(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Today (Feb. 6) is a day 100 years in the making.
On Feb. 6, 1924, the Atlass family in Lincoln, Illinois began broadcasting from their basement after receiving a license from the federal government, which assigned them the call letters of WBBM.
The 200-watt station was owned by Les Atlass, a produce dealer who would play around with this new technology called radio in his spare time.
The first broadcasters were local radio enthusiasts in Lincoln, which is located in central Illinois. A man by the name of Richard Purinton promised three dozen eggs to the first person from each state to respond by telegram.
Listeners in 15 states responded.
Atlass sold the produce business and moved his family and the radio station to Chicago, where it would broadcast live music for three days a week from Rogers Park.
The growing CBS Radio Network bought a controlling interest in the radio station in 1931. News and talk programming would dominate the broadcast day in the 1960s before WBBM switched to an all-news format in May 1968.
Today, WBBM Newsradio is available on its longtime home of 780AM; 105.9FM; online and on social media.
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