BROADCASTING FROM ROHLWING ROAD IN SCHAUMBURG TOWNSHIP

The 750-foot tower stands tall on a parcel of land on Rohlwing Road in Schaumburg Township. From 1873 to 1937 the land was part of the Thies family farm. Seeing a need for a more powerful signal for the new popular radio format, WGN Radio purchased the parcel in 1937 from Regina Thies.

They then contracted with Truscon Steel of Youngstown, Ohio to build a transmitter and it went operational on March 29, 1939. On that day WGN Radio could be heard up to 250 miles away. Or more.

In 2022 WGN Radio celebrated its 100th anniversary. The fledgling station had begun as WDAP on May 19, 1922 and two years later, on June 1, 1924, the name was changed to WGN, which was short for World’s Greatest Newspaper.

Robert McCormick. Photo credit to WGN Radio.

This was in reference to the fact that Robert McCormick, who owned the Chicago Tribune at the time, was fascinated by the new radio format and, per the WGN (AM) Wikipedia article, purchased the station from the Whitestone Company, owners of the Drake Hotel in Chicago. Thus began the 90-year ownership of WGN Radio by Tribune Media.

During those early years it became evident that, in order to have their signal carry longer distances, it would be necessary to construct a better transmitter. Thus, when that project was carried out in 1939, 17 years after the station began, WGN’s status in the local–and national–world of radio leaped ahead.

The tower, though, is not the sole source of the transmitting power. There are actually radial wires buried underground, in a 900 foot circumference surrounding the tower. In the words of a WGN radio employee, “They act as the other half of the tower.”

Today, to carry out that powerful signal, the station broadcasts it from their studio in downtown Chicago to 360 Chicago or, as we all know it, the John Hancock Center, and then out to the transmitter in Elk Grove Village. From there the signal is transmitted up to 250 miles across the curvature of the earth, as well as into the ionosphere.

According to skybrary.aero, “the ionosphere contains a high proportion of free electrons which influence radio propagation. High Frequency (HF) radio waves hitting the free electrons in the ionosphere cause them to vibrate and re-radiate the energy back down at the same frequency, effectively bouncing the radio wave back towards the Earth.” This is why the radio station’s signal can be heard in other parts of the world.

WGN Radio transmitter site on Rohlwing Road in Elk Grove Village, IL

These details and more can be found in a special 100-year retrospective on WGN Radio’s website. It is especially interesting for those who have always been curious about the interior of that transmitting station. This is your opportunity to take a short, online tour of the art deco building on Rohlwing Road that you’ve driven past so often. If you’d like, you can start at minute 9:00 for that tour.

And, when you’re finished, be sure and leave a comment here, letting us know how far away you were when you caught the WGN radio signal. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan? Downstate? A lake in Minnesota? Canada? It will be interesting to see where that 50,000 watt station and it’s Elk Grove Village tower can find us.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org

For a more in-depth look at the history of the transmitter, you can read this earlier blog post for additional details.

As reported in the June 2022 edition of the Elk Grove Villager, Nexstar Media Inc. which is the parent company of WGN Radio, “plans to relocate the transmission tower to the north end of the property and develop approximately 35 acres on the south end. In order for Nexstar to access critical infrastructure and Village services, it is currently working with Village officials on a plan to petition for annexation of the property into Elk Grove.”

THE WGN TOWER THAT STANDS TALL

Your Sunday Date.  Fireside Theater.  The Lone Ranger.  Buddy and Ginger.  Little Orphan Annie.  Charlie Chan.  Marriage License Romances.

If you lived in Chicagoland in 1937, chances are good you listened to WGN Radio and some, or all, of the shows above.  (On Marriage License Romances the host interviewed couples who were applying for marriage licenses!)  Already possessing a good signal, WGN was interested in expanding their range to draw in more listeners. As part of a million-dollar plan, WGN made a commitment to boost their broadcast signal and to build a new studio headquarters.  The first order of business in erecting a new transmitting tower was to find a suitable site.

