Despite our inability to pronounce all the letters in our fair city's name, Milwaukeeans have generally been considered good communicators. Radio in Milwaukee has produced some innovation, some great history and a number of people who have gone on to national prominence.

We noticed in the "Are You Old School?" comments on Milwaukee history, people mentioned radio stations, some going back 30-40 years or more. We thought it would be nice to expand on some of Milwaukee radio history and even provide some audio clips from previous eras. So get those knobs a-tunin', and we'll walk down Memory Lane...

The first radio station in Milwaukee was called WAAK, and began broadcasting "from high atop" Gimbels (now the Ivory Tusk Building) in 1921. All radio back then was on the AM band, and there were no formats. Programming was an eclectic blend of mostly news, talk and various kinds of music. Kind of like WMSE is today.

WTMJ, still the city's most listened-to station, also began in the 1920s. On the 1020 AM frequency, the station started broadcasting in 1927 and switched to 620 AM a year later. Call letters often stand for things... in this case, The Milwaukee Journal. The format was "full service" for most of its lifetime, which meant a mixture of news, music and talk shows. WTMJ has also carried the Packers, Badgers, Bucks and Brewers games for most of the teams' histories. The station's format now is officially news/talk. You usually just hear music on WTMJ when it's being discussed on Jonathan Green's "Green House" afternoon show and during Bill "Big Unit" Michaels' show on nights and weekends ... and that's usually Rush and AC/DC. 'TMJ is also host to Charlie Sykes and new late night talker Mark Reardon.

WEMP began at 1340 AM and now is at 1250. The station, which is owned by Entercom, programs a Christian radio format now, but has broadcast oldies, sports, country and news since its inception in the mid-1930s. WEMP was the station everyone tuned into to hear Earl Gillespie broadcast those Braves games from County Stadium during their heyday in the '50s.

WRIT The original WRIT was one of Milwaukee's premier Top 40 stations in the 1960s. When WEMP switched frequencies, the 1340 AM dial position became WRIT and the station took off with a rock 'n' roll format. The original WRIT-AM went from Top 40 to all news in 1972 and then experienced a series of changes before the call letters went away. The original 1340 AM station broadcast from the same building on McKinley Avenue in Milwaukee that WKLH-FM, WLZR-FM, WJMR-FM and WJYI-AM (the current occupant of the 1340 frequency) use today. The WRIT call letters were resurrected in 2000 when the oldies station at 95.7 FM flipped from WZTR.

WKTI began as WTMJ-FM, then became a pop/rock station in 1974 with the current call letters. The station was to be called I-94, so call letters had to be chosen to reflect the "I." As Jack Lee and Jonathan Green both recall, in a meeting of managers it was determined that the station would be W_ _ I ... but they were having trouble filling in the middle two letters. Jack Lee, who at the time was the manager responsible for the FM, wanted the call letters WWWI. If you try saying that fast five times, you can understand why the DJs didn't like it. Finally, one of the sales managers had a wife named Katie ... as in, "KT"... as in "WKTI"... and that's how the call letters were determined.

Calling itself "nonstop stereo rock," it was automated until 1981, when everything went live. In 1982, Bob Reitman and Gene Mueller teamed up for the morning show, and they've been there ever since, still hanging at or near the top of the ratings. Although recent departures of longtime staffers Danny Clayton and Leonard Peace have broken the trend, WKTI has a remarkable record of staff longevity. Lips LaBelle, who does afternoons, has been at the station for 18 years.