Yvonne Daniels, WGCI Chicago November 1988 (1:04:05)

Unscoped
… I’ve been holding off on this until I was sure it was official …
[Description by Uncle Ricky]Yvonne Daniels

Here is Yvonne Daniels on urban-contemporary WGCI, Chicago, on November 25, 1988. Yvonne Daniels was an African-American broadcast pioneer and known as “The First Lady of Chicago Radio”. She was the first female disc-jockey at WLS when she started there in 1973. She passed away on June 21, 1991, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.

When the music stops — it means commercials, and lots of them. This station was out of music for 6:50, played one (long) song and was out of music for another 4:30, though some of that was news with Wanda Wells. Note that 12 minutes of commercial content in an hour isn’t unusual, but this station was leading the pack with long, long, commercial sets. There is reverb, but on Yvonne’s mic only!

Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

Many thanks to the web folks at the Beasley Media Group for countless hours of work.  Again thanks to the board members of ReelRadio, Inc. for their faith in us. 

Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

We remember Richard and we thank him. If you enjoy this new site, we would appreciate a contribution. We hope you enjoy the new ReelRadio!

Carl Davis
Trustee
North Carolina Broadcast History Museum