On March 29th, The Northern Star ran a piece in its Weekender Section on the subject of “radio variety” in the DeKalb area. Although I was quite happy to see “radio” spotlighted, I was quite dismayed that the radio station that has been serving DeKalb County listeners the longest was overlooked by Mr. Leighly. That station is WLBK-1360 AM.

For those who don’t know, WBLK is housed in the same building as WDEK-FM. It is my understanding that Mr. Leighly toured the entire building to gather information for his piece. How he could have overlooked WLBK is quite beyond me.

WLBK’s primary emphasis is on information and community service. WLBK features extensive news coverage throughout the day with an added emphasis on local news.

Two in-depth newscasts are provided hourly during the morning, a noon hour report, and hourly news reports throughout the afternoon and evening. WLBK also broadcasts sports summarys many times a day in addition to providing LIVE play-by-play coverage of the Chicago Bulls, NIU Huskies, DeKalb High School Barbs and Sycamore Spartans.

Musically, WLBK plays a mixture of hits from the 50s through the 80s along with today’s favorites. WLBK could best be described as having an Adult Contempory music format. Recently, WLBK was one of 10 stations in the entire country presented with a Crystal Radio Award by the National Association of Broadcasters for Excellence in community service.

During the last four decades, WLBK has been an integral part of DeKalb radio, as to why WLBK was omitted from Mr. Leighly’s article remains a mystery to me. I hope I have been able to fill in the missing piece.

Mark Charvat

Program Director

WLBK 1360 AM