093_HR0517

                                     LRB093 14075 KEF 19488 r

 1                          HOUSE RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS,  The  members   of   the   Illinois   House   of
 3    Representatives  congratulate  WDAN,  Danville's  first radio
 4    station, on celebrating 65 years in radio; and

 5        WHEREAS, WDAN is the radio station where a  teenage  Dick
 6    Van  Dyke spun records as a night disc jockey and where Bobby
 7    Short  first  tickled  the  ivories  for  an   audiences   of
 8    listeners; and

 9        WHEREAS,  WDAN  radio  first hit the airwaves in November
10    1938, and Captain Stubby was one of the radio station's first
11    on-air  personalities;  he  eventually   became   an   on-air
12    personality on WLS in Chicago in the 1950s; at the age of 80,
13    he  still  has  a  syndicated  program  that airs on 70 radio
14    stations across the country; and

15        WHEREAS, Danville's own Bobby Short had his  first  radio
16    gig  on  WDAN  in  the  late  1930s  and early 1940s; and the
17    station also gave 17-year-old Danville high student Dick  Van
18    Dyke  a  job  in  its  studios  at  the  Hotel Wolford in the
19    mid-1940s; and

20        WHEREAS, Although not on the radio, Gene  Hackman  was  a
21    cameraman   for  the  radio  station's  television  affiliate
22    WDAN-TV Channel 24, the predecessor to today's Channel 15, in
23    the early 1950s; the television station was on the  air  from
24    1953 to 1963 when it merged with Channel 15 in 1963; and

25        WHEREAS,  Jeanne  Eisenhauer, who is a 40 year veteran of
26    WDAN, became the first woman on WDAN to  host  her  own  talk
27    show  called  "Party  Line"  which was wildly popular and ran
28    from 1984 until 1997; and

29        WHEREAS, WDAN held a public open  house  on  October  26,
30    2003  and  gave  the  public a chance to tour the station and
31    take in its rich history; the highlight of the open house was
 
                            -2-      LRB093 14075 KEF 19488 r
 1    the rebroadcast of a Dick Van Dyke program on WDAN which  has
 2    not been heard since December 1946; therefore, be it

 3        RESOLVED,   BY   THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE
 4    NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,  that
 5    we  congratulate  radio station WDAN of Danville for 65 years
 6    of continuous service to  their  communities  to  enrich  the
 7    lives of their citizens; and be it further

 8        RESOLVED,  That  a  suitable  copy  of this resolution be
 9    presented to the WDAN station director as  an  expression  of
10    our respect and esteem.