🎸Please Note🎵: *THE ACTUAL TITLE OF THIS PBS PROGRAM WAS... "HOW CHICAGO ROCKED THE 60's"* as in Chicago the CITY. Chicago the BAND is featured @21:54. 😉

I grew up in the 60s listening to AM rock on WLS with my little 9V AM transistor radio hidden in my jacket pocket. I had an earphone so that I could listen to it while in class. I used to scrounge the alleys in my neighborhood looking for discarded musical instruments that I could fix and then try to play by ear. Later, in the late 60s, when I was taking basic training in the Army at Ft. Gordon, GA I could pickup the signal from WLS at night.

In the 60s, I was a teenager growing up in a suburb of Chicago. I would often listen to WLS or WCFL on a small transistor radio under my pillow at bedtime. My favorite Disc Jockeys were Larry Lujack, Art Roberts, and Dick Biondi. Once I remember one of those stations reporting a paranormal sighting nearby and even identified the location on the air. I convinced my father to drive me there. Instead of seeing any ghosts, the rock band The McCoys were playing Hang On Sloopy in a clearing of a local forest. Lots of people were also fooled. But we did enjoy the music. Also, I remember going to my local record store to pick up the WLS Silver Dollar Survey each week.

Great times! I was in one of those "basement" bands they mentioned. Most of our practices were in church halls, but I do remember one practice in my parents basement that didn't go well. A neighbor called the Chicago cops because we were too loud. The cops told us that they couldn't find our location at first, but that the kids dancing in the alley gave us away. The neighbor actually apologized when she realized it was us.

Did anyone else think this was about the band "Chicago"?...lol.

As a former rock ‘n’ roll DJ in Northern California, I truly appreciate the great backstory and interviews. I have some wonderful memories of the greatest music to come out of Chicago!

I lived in Chicago in 1965 and it was wo nderful ....💖 we went to Rush street every weekend...😀

I was a very young girl at St. Sylvester School and Cheryl Tufano was in my classroom. I recall acting giddy when she told a small group of girls who her older brother was. I think after that summer she moved away. By the time I was in 6th grade I was listening to The Buckinghams late at night on my transistor radio, white earplug in one ear. My dad would come in from the second shift and turn it off to preserve my 9 volt battery.

Remember doing the dinner dishes with my older brother listening to WLS on his transistor radio sitting on the kitchen window sill back in the mid 60s.

Great to hear these bands again and their stories until now I thought the Buckingham's were British!

The Shadows of KNIGHT were from my high school, Prospect High. The "knight" in their name was homage to our HS team, the Prospect Knights.

Being from Mt. Prospect and went to PHS, I sure do miss those days. Class of 70.

In the 60's while I was in high school, we had a weekly dance at the American Legion Hall in McDonough, GA, and each weekend usually had a different band. There were 4 or 5 different groups some from other cities. Those were the days. I was in a band for a little while before going into the Marine Corps and off to Vietnam. Cheers from eastern TN

I swear those bands from Chicago are hugely influenced by the diverse scene they grew up with. All of them are amazing

"Could Be We're In Love" remains, 50 years later, my ALL Time favorite recording. This posting was very much appreciated. My teen years were spent in Chicago's Western Suburbs. Both WLS & WCFL were ON regularly. PEACE TO ALL.

what a great show, i'm glad i tuned in. i never realized all these groups came out of chicago, alot of awesome sweet tunes from my era.

I remember Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards on WLS. I remember they did a morning skit called animal stories.

My band, “The Field of Content”… opened for both The New Colony Six, and later… Spanky and Our Gang… at The Red Rooster club, in Indiana, PA, back in the 60s. Both bands were really good. Sounded a lot like their records, live. Couldn’t say that about all the bands we’d open for back then. Ronnie Rice, of The New Colony Six, was a really nice guy.

Growing up in the 60s I remember most of these groups and songs. Without a doubt, this material were highlights of the era. Music changed a lot after the 60s...but thank goodness for The Buckinghams, Spanky & Our Gang and The New Colony Six! (Great video, thanks for posting this trip down Memory Lane).

I'm originally from Chicago but left there in the early 80s. Didn't know most of these bands were from Chicago, good program!

Oh Now this is right up my alley. Thanks many times over and so much more!!!

