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WNIB, 97.1 FM (also known as Classical 97), was a classical music radio station that was begun in Chicago, Illinois on July 9, 1955. The frequency was assigned to William C. Florian who began operations and retained ownership until its sale in 2001. The call letters stood for Northern Illinois Broadcasting (Company). Despite many overtures throughout the years to purchase the license, Florian held onto it until February 11, 2001, when it was sold to Bonneville Broadcasting.〔(Article in Crain’s Chicago Business )〕〔(Various articles about the sale of WNIB )〕 See WDRV for details of broadcasting on the frequency after that date. ==Early years== In the early years, Florian built the station, did all the engineering and also sold advertising. He was the Chief Engineer during the entire time of his ownership.
In 1958, Sonia Atzeff, a graduate of Roosevelt University in Chicago, was hired and steered the programming toward a classical music format. She did programming and engineering, but no announcing. She and Florian were married some years later, and she was the General Manager of the station until its sale in 2001. The station was on the air for various hours, gradually expanding until it reached 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. most days. Among the other announcers in the early years were Bill Plante, who went on to become a fixture at CBS News, Marty Robinson and Don Tait, both of whom later worked for WFMT, Ken Alexander,〔(Recollections of Ken Alexander )〕 who later worked for WAIT and eventually returned, and others. While classical music was the primary focus, some hours were sold to various people who did half-hour and/or hour-length programs in several foreign languages – including Bosnian, Serbian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, and Spanish. There was also a four-hour block on Saturdays from 1–5 p.m. sold to Chuck Schaden for an old-time radio program called “Those Were the Days.” Even when the other brokered time disappeared, this program remained on the air until the sale of the station in 2001. For many years, there was also a live-on-tape service from the Chicago Temple Methodist Church every Sunday, recorded at 7 p.m. and aired at 10 p.m. the same day. A few services were also aired (on tape) from the Chicago Sinai Congregation. Various talk-format programs with individual hosts ran in the 10 p.m. to 12 midnight hours on various days. Dick Lawrence did a 1920s program once a week for many years that ran in various time slots. In the 1970s, Curtis Huff would engineer the station during the day, running the voice tracks made by Ron Ray.〔(Tribute to Ron Ray )〕 Live announcers including Tony Lincoln would work in the evenings. When the station expanded its classical music to include “Morning Song,” a morning-drive program, the hosts were Fred Heft, Jay Andres (formerly with WGN and WBBM), Carl Grapentine (formerly and subsequently with WFMT) and Obie Yadgar (formerly of and subsequently with WFMR in Milwaukee). Miller Peters〔(Miller Peters )〕 had worked part-time for the station early on, and returned, eventually succeeding Ron Ray as Program Director after his death in February, 1996. When the station went 24 hours, the overnight hours were sold to various format brokers. One of the early overnight brokered programs on WNIB was produced by The Seed, an underground newspaper. The program featured rock music and interviews with rock stars. Later on, WNIB aired jazz from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., and r&b/blues from 2 a.m. Jazz hosts included Dick Buckley, Neil Tesser, Joe Siegel, and others. Blues hosts included Mr. A.,〔(Tribute to Mr. A )〕 Big Bill Collins, Baby Face George and others. A few hours each week were reserved for Public Affairs broadcasting as required by the FCC. From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, black gospel music programming and Sunday remotes from black churches became a major part of WNIB's overnight and early Saturday and Sunday morning programming. Various African-American ministers served as hosts of the overnight gospel music programs. Remote broadcasts of services of several African-American churches were featured on Sunday mornings. By the early 1980s, the gospel music overnight and early morning gospel and foreign language format was dropped in favor of expanded classical music hours and an overnight blues program. During the 1980s and until the station's demise in 2001, the majority of WNIB's programming was classical music with the exception of Chuck Schaden's Saturday afternoon old time radio program, Mr. A's overnight blues show hosted by Al Hudgins, an hour of blues with Big Bill Colins, and the required Public Affairs programs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WNIB」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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