WLUP-FM
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| City | Chicago, Illinois |
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| Broadcast area | Chicago market |
| Branding | 97.9 The Loop |
| Slogan | Chicago's Classic Rock |
| Frequency | 97.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1950s (as WEHS) |
| Format |
FM/HD1: Classic rock HD2: Comedy HD3: Smooth AC |
| Audience share | 2.3 (Holiday 2016, Nielsen Audio[1]) |
| ERP | 4,000 watts |
| HAAT | 425 meters (1,394 ft) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 73233 |
| Callsign meaning | A play on the "Loop" branding, which is taken from The Loop, Chicago's downtown district |
| Former callsigns | WEHS (1950s-?) WHFC (?-1960s) WSDM (1960s-1977) |
| Owner | Merlin Media, LLC (operated by Cumulus Media via LMA) (Merlin Media License, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WKQX, WLS, WLS-FM |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wlup.com |
WLUP-FM (97.9 FM, "The Loop") is a commercial classic rock radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area. The station is owned by Merlin Media, LLC, and is operated by Cumulus Media. WLUP transmits its signal from an antenna located atop the John Hancock Center in Downtown Chicago at a height of 1,394 feet (425 m) with an effective radiated power of 4,000 watts, while their studios are located in the NBC Tower. WLUP can be heard as far away as Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is 90 miles (140 km) from Chicago.
WLUP also airs HD Radio programming on two subchannels: 97.9-HD2 airs a comedy format ("Loop Laffs").
97.9 FM signed on in the 1950s as WEHS. Richard Hoffman, owner of WHFC, in the early 1930s bought out two radio stations which shared the 1420 kc. frequency of his station: WEHS and WKBI. He revived the WEHS call letters in the late 1940s for a new FM station. WEHS broadcast background music for National Tea Grocery stores in the Chicago area. When the contract with National ran out in the mid-1950s, WEHS simulcast WHFC's foreign language and black programming for six hours a day, the minimum broadcast time to keep the license. When the Chess Brothers purchased WHFC and changed its call letters to WVON ("The Voice of the Negro"), they changed the WEHS call letters to WHFC-FM. 97.9 then simulcasted WVON 24 hours a day. In the mid-1960s, the station began airing separate programming as WSDM (which stood for "Smack Dab in the Middle", "the middle" meaning the exact middle of the FM radio dial). They also briefly used the term "Stereo Den for Men"; the format featured all female announcers (Yvonne Daniels and Dr. Cody Sweet among others) playing light jazz and instrumental music. This light jazz & instrumental format was similar to the more recent "Smooth Jazz" formats. In the 1970s, WSDM began to mix album rock music with its light jazz. Although WVON was sold to the Potter Palmer family in the late 1960s, the Chess family held on to WSDM, which was being run by Phil Chess' son, Terry Chess.
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Wikipedia