I grew up just east of South Bend Indiana. We could get WLS or WCFL in Chicago on the radio. There was nothing else like it in Northern IN.

WLS and WCFL were known to those in the South. We could hear the both of them after dark, we couldn't wait till dark!

"GLORIA" was the song that all garage bands of the day, would play!

I’m from the far south side of Chicago, grew up listening to all of these bands, it shocked me finding out some of these bands I grew up with and never knew some were from the Chicago area.

I grew up in rural south central Wisconsin and WLS was the only station for me in the 60s. I also had the opportunity to meet Ronnie Rice long ago and created a web page for him back in the day, the only one out there at the time. He was a real gentleman and amazingly talented. I was lucky that he was appearing with the NC6 that day in the northwest suburbs.

Thanks for the upload, I enjoyed this very much.

"Gloria" was a big hit ...... for sure! (and all the garage bands were playin' it at the dances)

I had a tinny transistor radio that I hid under my pillow so I could listen to the Art Roberts show on WLS when I was supposed to be sleeping. Some nights I could get a Detroit station playing Motown. Listening to this is a trip down memory lane, but hey baby, the Buckinghams' cover of the Beatles tune "I Should Have Known Better" is SO painful 😬😝😬

Man!! Awesome documentary!!! These songs invoke an imagery and nostalgia for Chicago back then that's gone now!!

I just saw them last Thursday for the 37th time. Bob Lamm Jimmy Pankow and Lee Loughane are still pounding out the hits. Not quite as good as the first time I saw them in 1982 but pretty darn good. Go see them as I'm sure they will be in your city soon and for the next 50 years.....long live Chicago!

Thanks for this!!! Larry Lujack...oh yeah! I grew up in Niles, in the 60's. My dad had a side job, collecting quarters from pool tables, and placing new 45's in juke boxes in north Chicago area bars and clubs. So, we had a juke box at home, and all the 45's we wanted!!!! It was so cool being an adolescent, and teen when all this artistic, and progressive music was being aired. Great times and memories!

Oddly enough, the New Colony Six at one time shared digs with Paul Revere and the Raiders. Both groups got a shock when they found out they were wearing almost identical outfits 😀

There was a dance club called the Rumpus Room in Belvidere il. A lot of these groups came there. Belvidere qroup was the Esquires. Rockford's group were the Grim Reapers. Aka (Cheap Trick). There was another place to play in Rockford called The Ice Chelat. They were great times. We had a lot of fun.

Best music ever Great time to be a teenager and living only 100 miles south of Chicago listening to WLS

Do any of you who actually WERE there at that age and time? Do you remember calling the WLS phone lines and talking to people between the beeps of the busy signal?

A piece of music history. Thanks for posting!

Holy smoke what such talent in the windy city, Chicago. I love all of them especialy New Colony Six. That band was fantastic! Must be in the water, the talent fountain. Called my " friend" Susan in 1968 and played that Buckingham song on a 45 to her via a turn table on the phone to her. She still remembers that to this day. Thanks so much for a great video. Appreciated.

I was a sophomore at Lane Tech when I saw Gary and the Nitelites at the YMCA at Fullerton and Central Park. That was 1963. How would I know they would eventually become the American Breed?

Larry Lujack -- My favorite DJ of all time.

That vocalist for The Buckinghams had talent. Funny, to have a hit record fifty years ago, you had to know how to SING!

Thank you for posting this video! As a garage rock musician from Chicago myself this was very insightful and a history lesson for me

Brought back Memories. I enjoyed watching this. Thanks for the post.

Clark Weber, Art Roberts, Dick Biondi, Larry Lujack, etc.. were all in my rock’n roll hall of fame growing up as a young teen in Dixon.

I grew up a couple of hours East of Chicago (was in high school 66-70), and did quite a bit of listening to WLS. Great times and memories. A very well done musical, historical piece. Thanks much!

Wow! I grew up listening to these bands, and more through the '70's. I lived south of Chicago, in Kankakee county. Didn't even realize that a lot of these groups were actually FROM Chicago! :)

My cousin was in the group the Mauds. It was great to hear their records on the radio. Hold On and Soul Drippin. They did a version of "Try a little tenderness" that was great. My favorite of those days was The Cryin Shames - they could have been as big as some of the greatest bands in those days, but, there were so many problems holding a band together in the 1960's. I know from my cousin's stories.

