-FM came to be in 1965 featuring a Beautiful Music format from 12 noon-midnight daily (and Blackhawk home games) under the leadership of Harvey Wittenberg.  Broadcasting in stereo, the station made it's debut as WLS-FM by airing live coverage of the National Clay Court Tennis Championships from River Forest.  By 1968 its hours were extended to 6:00am-midnight...simulcasting WLS-AM from 6:00-8:00am (Clark Weber) and carrying Don McNeill's Breakfast Club from 8:00-9:00am.  In addition to sports, the station carried standards, show tunes, light classical fare, jazz and folk tunes "selected from the finest stereo albums."

        
Harvey Wittenberg, Clark Weber, Don McNeill's "Breakfast Club," Art Hellyer.

The underground progressive rock show "Spoke" came about in the summer of 1968.  It  originally aired from 10:00pm to midnight and was locally produced, featuring a lot of reverb and disjointed sounds.  "Love," syndicated from ABC came about in '69.  That aired on WLS-FM from 7:00pm-1:00am.  In September 1969, ABC decided to switch WLS-FM to full-time Progressive Rock.  They brought in a new staff...including Mitch Michaels and John Platt and tossed out Harvey along with Art Hellyer, Mike Rapchak and others.

WLS-FM jingle from early 60's.	WLS-FM "Love" jingle.

"Spoke" on WLS-FM.

The station was full-time Progressive and changed to WDAI in early 1971. What's ironic is ABC messed up on the call-letters.  At that time they wanted to distance all their O&O FMs from the AMs.  WABC-FM in NYC became WPLJ, KABC-FM in LA became KLOS, KQV-FM in Pittsburgh turned into WDVE, KGO-FM became KSFX in San Francisco.  WDAI was supposed to be the designated calls for WXYZ-FM in Detroit (The "DAI" standing for Detroit Auto Industry) and WLS-FM was to be WRIF (no doubt for guitar or blues "riff").

In 1972 WDAI softened its Progressive Rock a bit but still remained an Album Rocker until 1978 when Disco got morning man Steve Dahl up in arms.  After the format change, he was fired.  Dahl went to WLUP and paired up with Garry Meier.  Through his "Coho Lips Army," Dahl mounted a vocal "Disco Sucks" campaign and was bent on demolishing WDAI.  Despite this assault "Disco DAI" did very well at the height of the Disco craze.

       
Bob Sirott's last full-time job in radio; "Listen to the rock - W-Rock!;" Uncle Lar invades FM.

Steve Dahl's "Rude Awakening"on WDAI.	Rich McMillan on WRCK.

By Spring 1980, disco had died and the station was reformatted as an adult Top 40/Oldies mix under the calls WRCK.  Bob Sirott was hired as morning man, but was unable to start for several months, due to his contractual obligations that still remained after he had left WLS at the end of 1979. When he finally did start, he only lasted a few months before working his way out of that contract to head to television.  As a result, WRCK merged again to become WLS-FM.  The music was adjusted to sound like the AM programming and morning and evening drives were simulcast.  In addition to Danae Alexander, Tom Graye, Rich McMillian and Chuck Evans, Superjock Larry Lujack began the day and Brant Miller ended it from the WLS-AM studios.  Steve Dahl (along with Garry Meier) returned to the station in 1981 for afternoon duty after being fired from The Loop for "assaulting community standards."  They were moved to AM by 1985.  In 1986 the station changed again.  This time to WYTZ (Z-95) to compete more solidly with WBBM-FM (B96).  The WLS-AM airstaff vanished with the exception of Brant Miller, Susan Platt and (for a time) Jeff Davis, replaced by morning man Paul Barsky and his "Z Morning Zoo," Peter Bucalo and Greg Thunder among others..

     
Hit Rock in 1985, Z-95 by 1986, Susan Platt, Jeff Davis.

Susan Platt on WLS-FM.	The Barsky Morning Zoo on Z-95.

1986

After taking on it's rival B96 for nearly five years, the station was "blown up" by consultant (now programming head of Clear Channel Communications) Randy Michaels.  For three tumultuous weeks, WYTZ went through a drastic change, playing only a handful of dance and rap songs over and over, airing station voiceovers and Gulf War updates in Spanish while waging constant attacks on B96, station program director Dave Shakes and their morning team Eddie & JoBo.  Despite Z-95 morning jocks Welch & Woody's daily updates that "...a big announcement was coming," none really did.  That is until "Hell."  For about a week, the station referred to itself as "Hell 94.7."  This caused quite a stir in the media and outrage from listeners who were upset with the new satanic slogan.  The plan failed (maybe it was supposed to) and for a short time in 1991, WYTZ reverted back to Top 40 as "Hot 94.7."

(L-R) Hot 94.7's John Welch, Joanie Siani & Steve Woods.

Randy Michaels' Z-95 "experiment."

In 1992, WYTZ once again became WLS-FM, surrendering the signal as a fulltime simulcast of WLS-AM, which had gone talk in 1989.  By 1994 Robert Murphy, Johnny Von, Turi Ryder and Rich Roeper among others were brought in by Drew Hayes to make WLS-FM a "hip" talk station for younger listeners.  WLUP was too well entrenched with top talk/comedy personalities such as Johnathan Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews and Steve Dahl.  94.7's FM talk format did not attract listeners and within a year and it was back to simulcasting WLS-AM.

  
Former WMAQ and WUSN jock Nancy Turner makes a big splash back into radio at WKXK.

In November 1995, WLS-FM began airing all Christmas music with a promise of a new format after the holidays.  That format was country WKXK "Kicks Country."  Again 94.7 tried to take on a big competitor, this time WUSN. Ratings failed to kick Kicks in and by 1997, the format and it's air staff that included country veteran Nancy Turner were gone.

     
Bob Stroud, Patti Haze, Kevin Matthews.

This time the format changed to Classic Rock as CD94.7, WXCD.  Initially the station ran jockless with a wide playlist under the direction of Bill Gamble.  As time went on the playlist was trimmed down and AOR veterans Bob Stroud (along with his famous "Rock 'n Roll Roots), Patti Haze, Joe Thomas and Mitch Michaels joined on.  Alan Stagg recreated the underground sound of the early progressive FM days with his late night "Sanctuary."  While it continued to maintain it's slogan of "Classic Rock with Less Talk," WXCD hired Kevin Matthews as morning man. Previously the station ran jockless in the AM drivetime. 

By 2000, rumours swirled that 94.7 would change again.  Despite reports from management that the WXCD was healthy, a flip seemed inevitable.  On November 29th at 6pm, CD 94.7 became The Zone, a rock based 80's format, featuring the sounds of REM, Stray Cats, Phil Collins and The Cure among others.  All fulltime airstaff with the exception of Kevin Matthews were let go.  For the 10th time in the station's history, the call letters were changed - this time to WZZN. New jocks included Steve Fisher, Jeffrey T. Mason and Paul Gant among others.

In the early days, the station's transmitter shared space with sister station WBKB-TV (Channel 7) atop Marina City.  It's "circle 7" was visible for miles around.  After the completion of Sears Tower in 1974, both Channel 7 (now WLS-TV) and 94.7 moved to the world's tallest building, where they continue to transmit from today.