The WVON Good Guys

WVON originated from the acquisition of WHFC-1450AM, a 1,000-watt station licensed to Cicero, Illinois, by Leonard and Phil Chess, the owners of Chess Records, a successful record label, which produced mega-hits for local artists such as Muddy Waters, Lil' Howlin' Wolf, and others. The brothers envisioned one station that would pull together the best radio talent who could galvanise all of black Chicago. On April 1, 1963, WVON hit the airwaves in Chicago with a group of handpicked personalities: Franklin McCarthy, E. Rodney Jones, Herb Kent, Wesley South, and Pervis Spann. They became known as "The Good Guys," and Ric Ricardo, Bill "Butterball" Crane, Ed Cook, Joe Cobb, Roy Wood, Ed Maloney, Bill "Doc" Lee, Don Cornelius, Richard Pegue, Isabel Joseph Johnson, Cecil Hale, and McKee Fitzhugh eventually joined the roster. Under the direction of the station's general manager, Lucky Cordell, and its "Ambassador of Good Will," Bernadine C. Washington, The Good Guys held Black Chicago captive for more than a decade and ranked consistently in the top 5 of the "most listened to" stations in the market.