For the majority of broadcast media professionals, the call letters WBEE are associated with a successful Country station in Rochester, N.Y., owned by Entercom. Those call letters have been used since April 1987, but if you were to go back to 1967, they belonged to an R&B AM serving the Windy City.
From 1968 until September 1989, this station aired a Jazz format, superserving the African American community. Then came Money Network Radio, and a October 2003 sale and change to gospel programming. The entity that acquired the station has just lost control of the facility, as it has been placed into involuntary receivership.
A Form 316 filing made with the FCC on Wednesday (3/4) confirms that Great Lakes Radio-Chicago LLC, led by Detroit-based Timothy Gallagher, has lost control of WBGX-AM 1570, licensed to Harvey, Ill.
An involuntary assignment of the Class B AM and its silent W240EI at 95.9 MHz from a tower adjacent to Chicago Ridge Mall was completed Tuesday (3/3), as receiver Brian Byrnes secured a $50,000 bond and obtained the approval of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill.
The court order setting the wheels in motion to transfer WBGX and the FM translator to Byrnes came on February 11, after Judge Darryl Simro signed off on documents handing the facilities to the receiver.
It is tied to a lawsuit filed against Great Lakes Radio-Chicago and Gallagher by Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust.
Metropolitan sought a Foreclose Mortgage following a breach by Great Lakes Radio-Chicago of a security note, a sign that the licensee’s finances were not well. Simro reviewed the matter, and on Nov. 5, 2019, ordered a default judgment against Great Lakes Radio and Gallagher in the amount of $1,394,451.47.
Citations were served a week later. No one on behalf of Great Lakes Radio-Chicago appeared in court on Dec. 3, 2019, the return date of the citations.
This all but sealed the loss in control of WBGX and W240EI. Meanwhile, the station’s real estate held by Great Lakes Radio-Chicago is also heading into Byrnes’ hands.
With Metropolitan Capital’s consent, Byrnes may make “necessary improvements” to the property not to exceed $5,000.
Great Lakes Radio has a long history dedicated to serving the church community. “We are family owned and have worked exclusively with churches for over 20 years,” company literature notes. “We take pride is specializing in growing ministries of all sizes.”
It purchased WBGX (then WBEE-AM) from Mariner Broadcasters for $1,775,000 in an all-cash transaction. At the time, the Chicago Tribune lamented the loss of an all-Jazz station in the nation’s third-largest market.
In the 1992 novel Chicago Soul by Robert Pruter, WBEE’s legacy as a Soul station was recalled. From the mid-1950s through 1968, it was cranking out classics from Aretha Franklin, Martha & The Vandellas and Brenton Wood with such air talent as Robert Weaver, Bill Kenner, Vince Sanders and Scott Gorman, all African American. In its early days, WBEE was known for Mary Dee, the “Honey Bee.”
Back then, the station didn’t have its present-day 500 watt nighttime signal pattern, and signed off at sundown.
Up against then-R&B giant WVON-AM (originally at 1450 kHz, today WRLL) and its Class C signal, WBEE gave up the fight with its Jazz move in 1968.
Now, what is currently WBGX has entered its next chapter.
It is up to Byrnes to decide whether to continue targeting its heritage audience or explore new avenues.
