WCPT HAS MOVED THREE STEPS TO THE LEFT!!!

Instead of broadcasting at 850-AM, we've moved to 820-AM. While that might be three small steps on the radio dial, it’s one giant leap for Progressives all over Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin and Northwest Indiana.

Our new signal at 820-AM literally doubles our coverage area. Instead of broadcasting at 2,500 watts from Crystal Lake Illinois, our new transmitter moved 40 miles right to the heart of Chicago, giving us twice the power for all the people! In fact, WCPT’s new 5,000 watt daytime signal is the best signal of any major AM station in Chicago. Yes, we did say daytime because the 820-AM signal is also licensed by the FCC to sign-on at sunrise and sign-off at sunset. For those with questions on the FCC’s daytime radio rules, please go to the “About WCPT” section of this website. Although we would love to broadcast all day and all night, the new WCPT at 820-AM is now heard from as far north as Milwaukee to as far south as Kankakee. It finally put us on a level playing field with the rest of Chicago’s talk radio stations; just in time for the 2008 election season.

Thanks to each and every WCPT listener for being so loyal to the station and helping us take this very important step. Like Johnny Appleseed, you have helped us by spreading the word on our station. I am especially thankful to the people who live in areas where our signal at 850-AM was (to say the least) not very strong. Your ability to withstand radio noise has now be rewarded with a static-free signal!!

Press Release Below: 

CHICAGO'S PROGRESSIVE TALK DOUBLES POWER,

EXPANDS LISTENING AREA
WCPT switches to new frequency, reaches all of Chicagoland

CHICAGO IL –Bringing progressive talk radio to an even larger audience, WCPT, Chicago's Progressive Talk Radio station, moves from 850-AM to 820-AM on Monday, November 26^th. This move doubles the station's power and dramatically increases WCPT's listening area.

WCPT 820-AM will be the only major AM station to broadcast from a tower inside the city of Chicago.  This will allow it to deliver the clearest sound in the city as well as the entire suburban area and beyond.  Its new signal at 820-AM will reach several million new potential listeners from Milwaukee all the way south to Kankakee.

WCPT 850-AM signed on as Chicago's progressive talk station on May 5, 2005. The station has one of the most loyal audiences of any radio station in the Chicago area.  The recently released Summer 2007 Arbitron Ratings Report showed WCPT to be first among over 40 Chicago area radio stations in the time its listeners spend with the station each week.  The move to 820-AM will provide WCPT a level playing field with the rest of Chicago's news and talk radio stations.

"With the 2008 elections approaching, we're thrilled to give progressive talk radio an even stronger voice in Chicago," Harvey Wells, General Manager of WCPT said. "Listeners throughout Chicagoland will hear such dynamic and distinct voices as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes."

WAIT 820-AM signed on in 1941 and was owned by Century Broadcasting from 1979 until the company lost the lease on its transmitter site in Elmhurst in 1991. Dan Lee brought 820-AM back to Chicago's airwaves a short time later and moved the transmitter site to Chicago. The station ultimately became the first home for Lee's highly successful "The Score", an all-sports talk format.

Newsweb Radio purchased 820-AM in 2001 and 850-AM in 2003 and returned the WAIT call letters to 820-AM in 2005. With the migration of WCPT to 820-AM, 850-AM will once again operate under the WAIT call letters. The station signed on in 1965 and operated under those call letters from 1986, when owned by famed Chicago radio personality Mal Bellairs, through 2005.

Newsweb Radio Company, one of the last locally owned radio groups in any major market in the United States, also owns the three stations that comprise Nine-FM, the winner of Billboard Magazine's Airplay Monitor as the Radio Station of the Year in 2005 as well as four other radio stations in the Chicago area.

Due to FCC regulations, both WCPT 820-AM and WAIT 850-AM will continue to operate as daytime-only stations. However, WCPT listeners will now have the benefit of a longer broadcast day due to different FCC interference protection requirements.