A major milestone in the history of Pekin communications was reached on 21 April 1946, when Radio Station WSIV 1140 AM first went on the air. WSIV was Pekin’s first local radio station, owned and operated by the Pekin Broadcasting Co. which was made up of three amateur radio operators, William Kenneth Patterson (1908-1991), George Clifford Udry Sr. (1904-1988), and Emil Lincoln Prandoni (1908-1959).
Their radio station still exists today as WVEL 1140 AM, but has been operated out of a studio in Peoria for the past two decades. The full schedule for the station’s first day on the air was announced the day before, on the front page of the 20 April 1946 Pekin Daily Times. Back in the stations’ early years, WSIV’s program schedule was featured daily in the Times’ “Radio Highlights” column.
One of the first mentions of WSIV in Pekin’s historical records is the station’s 1948 Pekin city directory entry, which identifies W. Kenneth Patterson as the company president, Emil Prandoni as vice president, and George C. Udry as secretary-treasurer. The station got its start in the basement of the historic Arcade Building at 15 S. Capitol St., sadly demolished in late 2023.
The following year, the 1949 Pekin Centenary volume, page 85, briefly noted WSIV and its three owner-operators:
“Three Pekin men, pioneer radio technicians, have built and are operating Pekin’s only radio station, WSIV. They are Kenneth Patterson, George Udry, and Emil Prandoni.”
The historical narrative in the 1949 Pekin Centenary was written by the late Charles Dancey, who humbly omitted the fact that he himself wrote and broadcasted the news on WSIV. The radio station also submitted an advertisement to the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 6, that showcased an aerial photograph of the station’s 240-foot radio transmitter antenna on Route 98 east of Pekin, trumpeting the relatively young station as “ANOTHER MILESTONE IN THE PROGRESS of the CITY OF PEKIN,” “DEDICATED TO SERVICE AND ENTERTAINMENT for PEKIN AND CENTRAL ILLINOIS.” The advertisement, signed by Patterson, Prandoni, Udry, “and the entire staff,” says the station’s studios were in the Arcade Building, mentions WSIV’s first on-air date in 1946, and notes that it increased its transmitting power to 1,000 watts on 4 Feb. 1948.
The fullest historical account of WSIV’s history is that found in the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume, pages 81-82, which says:
“It is radio, though, that we want to consider now. The development of Pekin’s first and only station, WSIV, serves as a microcosm of the development of Pekin: determined, pioneering residents overcoming sundry obstacles to meet with ultimate success.
“During Word War II, three Pekinites, all amateur radio operators, determined that the growing Celestial City was in need of a radio station. The trio, Kenneth Patterson, Emil Prandoni, and George Udry, found their initial attempts thwarted because no building permits were being issued during the war. The very day after the armistice ended the conflict in 1945, application was made for said permit, and in January of 1946, with permit in hand, the men began work, line their physical, financial, and intellectual resources. They built every piece of equipment needed, erecting a 240-foot transmitter on Route 98, and setting up broadcasting headquarters in the basement of the Arcade Building.
“Easter Sunday of that same year, April 21, the station signed on with 250 watts of power. That maiden broadcast brought the voices of then-Congressman Everett Dirksen and several well-known businessmen into many Pekin homes. The founders and builders had requested, and received, the call letters WSIV, standing for ‘We Serve the Illinois Valley.’ Their foresight was much greater than their original transmitter power.
“The organizers served as engineers, and were never actually ‘on the air’ themselves. But several area students, who have gone on to distinguish themselves in similar or other areas, were. For example, Charles Dancey, current editor of the Peoria Journal Star, wrote and broadcast the local news. Others included Bill Houlihan and Rollie (Keith) Strubhar, both of whom have enjoyed successful television careers in Peoria. And these are but a few of a much longer list.
“The station, receiving much community and business support, began to prosper and expand. Soon, remote equipment made it possible to broadcast from outside the studio proper, and such programs as high school radio shows, Sunday morning church services, and Pekin Hospital reports were aired regularly.
“One of these remote broadcasts that many Pekinites will remember was Frank Rosenberg’s Saturday Morning Amateur Hour, aired live from the Pekin Theatre. Local hopefuls would perform, and listeners would vote by post card during the week. Each weekIy winner was awarded a gold watch, and every 13 weeks a contest of past weekly winners was held, with the top vote-getter granted a trip to Chicago to compete in an even larger contest there. The show ran for nearly 10 years, and contestants sometimes received as many as 10,000 votes. (How they came to get that many votes could probably serve as the basis for another chapter in this book, with various schemes devised by proud parents, relatives, and friends.)
