WWL 870 kHz celebrates 100 years.
It was 1922. Warren G. Harding was president, Lindbergh was still five years away from flying across the Atlantic, Louis Armstrong had just set off for Chicago to become a star, and some forward-thinking Jesuits up at Loyola University set up a newfangled “radio station,” New Orleans’ first.
Fast forward 100 years and WWL radio is still broadcasting. The Big 870 is a much-loved mainstay for locally focused news, political talk, Saints and LSU football broadcasts, traffic reports and weather prognostication.
Starting this week, WWL will celebrate its century on the air with a series of special historic segments, dating back to 1962 when President John F. Kennedy commented on the station’s public service role during the Cuban missile crisis, a tense faceoff with the Soviet Union. The station will also revisit its innovative emergency reporting during the devastation following Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 flood, and — on a much happier note — its coverage of the Saints’ 2009 Super Bowl victory.
Mike Terry to Medium Wave Circle FB group (2022-03-30)