The station originated as the expanded band "twin" of an existing station on the standard AM band. On March 17, 1997, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that eighty-eight stations had been given permission to move to newly available "
expanded band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with
WDDD in Johnston City, Illinois, authorized to move from 810 to 1690 kHz. 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. (According to standard FCC practice, this technically was not a deletion of WRLL 1690 AM, and instead was merely a call letter change, to WVON, for the continuing operation of "Facility ID# 87178" on 1690 AM). ==Personalities==