WDRV (97.1 FM, "The Drive") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois. The station is owned by Hubbard Radio and broadcasts a classic rock format. Its studios are located in the John Hancock Center and its broadcast tower is located atop the Aon Center at (41°53?6.1?N 87°37?17.7?W). The station's programming is simulcast on sister station 96.9 WWDV in Zion, Illinois.
WDRV uses HD Radio and broadcasts a classic rock format branded as "Deep Tracks" on its HD2 subchannel.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
History
1955-2001: WNIB
The station signed on for the first time in 1955 as WNIB. Owned by Northern Illinois Broadcasting (NIB), the station broadcast a classical music format. The last day of classical programming on WNIB was February 11, 2001.
2001-Present: WDRV
WNIB/WNIZ was sold in 2000 to Bonneville International. On February 12, 2001, Bonneville began to stunt with a "format of the day", which included sets from artists such as Madonna, Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand and Garth Brooks. On March 15, 2001, the call sign was changed to WDRV, and the format officially changed to Classic Hits. The format has slowly evolved into a broad-based classic rock format, while former sister station WLUP-FM was sold to Emmis and changed to a mainstream rock format in 2005.
Bonneville announced the sale of WDRV and 16 other stations, to Hubbard Broadcasting on January 19, 2011. The sale was completed on April 29, 2011.
On June 27, 2011, WDRV celebrated its 10th anniversary by organizing a free-entrance concert at the Rosemont Theatre by America and headliner Jethro Tull.
Online streaming of the "Deep Tracks" programming broadcast on WDRV's HD2 subchannel was discontinued in October 2013, due to its popularity. The high amount of traffic to the site made the stream too expensive to maintain, considering the cost of the service, royalty payments and lack of commercials to offset costs.
The station celebrated its 15th anniversary on Friday, May 20, 2016 with a concert at the Rosemont Theater featuring Boston and Jefferson Starship.
On June 9, 2016, John Gallagher, vice president and market manager of Hubbard Radio Chicago, announced that veteran Chicago sports radio host Dan McNeil would be leaving WDRV after 16 months at the station.
Following the departure of Dan McNeil, Pete McMurray (along with producer Scott Miller) exited the existing morning show on October 4, 2016. Veteran news person Kathy Voltmer was moved to a 'public service' role. McMurray decided to depart after the announcement that The Sherman & Tingle Show (Brian Sherman and Steve Tingle) would be making its debut the morning of October 31, 2016.
On March 10, 2018, WDRV became Chicago's only classic rock station when former rival WLUP-FM was sold to Educational Media Foundation and changed formats to EMF's Christian AC format known as K-Love.
Air Staff and Programs
WDRV Air Staff (current as of February 2018)
Weekdays: The Sherman & Tingle Show or, when The Sherman & Tingle Show is on vacation, The Spencer or Foster show (5:30 am-10am), Bob Stroud (10am-2:30 pm), Steve Seaver (2:30 pm-7pm), Phil Manicki (7pm-12am), and Greg Easterling (12am-5:30 am)
Weekends: Byrd, Allie Ellison, Marc Vernon, Don Nelson, Tim Spencer, and Jim Foster
Special Weekend Programming: WDRV airs the in-house program Rock 'n Roll Roots, Sunday mornings from 7am-10am. It is hosted by Bob Stroud, who created the program 37 years ago while at WMET. Nationally syndicated shows include The Deep End with Nick Michaels (Saturday 11pm-1am), The Classics with Steve Downes (Sunday 9pm-11pm) and The Time Warp with Bill St. James (Saturday 5am-9am). WDRV also airs two public affairs programs on Sunday mornings: Viewpoints from 5:30am to 6am, and Radio Health from 6am to 6:30am.
WWDV Simulcast
In 1983, Northern Illinois Broadcasting purchased WKZN 96.9 FM in Zion, Illinois, changing the call sign to WNIZ and airing a simulcast of WNIB programming for communities north of Chicago. On February 12, 2001, WNIZ programming became a simulcast of WDRV's sister station, WTMX, when WNIB changed call signs to WDRV. WNIZ's call sign was changed to WTNX at that time. This simulcast did very little for WTMX's ratings, and management decided to return the station's programming to a simulcast of 97.1, now WDRV. The change took effect on January 1, 2003, with a call sign change to WWDV.
Signal note
WDRV is short-spaced to sister station WWDV (licensed to serve Zion, Illinois) as they operate on adjacent channels and the cities they are licensed to serve are only 40 miles apart. The minimum distance between two Class B FM radio stations operating on adjacent channels according to current FCC rules is 105 miles. Both stations use directional antennas to reduce their signals toward each other.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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