The current transmitting site was in Elgin and they employed a “T” type antenna system which used two 250 foot towers with wires stretching between them that served as antennas.  The new system that was planned for the new site was a single 750 foot tower that was inverted to rest on a pin point, electrified porcelain insulator. The result was that the entire tower served as the antenna, a revolutionary idea at the time.

Certain criteria had to be met, though, for the placement of the tower.  It was necessary that the subsoil be clay-based with very little ore, gravel or sand so that the tower would be well anchored.  In the unlikely event that the tower would topple (it was guaranteed to withstand 110 mph winds) it was necessary to be in an open plot of land, large enough to accommodate a fallen tower.  It also needed to be off of regular air routes and in a sparsely populated area, eliminating any possible interference from nearby transmitters. The location they found was the farm of Regina Thies, off of Rohlwing Road (old Route 53), two miles north of Irving Park Road.  The farm had every quality WGN was looking for.  The subsoil was perfect, the location was five miles from any air traffic and there were less than 4000 people in a five mile radius.  In addition, the Thies family was motivated to sell their 100 acre farm.  Regina’s husband, Herman, had passed away in 1909 and after farming for nearly 30 years, she and her family were ready to move on.

After approval was granted by the FCC on October 12, 1937, construction began in April 1938.  Truscon Steel of Youngstown, Ohio fabricated the tower, and steel workers bolted and welded the tower in segments.  By mid-May a 400-foot span was in place. Nearly two weeks later, the entire 750 foot structure was completed and held in place by anchoring wires at 300 and 500 feet that created an incredible downpull on the structure. The WGN tower was now the tallest man-made structure in the midwest.

 

In addition, part of the $250,000 budget included the construction of a transmitter house.  This simple structure was built in the Art Deco style of the Depression and exists today on the property.  It was originally designed to keep a broadcast on the air in the event of electrical, mechanical or human failure.  If the power supply failed, a selector switch in the building would be flipped to trigger an auxiliary or emergency line.  Upon completion of the project, the master control board in the transmitter house would always be occupied by an operator or technician.  Also included in the building were living quarters for the workers so that transmission could continue unimpeded should any emergency occur.

Transformers were positioned on two large concrete bunkers to supply electricity to power the transmitter.  The electricity came from two power lines that stretched over many miles from both the Waukegan and Maywood substations.  This bunker still exists on the property today.

The transmitter went into operation on March 29, 1939, which was also the 15th anniversary of the founding of WGN radio. Reception was vastly improved throughout the entire midwest, reaching as far north as the upper Michigan peninsula.  The signal was so good, in fact, that Henry Thies, who lived on a neighboring farm, could sometimes catch the radio station being transmitted through the steel  spring support underneath the mattress on his steel frame bed.  Imagine laying in bed, trying to get to sleep after a hard day’s work, and having your rest disrupted by music or a comedy show broadcast on a bed that had become a large radio!

This year will be the 80th anniversary of the placement of the WGN tower in Schaumburg Township. Back in 1938, this would have been the view looking west from the transmitter towards the Henry Thies farm. Obviously, there have been a few changes but, for years the tower has withstood increased air traffic, population and even, Y2K.  If that weren’t enough to indicate it was a wise choice, WBBM moved their own transmitter in 1942 to a site just a mile and a half south on Rohlwing Road. If you’re driving north/south on Route 53 and listening to the radio, take note of these two towers and appreciate their amazing longevity.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org

This blog posting was written with the assistance of two sources.   LaVonne Presley and the memories and photos from her book, Schaumburg Of My Ancestors, were a key perspective in capturing the Schaumburg Township atmosphere that WGN moved into in 1938.  Newspaper articles from the period of 1937-39 that were written by Larry Wolters of the Chicago Tribune, were incredibly detailed.  He was clearly fascinated with the entire process and it showed in his writing.

I also thank Larry Rowan for the use of the photo he took of the WGN antenna and Art Deco transmitter building.  Two for the price of one!