At long last, I found the music of The Flock and have added it to my Spotify feed - The best of 60s Chicago-area bands. At the end of the feed!

What a great program this is, no dull moments at all. The Buckinghams released a number of top quality tunes later in their career that didn't get the recognition they deserved. "Back in love again" failed to crack the Top 40 and after that, their subsequent singles got even less airplay. Songs like "Where did you come from" and "It's a beautiful day" had hit written all over them, but went nowhere. What happened?

I ws on the edge of my seat.I love all this music.Perfection, this is how music documentries should be. Buckinghams, American Breed, Cryan' Shames, Chicago it just gets better and better.

WLS in Chicago: will it be hot , cold, rain, snow. I met Dex Card from WLS at a promotion in a Sears store on Lawrence Avenue in 1965.

RIP Terry Kath

This is awesome! Thx for posting!

This is a fantastic video. I'm from Pittsburgh, where the scene was a lot smaller scene than Chicago. Two killer DJs in our town broke a lot of hits nationally. Porky Chedwick (along with Wolfman Jack) was one of two white DJs nationally to first play R&B music on a "white" radio station. Porky also started playing his 1950s "dusty disks" as "oldies" in the 1960s, a concept that lasted for decades. We also had Terry Lee, who produced The Swamp Rats and owned a couple dance halls in town. Terry Lee will be remembered for his show "Songs For Young Lovers", which was the soundtrack for submarine race watching for over 15 years. All gone from the airwaves now, thanks to corporate policies of uniformity. Thank the Lord for KZfaq's memory hole!

I really enjoyed this video.

This is some kind of quadruple-meta nostalgia, as I sit here at the end of the 10's, remembering the first time I caught this documentary in the 00's, having rediscovered these bands via CD's in the 90's, after first hearing them on WLS in the 70's and 80's and realizing the best music was from before I was even born.

Top radio show was Dick Biondi at WLS. I interviewed him at the studio. Also saw Beatles live in ‘64.

Why? Music programs. Music programs in high school. Earth Wind and Fire also started in Chicago.. Great program. I miss Chicago and Bob Sirott!

WLS was a power AM station, like WJR in Detroit. I remember trips down south with my parents in the late 60's, being able to get Tiger baseball games on WJR, and dialing around and picking up another station called WLS and found out it was from Chicago. That was a cool discovery for a youngster back then. 🤓

I grew up in Chicago attended Calumet High School from 1962 to 1966. Listened to WLS and WCFL. Loved it.

I liked all these Chicago bands in the mid 60s. Though I lived in Ohio our local Top 40 radio station played them regularly. I wish the Cryan' Shames had received more national exposure. They had an incredible harmony thing going on.

I remember getting in trouble for cutting out a 45 of Gloria by the Shadows of Night from the back of a box of breakfast cerial before it was empty.

I worked as a brand new airplane mechanic at Howell airport in Crestwood when Gary Loizzo was learning to fly there. I didn't know who he was musically until later and tried to find my old copy of Bend Me Shape Me on 45 to get it autographed but Mom had tossed it years earlier along with the old baseball cards, etc. But he was a great guy and would talk music with me whenever we had a chance. Good times, good times.

The Wild Goose in Waukegan was originally a bowling alley, later it became a health spa, and is now gone. My friends mom lived across the street, and his parent met there. My aunt and uncle were there a lot as well.

In Mexico the song “Vehicle” of The Ides of March was a big big big hit.

I saw the Buckinghams in Owensboro, Ky as part of the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. I was well-impressed. By that time, I had a band and was writing songs. I still like the pop sound the Buckinghams did so well.

This came up and not sure how I missed this before. I know all of these bands because my parents felt it was important to love music and be proud of where I am from. I have seen several of these bands in concert (like the Buckinghams) and it's such an important time.

It's a cryan shame that this documentary omitted the Del-Vetts (later the Pride and Joy). In '66, they release a few monster singles, which included "Last Time Around" and "That's the Way It Is," the latter being the b-side of "I Call My Baby STP" -- both on Dunwich Records.

CHICAGO HAD AND STILL HAVE THE BEST HORN SECTION EVER!!! THERE NONE LIKE CHICAGO EVER WILL BE

we had a large console am/fm radio in the 60's..big speaker sound and incredible AM pull..at night my brothers and i would spin the dial..and lo and behold WLS//WKBW..WOWO..we were thunderstruck and had to be scolded to turn it off and get to bed..but the sound of new music that touched my soul was born..thanks for the video and especially the beginning of Rock..i never will forget that initial feeling..still strong today but with a touch of nostalgia and knowing it will never be that good again..

