“WVON leads with service and excellence. Our history has proven who we are, our audiences are proof of who we are, and our team members reflect who we are.” ~ Melody Spann Cooper, Our CEO

A FEW WORDS

About Us

WVON Vintage Logo

History

For over six decades, WVON has been the voice of the city and urban community. The station has performed as a platform of Real influence, including the political campaign sector of change in President Barack Obama’s election.

The Original owners of Chess Records, Leonard and Phil Chess, first carved out the canvas of WVON in 1963, a station designed to be “The Voice of the Negro.”

Later they assembled the dynamic group of Radio personalities, The Good Guys. This group had the title of the Top 3 Radio Stations in Chicago.

Political activism and cultural awareness became the nationwide recognition attached to WVON. To magnify the station’s capabilities, in 1977, WVON was bought by Midway Broadcasting owners Wesley South and Pervis Spann. Today the station is continuing to flourish with Melody Spann-Cooper’s radio expertise in Chicago.

Meet Our CEO

Melody Spann Cooper is the driving force behind Midway Broadcasting Corporation. As the daughter of the company’s co-founder Pervis Spann, she joined an elite list of female-owned media companies in 1999 when she became Chairwoman of the company, which now includes broadcast and digital platforms. In addition to the company’s flagship station WVON, Spann Cooper expanded the company’s assets in 2007, with the development of WRLL Radio, The Voice of Chicago’s Latino Community. In October 2020, she oversaw the launch of Midway Broadcasting’s new OTT Digital Streaming Platform, VONtv, (pronounced Vaughn) which can be seen in more than 100 million+ households on ROKU, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime and at von.tv.

Spann Cooper serves on many professional and civic boards including as Co-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Council for the Obama Foundation; as Commissioner of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission; as Chair of the Illinois Broadcasting Association; as a board member of the FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC), and as a board member of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters,

In 2019, she released her first book, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Closing the Deal, a semi-biographical publication for women about people, power and purpose.

Our Partners

VONtv delivers free, empowering, and culturally relevant Streaming TV for the masses. VONtv is powered by WVON Radio. For fifty years, WVON Radio has built a reputation for being the social conscious of Black Chicago.