WRLL (1690 AM) was an oldies radio station licensed to Berwyn, Illinois, United States, serving the Chicago market. It was owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications. The station's transmitter was located in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood, near the Evergreen Park, Illinois border, and operated as a diplexed operation from one of the towers of its sister station, WGCI (now WGRB). The station ran 10,000 watts during the day, and 1,000 watts at night, using a non-directional antenna.
A construction permit for the expanded band station was assigned the call letters WHTE on June 5, 1998. The FCC's initial policy was that both the original station and its expanded band counterpart could operate simultaneously for up to five years, after which owners would have to turn in one of the two licenses, depending on whether they preferred the new assignment or elected to remain on the original frequency, and on July 31, 2012, WDDD was deleted.
In most cases the expanded band station remained in the same market as the original standard band station. However, in 2003 the 1690 AM authorization was moved 280 miles (450 km) north to Berwyn by owner Clear Channel, in order to take advantage of the Chicago region's greater population, and the call sign changed to WRLL.
WRLL began broadcasting from this new location in early October 2003. "Real Oldies" originated at sister station WSAI (now sports/talk "ESPN 1530" WCKY) in Cincinnati and was also carried on WCOL (now talk station WYTS) in Columbus, Ohio; WHNE in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also a Clear Channel station at that time (now Cumulus business-talk station WLBY), also aired a variation of the format identified as "Honey Radio". "Dangerous Dan" Allen created the format initially for WSAI, where he was program director and a weekday afternoon DJ.
1690 AM and 1450 AM swap
On August 15, 2006, WRLL's on-air talent left the station as a pending format change was announced. Other legendary Chicago area radio personalities from WLS and WCFL followed Tommy Edwards and Larry Lujack on the air, including Scotty Brink middays and "World Famous" Tom Murphy in the evening drive. Chicago radio and television personality Jerry G. Bishop, well known as the original "Svengoolie", was the Sunday afternoon DJ on the station. Former WCFL DJ Ron Britain also had a weekday show for a brief time. Smith's shows included his weekly Foreign Friday feature and Saturday morning/Sunday afternoon Real Oldies Chicago Top 20 Countdown program, which spotlighted the local hits on a certain week in history.