Happy New Year’s, radio friends!
Every New Year’s Eve, WLS in Chicago would count down the Top 89 songs of the year. At midnight, #1 would be played. Then, they would launch into a montage of the biggest hits from previous years. Each year, song snippets from the current year would be added. Eventually, it reached a length of 27 minutes and 49 seconds!
With their 50,000 watt clear channel signal, WLS could be heard in 38 states after dark. Every New Year’s Eve, I’d tune in at midnight to hear this. I recorded a few of these, but this is the last (longest) one and of much better quality than mine are.
After 29 years as a Top 40 station, WLS dropped music programming and became a talk station on August 23, 1989. Here’s the final version. Thank you so much Scott Childers for putting this together!
WLS AM 89 New Year’s Montage (Final Version)