About WHCO - Real Country 1230 WHCO

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Friday, May 18, 2012

8:15 Cards at Dodgers

Fri, May 18, 2012

Plenty of T-Bone Morning Show goodness!
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Wed. May 16, 2012

Sparta Community Hosp. on the show today
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Thurs. May 17, 2012

Local News Report.

Sat. May 12, 2012

The Southern Illinois Swap Shop.
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Steeleville vs Sesser

Sesser and Steeleville play in the Regionals.
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For over five decades, WHCO has been proud to serve the communities of Southwestern Illinois. Our mission is to entertain, to inform and to provide a valuable voice to the communities between Saint Louis and Carbondale. Long after our founding, the station continues to strive to be the best local radio possible for the residents of the area who rely on our service each day.

Founded in 1955, the station was originally owned by Oscar C. Hirsch, and part of a group of stations that included KFVS 12, the CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau, MO. In the late 1980s, Hirsch sold WHCO to a Randolph County group led by Jack L. Scheper, the station's manager since 1959. Jack passed the station onto his son John in 2008; Jack would pass on in November of 2009. John would leave the station in early 2010 to pursue other opportunities and spend time with his family.

The voices that have danced across the area's radios at 1230 kilohertz became the friends of many throughout Southwestern Illinois. For over forty years, Jack L.

Sen. Paul Simon and Jack L. Scheper

Scheper hosted the People Speak program each weekday morning, talking with the guests ranging from the top politicans to your neighborhood church group. He also played the role of Santa Claus during the holiday season, reading the letters sent to the North Pole on the air weekday afternoons. Mike Arnold Hoefft started the day for many with the Morning Journal at 6:00 AM, and spent lunch with them on the Noonday Journal; anglers and hunters relied on his stories and advice on the Sportsmans Corner report. Dan Schnoeker and Dennis Stork reported live from gymnasiums across Southern Illinois and all the way to Champaign, broadcasting the state basketball finals live each March, a tradition that carries on to this day.

Live at the state finals in Champaign. Mid/late 1980s.

Sometime the voices were yours: children growing up in the area have a chance to pop into the Christmas Tree Club and say hello to friends and family; the program serves to bring toys into the homes of the needy during the Christmas season. For years the annual Easter Seals Radiothon featured the talents of the local community during the all-day event that raised over 100,000 dollars over the years to help the Rotary Club with their efforts.

Cardinal Hall of Famer Lou Brock with Miss WHCO Pageant Candidates at Busch Stadium

Over the years, WHCO has evolved over time to better meet the need of needs of the community. From our origin as a country station, WHCO eventually evolved into playing Top 40 and adult

Wilmer the Duck out on the town.

contemporary music, all the while remaining a Full Service outlet devoted to providing up-to-date news, weather and sports as well as talk programming that gave local residents a change to have their voice heard. In 1998 WHCO switched to a News/Talk format, bringing in hosts such as G. Gordon Liddy, Larry King and Jim Bohannon to join the legendary local talk program The People Speak.

In 2008, WHCO returned to its roots with a mix of great Real Country music and full service news and talk programming to best serve the listening area. To this day WHCO is proud to be the source for news in the surrounding communities, offering a public forum for local leaders on the People Speak and keeping residents of the area up-to-date throughout the day with breaking news, severe weather updates, cancellations and anything else of local importance. We're also proud to be the sports voice of the region, with comprehensive coverage of high school sports contests plus live coverage of the Cardinals, Blues, Rams, Salukis, Fighting Illini and more.

For more information about WHCO's broadcast schedule, check out our schedule and programs page. To provide feedback about WHCO and/or our programming, head to the contact page.