. The station is currently owned by Auril Broadcasting LLC.
History
The station signed on December 13, 1938,
full service format being in place in the late 1940s. Among WMRO's on-air staff during this time was a young John Drury
.
Vincent Cofey and Benjamin Oswalt purchased the station in 1957; three years later, the station was granted night authorization and implemented its current power levels. A separately-programmed FM sister station at 107.9 (now WLEY-FM) was added on September 1, 1964.[3] Cofey and Oswalt sold WMRO to Dale Stevens in June 1969 to fund television station WLXT-TV (channel 60; now occupied by WXFT-DT), which had signed on May 18,[4] and to a lesser extent an upgrade to WMRO-FM, renamed WAUR. WLXT shut down July 17, 1970;[4] two years later, Stevens purchased WAUR from Cofey and Oswalt.
Chicago; at that time, Beasley opted to completely shut down the Aurora facility, which also housed the AM station's transmitter, and with little fanfare signed the station off. The callsign was changed to the current WBIG in 1991;[5] two years later, Big Broadcasting Company, Inc. purchased the license from Beasley, and brought WBIG back on the air in November 1993. An agreement was signed October 26, 2016, to sell WBIG, along with commonly-owned stations KSHP and WRMN
to Pollack Broadcasting for $2 million. The sale was consummated on January 31, 2017.
Programming
Much of WBIG's current daytime schedule is devoted to The Big Radio Shopping Show, a home shopping program that airs during much of the daytime hours. The station does air an interview program, The Big Wake Up Call hosted by Ryan Gatenby. Fox Sports Radio programming is aired during most of the nighttime hours; weekend programming is also largely provided by Fox Sports Radio, except for At Home with Gary Sullivan and The Big Radio Shopping Show on Saturday mornings and religious programming on Sunday mornings.