“Having expanded to 1,000 watts of power after the first year, WSIV forged on, with Patterson and Udry buying out Prandoni in the early 1950’s. In the early 1960’s, Patterson fell victim to poor health, and he and Udry decided to sell the station. The F. F. McNaughton family, publishers of the . . . Pekin Daily Times, were willing buyers. They moved the station to its present location of 28 South Fourth Street, beefed up the daytime AM power to 5,000 watts (making it today the most powerful daytime station within all of central Illinois) and added FM, which extended their operational hours into late evening. The AM license allowed only sunrise to sunset broadcasting.
“The McNaughtons continued ownership of the station through the early 1970’s when, for a number of reasons (one of which was an FCC ruling which ‘discouraged’ ownership of two vehicles of mass communication in the same town by the same person), the station was sold to Dick Lashbrook, a native Pekinite who had started on radio at WSIV, gone on to work in both radio and television in West Virginia and Illinois, including WGN in Chicago, and returned ‘home’ to take over the station he once worked for as a Diversified Occupations student at Pekin Community High School.
“Lashbrook and his wife immediately put into effect many programming changes, using a format of ‘Beautiful Music,’ playing the more mellow, relaxing kind of songs. Even the commercial advertising is keyed to be a continuous part of the programming format, aimed at enticing listeners to leave the station on all day.
“This summer, WSIV has gone to a full-power, stereo FM, and Lashbrook plans to continue his programming ideas. Thus, Pekin’s only radio station seems to be in good hands with a bright outlook for the future.”
Lashbrook not only started on radio at WSIV, but was one of the station’s earliest employees, starting therein 1947. Also, besides the above narrative, the 1974 Sesquicentennial, page 18, mentions that members of the Pekin Ministerial Alliance would “provide devotional thoughts on the theme ‘Consider This’ on a one minute of daily air time donated by WSIV immediately preceding its noon news.” Another annual contest at WSIV, called “Peg o’ My Heart,” reportedly took place each February on or near the St. Valentine’s Day holiday — contestants reportedly would submit songs with the word “heart” in the title. According to Evelyn Burdette of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, Patricia Frohling won the contest two years in a row in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
One of the changes at WSIV implemented by station president Richard D. Lashbrook (who is now 89) was changing the station’s call letters. The Federal Communications Commission on 2 Jan. 1979 assigned the radio station the new call letters WVEL (“W-Velvet”) to fit with the station’s “Beautiful Music” programming format. On the same day, WSIV-FM, which first signed on in 1964, obtained the new call letters WGLO 95.5 FM (“W-Glow”). WGLO broadcast “easy listening” programming until 1998, when it switched to its current classic rock format.
While Dick Lashbrook is still with us, the three co-founders of WSIV have long since “signed off.” Prandoni died in the summer of 1959, but Patterson and Udry survived him for about another three decades. Udry’s passing on 15 Jan. 1988 received a front page tribute story in the Pekin Daily Times, which bore the somewhat inaccurate headline, “Pekin’s 1st radio man died at 83.” The last surviving “1st radio man” of Pekin, W. Kenneth Patterson, died in Douglasville, Georgia, on 17 July 1991. Of the final resting places of Pekin’s radio pioneers, Prandoni is buried in Lakeside Cemetery, Udry is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, and Patterson is entombed in Lakeside Mausoleum.
By the early 2000s, the old WSIV building at 28 S. Fourth St. was the home of five radio stations: WVEL, managed by Rick Morgan, WGLO, managed by B. Stone, WFYR River Country, also managed by Rick Morgan, as well as WIXO and WPPY. WVEL 1140 AM last appears in Pekin city directories in May 2004, after which the station owners movies the studios to Peoria. WVEL was own by Townsquare Media until 2012, when the station was acquired by Cumulus Media (with the broadcasting license held by Radio License Holding CBC, LLC). The station studios and offices are located at 120 Eaton St., Peoria, which is also the home of WFYR, WGLO, WIXO, and WZPW. WVEL 1140 AM broadcasts an “urban gospel” format of Protestant Christian programs. Because 1140 AM is a clear channel frequency that is reserved for WRVA Richmond, Va., and XEMR Monterrey, Mexico, WVEL is required to sign off each day at sunset to prevent interference.
