WYCU (FM)

WYCU (FM) (102.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois. It carries a Rhythmic Contemporary radio format, mostly made up of hip-hop music and R&B and is owned by Urban One. WYCU's studios are located at the 16th floor of 303 East Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop, with transmitters being located atop the Willis Tower in the Loop. Since 2005, the station has served as the flagship home of The Sara Carlton Show.

WYCU has an HD2 subchannel which has a classic hip-hop format branded "Boom 104.9" and is repeated on translator W455DT in Gary, Indiana.

As a simulcast of WAIT
On February 6, 1953, the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, owner of WAIT (now WCPT) would open a FM simulcast on 102.1 with the WAIT-FM call-letters. Both stations had a christian talk and teaching format and carried Italian language programs during the afternoon hours.

Just a year later in 1954, WAIT-AM-FM were sold to broadcasting enterpretuar Robert Oscar Miller and his family. The stations then flipped its format to playing the top 20 hit songs in Chicago at the time. WAIT-AM-FM was sold again this time to husband and wife business duo Maurice and Lois Rosenfield, who flipped both stations to a beautiful music format.

Within 3 years from 1976 to 1978, WYCU had 3 formats, adult contemporary, talk radio, and beautiful music again. In 1979, Century Broadcasting would purchase WAIT and WAIT-FM.

WABF 102
On December 8, 1981, WAIT-FM would split from its simulcast of WAIT and switched to an album oriented rock format branded as "WABF 102", it also adopted the call-letters "WABF". This was made so that WABF could compete fellow Detroit sister station WABX (now WYCD) and also to fill in the gap when WDAI switched a disco format in 1979. The format proved successful, as many former listeners of WDAI switched to WABF which helped the station perform well in the ratings.

In 1982, WABX and WABF were sold to Detroit based Liggett Broadcasting. Liggett would switch the station to a mainstream rock format to attract younger audiences, initially this proved successful but over time, the station's ratings starting to decline and decline, and ultimately Liggett decided to pull the plug and sold both WABF and WABX (which was now WDTX) to Hoker Broadcasting.

102.1 The Fox
On July 8, 1988, the station would drop its mainstream rock format in favor of a classic rock format. The station would change its call-letters to "WCFX" and would become 102.1 The Fox. The new branding and name was based on WDTX's own rebrand to WDFX with the branding "99.5 The Fox". The first song to play on 102.1 The Fox was "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. Unlike its Detroit sister counterpart, WCFX would retain its classic rock format until 1994.

Alliance Broadcasting would purchase both WDFX and WCFX from Hoker Broadcasting.

Young Country 102.1/YCU 102.1
On February 6, 1994, as part of Alliance to launch its Young Country brand across various markets, WCFX would drop its classic format and would switch to a country format branded as "Young Country 102.1". The final song to play on 102.1 The Fox was "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, while the first song to play on Young Country 102.1 was "Born to Love You" by Mark Collie. The station would change its call-letters to the current WYCU on February 12th.

The switch to country was intended to rival Chicago's leading country station WUSN. However, Young Country 102.1 barely took on. In an almost ironic twist, Alliance Broadcasting was bought by Infinity Broadcasting in 1995 but Infinity would then sell WYCU to American Radio Systems.

Soon after its purchase by ARS, the station would flip to an dance based CHR format branded as YCU 102.1, which was inspired on the launch of WKTU. The format would launch on September 18, 1996. The final song to play on Young Country 102.1 was "I Don't Think I Will" by James Bonamy while the first song to play on YCU 102.1 was "Don't Stop Movin" by Livin' Joy.

In 1998, ARS would merge with Infinity Radio. However during the merger, Infinity was over the limits and thus sold ARS' Chicago cluster including WNTY-FM, WYCU, WAPM, WCMX-FM, WPTX to the African-American controlled Radio One (later known as Urban One).

Here comes Jessica
On September 15, 2005, WYCU would drop its dance based top 40 format with the last song that was played on YCU 102.1 being "DARE" by Gorillaz. The station would then flip to an adult hits format branded as "Jessica 102.1" with the first song played under the format being "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey. The format was to compete with Newsweb's Nine FM triple simulcast and CBS Radio's WJMK (which carried the Jack FM brand at the time). The station's spokes-mascot was an animated anthropomorphic jackal known as Jessica, who is a parody of the character Jessica Rabbit from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with Kathleen Turner providing the voice of Jessica.

On December 10, 2005, it was announced that The Sara Carlton Show would move its flagship home from WNTY-FM to WYCU, with the program making its first episode on WYCU the next day.

While the format proved to be popular, Chicago was not comfortable with the adult hits format at the time, as seen with Nine FM's low ratings and outcry with WJMK's switch from oldies to adult hits.

Siren 102.1
Beginning in August 4, 2007, various siren sounds were overlaid in between songs in WYCU. Liners stating "Tomorrow at 7pm, Chicago gets a new beat". The following day on August 5, Jessica 102.1 ended, with the last song playing on Jessica 102.1 being "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M., after that the station would flip to an rhythmic contemporary format branded as "Siren 102.1". The first song to play on Siren 102.1 was "Stronger" by Kanye West.