NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
"Men flourish only for a moment." - Homer: The Iliad


Samuel Insull's empire came to an end with the stock market crash of 1929. David Sarnoff's National Broadcasting Company (NBC) offered to by WENR, as well as WMAQ, to acquire Chicago outlets for its "Blue" and "Red" NBC networks, respectively. The sale of WENR to NBC was finalized in 1931. Many of the WENR performers joined NBC, and the NBC studios were consolidated in the newly built Merchandise Mart.

Unfortunately, the local identity and personality that made WENR so successful was lost when it became an outlet for centralized network programming. IN 1943, WENR was sold to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company (ABC). WENR and WLS merged in 1954, and the WLS call letters were then used full time.

In 1938, both WENR and WLS began using the WKS transmitter site in Tinley Park, IL, and the Downers Grove transmitter site was inactivated. IN 1942, Frank J. Curran, acquired the site and transmitter building for manufacturing, and the twin, 300-foot towers were demolished. Curran's companies made mothballs, plastic ashtrays, toilet disinfectant cakes, and during the war years, hand grenade detonators. Manufacturing ceased in 1990, and the facility fell into ruin. IN 1996, all buildings on the 40-acre site were demolished to make way for a townhouse development known as Woodmere.