Чикаго қалалық радиосының тарихы және эволюциясы

Classic rock radio station in Chicago

WDRV (97.1 FM, "The Drive") is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois. The station is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting and airs a classic rock format. Its studios were originally located in the John Hancock Center. On May 11, 2018, WDRV moved into all new, state of the art, digital studios in Chicago's Prudential Plaza. WDRV's antenna is located atop the Aon Center. 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.

WNIB was founded and built by Bill Florian. The call letters stood for Northern Illinois Broadcasting.

Gershon had the idea of playing classical music Sunday evenings and stated, "Classical music wasn't part of our programming at first, since most other FM stations aired lots of classical music, especially WFMT and WEFM. But I told Bill we should make use of the 12 records we had in the library. He said, 'All right. Just don't have any of that ivory tower stuff here.'" As a classical station, WNIB would later be branded "Classical 97". Sonia Atzeff and Bill Florian were married in 1967, and Sonia later became general manager of the station, a position she held until its sale in 2001. Ron Ray began as a part time announcer on WNIB in 1968. Working concurrently at 105.9 WXFM, Ray pre recorded his announcements. Miller Peters was the station's music director in its final years, and also served as a weekend host. Florian, a jazz aficionado, also hired Dick Buckley as a DJ for the station's jazz programming. Neil Tesser also hosted a jazz program on WNIB from 1974 to 1976. Blues hosts included Mr. A. and Big Bill Collins. Those Were the Days, a four hour old time radio program hosted by Chuck Schaden, aired on WNIB Saturdays from September 6, 1975, until February 10, 2001.

WNIB's studios and transmitter were originally located at the Midwest Hotel, at Hamlin and Madison in West Garfield Park. Subsequent studio locations for WNIB included 108 N. State St., Riverside Plaza, 25 E. Chestnut St., 12 East Delaware Place, and finally 1140 W. Erie. Its ratings grew significantly in the following years, and by the late 1980s it began to surpass 98.7 WFMT. The inclusion of the label and record number enabled listeners to purchase things they enjoyed hearing, and the subscription price helped keep the station going during the leaner times. The covers at first had details of well known artworks, and later had original sketches and caricatures by Richard Kimmel and Robert Kameczura. WNIB was also famous for having dogs and cats in residence, which were audible at times during announcements. With the proceeds of the sale, the Florians established the NIB Foundation, which awarded grants to music, dance, environmental, and animal rights causes. After the completion of a final program on February 11, the station was turned off. The following day, new owners took the air with a different format. On March 15, 2001, the call sign was changed to WDRV, and the station adopted a classic hits format as "The Drive". In 2003, 96.9 in Zion began simulcasting WDRV, and its call sign was changed to WWDV. Over the years, The Drive's format evolved into a broad based classic rock format. 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. WDRV features The Sherman & Tingle Show (Brian Sherman and Steve Tingle which debuted 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 became an affiliate of EMF's Christian AC network K Love.

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.