For immediate release September 17 2009
Country Music Pioneer Marking 60 Years in the Industry
Ellis' history with country music is a like a timeline that traces the emergence of country music on radio. Ellis founded the Valparaiso, Indiana-based company now known as Radio One Communications by starting a radio station in Porter County that broadcast country music on the FM dial – a groundbreaking move and one that expanded country music's reach in the Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland area.
A man who gave country music an identity and an outlet marks sixty years in the industry in October 2009 – and to this day, to many, he's still known as “Uncle Len”.
Monday through Friday, three times a day, on one of the very stations Ellis founded, you can still hear Uncle Len introducing country classics and sharing classic tales in “Uncle Len's Legends'” -- a program that marked Uncle Len's return to the airwaves, October 2nd, 2006, on Indiana 105 WLJE-FM 105.5 fm, during – when else -- “Country Music Month”.
Ellis is considered a visionary in the radio and country music industry. In 1983, he became a member of the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame. He was named one of ten “Legends of Country Radio” in an October 7, 1994, issue of the national radio and recording industry trade journal R&R. Ellis also holds card number one as a charter member of the Country Music Association (CMA), a group he helped form back in 1958. Ellis was on the first board of directors and holds CMA Card Number One. “I feel very privileged to have been a part of all of that,” Ellis said, noting little respect was afforded to country music at the time.
Ellis, one might say, was country “when country wasn't cool” (with nods to George Jones and Barbara Mandrell, who've both covered that country classic). Ellis was even on an episode of “Hee Haw” in the early 70s. And, this November, he'll be sharing the stage, even if just for a few minutes, with that very same George Jones, a country legend he remembers helping to bring to the forefront.
* Ellis, one might say, was country “when country wasn't cool” (with nods to George Jones and Barbara Mandrell, who've both covered that country classic). Ellis was even on an episode of “Hee Haw” in the early 70s. And, this November, he'll be on stage addressing the crowd just moments before the George Jones show at the Star Plaza in Merrillville, that very same George Jones country legend Ellis remembers helping to bring to the forefront.
Some Background
But it all started in October 1949, when Ellis got his first radio job as a morning disc jockey, full-time, at WFYC-AM in Alma, Michigan, a station that had country music in the morning and featured a man known as Michigan's-own 'singing cowboy'. Less than a year later, Ellis found himself spinning discs at an AM station in Buloxi, Mississippi, that became country, Ellis says, soon after he got there. Management added a program called “Hillbilly Fever” -- a show that Ellis says was so popular, fan letters were pouring in -- including, interestingly enough, a letter, Ellis recalls, from Valparaiso, Florida.
Ellis moved back to Chicago in the early 1950s when he got a letter from the Veterans Administration telling him he needed to go back and finish his education at Columbia College if he didn't want to lose his GI Bill benefits – and the trip back to the Windy City eventually led to his job at WJOB-AM in Hammond, where the “Uncle Len” moniker was born.
“No country when I started there,” he says, instead something called a “rhythm roundup”, a program that he infused with country tunes he chose from the station's library and those he purchased from a downtown department store. One day “on the air I said something like 'My sister's daughter Ellen was born and I guess that makes me an uncle,' and a couple days later I'm getting mail addressed to “Uncle Len”. Ellis says it even became part of his opening statement on the air : “Kick off your shoes, lean back and relax, this is 'Uncle Len'”.
Ellis later worked for a radio station in Gary (WWCA) and Chicago's WCFL before eventually applying for a license to start his own station. He founded the company with his wife Bee, going on the air Election Day, November 1964, with WAYK-AM, AM-1500 (later changed to WAKE-AM). The company began broadcasting out of a small brick building built in a tract of undeveloped, unincorporated land in south-central Porter County, the Valparaiso area, about a mile south of US 30.
In 1968, the first full-time FM stereo station in Chicagoland, WAKE-FM 105.5 fm, went on the air. WAKE-FM changed its call letters to WLJE-FM in 1974 – the letters LJE representing Ellis' initials.
Ellis also worked as a concert promoter for 12 years, bringing acts like then future country music hall-of-famer George Jones, for instance, to the Hammond Civic Center in the 50s and early 60s.
Today
In a day when formats are easily “flipped”, Indiana 105, WLJE-FM, remains the longest consecutive running country station in the nation's third largest radio broadcast market.
In November of this year, the radio company Ellis started will mark its 45th year on-air, still family-owned, with Ellis' son Leigh at the helm, becoming President/General Manager 24 years ago. The company now includes four stations – WLJE-FM (Indiana 105), WAKE-AM (CNN Radio AM-1500), WXRD-FM (X-Rock 103.9), and WZVN-FM (Z107.1)
And Uncle Len, marking 60 years in country music in October, is step on stage shortly before the George Jones concert at the Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville, Indiana, November 27, 2009.
As Uncle Len might say, “Kick off your shoes, lean back and relax, this is 'Uncle Len'”.
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