Saw some of these bands back in the 1980’s while visiting the Taste of Chicago, we decided to take a break and eat our food and it was these Chicago 1960’s band reunion show performing on stage.

I was born in 1971 and missed the greatness from 60's Chicago music scene. But I'm from the NW suburbs and once in a while, I run into someone who can detail facts from those times.

Radio has always been there for me. I used to listen to Radio Luxembourg when I was in Sweden--another dynamic and influential radio station. I'm a seventies kid, but I'd have loved to be a part of this radio wave.

Yes this combined version is great ...Takes me back to WLS and my time living in the Chicago area...When I was stationed in 1964 at Ft. HOOD,TX. I could still recieve WLS at night ....Thxs. for sharing this ...LARRY

REALLY ENJOYED THANKS JAMES

Wow!! WLS WCFL?? I haven't thought of those stations in a gazillion years. When my parents moved to Florida I could pick up those station on a good night, I missed home that much.

I saw this program on WTTW when it was aired. It's great to see some of the people I saw in person at the time. We visited Roselle Music often. Len used to give Lyle a hard time, asking for deals that he knew were outrageous.

Thx for uploading this

WOW,, I remember K-Tel used to advertise these compilation albums and a lot of these bands were on it,,so cool to know they're from my home town.

Wow! Bob sirott, I used to listen to him and a.m. radio. My Mom loved the band Chicago and she still does. These early 70s songs remind me of Chicago in the summer in the early 70s. What a great time.

Listened to WLS as a teen and LOVED these songs!

These were wonderful years! In July of 1966 I was selected to be the Guest Teen DJ on the Art Roberts Show. He was ever so nice and it was pretty cool. The #1 song of the night was Hungry by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I thought about being a DJ until I found out that the entry money was horrible. But what a fond memory!

I remember listening to these great bands on WLS and WCFL at night down here in the south. Most of the time a got a good signal, but there was interference from a 600,000 watt station in Brazil, and a 150,000 watter in Cuba.

My sister dated Jerry Stone from the "Cryin Shames" and he would come over to our house with his cool Honda CB450 motorcycle. Very cool!!!

Thanks so much for this video. Great insight into the early rock era in the Midwest. I'm from Michigan and we were glued to WLS and WCFL (and CKLW in Windsor) all thru our childhoods. Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards and others were funny and great. Good memories of some great bands. Loved the Buckinghams. I went with a girl named Susan in 1969 so their song had a personal connection.

The 60's, My Bike, and my Purple Transistor Radio.

Great memories…still listen to Bob Sirott on WGN radio each day...

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing this 🙄

Thanks Bob….It’s so much fun to think about the Chicago Bands of the 60’s……There were lots!……Roger’s Sister knew all guys!……I met The Buckinghams in the early 60’s…..Also a Group in the early 70’s…..Aliota….Haynes and Jeremiah….Thanks….Val

No mention of the Butterfield Blues Band. One of the most innovative bands of the 60's.

On Edison Rd, Mishawaka IN had a place called Edison Light that played music for teens. It had movies, pictures and light shows of stuff like pulsing liquid colors on big screens.

I grew up in Lagrange and Hinsdale in the 1970s great times. Never new the crying shame was from Hinsdale. Cool

Payola... still great music. ... I enjoyed this so much

That was good I grew up in the sixties great memories and two older brothers who bought all the records and comics I got to read and listen to.

I still love the Cryan shames and shadows of knight - and the Young Rascals (non chicago) were in Florida years ago

Wonderful, what great memories. I was 17 in 1964 in Park Forest, the far south suburbs of Chicago, so all these songs bring me back to so many places. I always listened to WLS and bought the most popular 45 at 50 cents. Such a great time to grow up!

2024, 23yrs later, Peterik looks more like he's in a rock band now than he did in 2001:^)

Thanks for the "MEMORIES"❣️💓💓.....

Best decade, best music!

Had a few of those 45s ...love em. Sounds as good now as in my yesterdays 🎶✌❤🎶😷🎶🍏🎶☃️🎶