[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 161 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM (BILL) HILL, PIONEER RADIO DISC JOCKEY AND BLUES 
                                PROMOTER

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                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of ILLINOIS

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 28, 2018

  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, when I came to Chicago 
in 1961, one of the first radio shows that I listened to was the Big 
Bill Hill's Shopping Bag Show on WOPA Radio. Being a native Arkansan, 
anything or anybody connected to Arkansas gets my attention and perks 
me up. Such has been the cause with Big Bill Hill, born in England, 
Arkansas.
  True to form, Big Bill Hill was a big man, 250 lbs, and over 6 feet 
tall. He was born in England, Arkansas in 1914 and rolled into Chicago 
in 1932 looking for work. He found work at a steel mill, but he wanted 
to be on the radio. Nobody would hire him so he saved his money and 
bought air time on brokered stations. He started on WLDY-AM in Elmwood, 
and later WCRW-AM. He had his shtick down by the time he started his 
program ``Shopping Bag Show'' in 1995 on WOPA-AM in Oak Park.
  WOPA-AM signed on in 1950. It's call letters the Oak Park Arms, a 
hotel on Oak Park Avenue, where their studio was originally installed. 
Their 250 watt signal was strongest on the west side of Chicago, and 
William Klein's Village Broadcasting Company wisely targeted those 
black demographics so the schedule was full of blues, jazz, R&B, and 
gospel. Most of their day was brokered time so it was also peppered 
with ethnic programming of every stripe. But 1490 was short spaced 
between WXRT-AM and WMOR-AM, so it was never going to have much juice. 
The solution in 1953 was 102.3 WOPA-AM. WMOR had gone bankrupt and they 
bought the license at 3,600 watts. This signal had solid Chicago 
coverage. Though FM listenership was low in the 50s, it grew steadily. 
Initially, the stations just simulcast all programming. But in 1966, 
the FCC mandated that FM simulcasts carry 50 percent originating 
programming. The brokered ethnic moved to the FM side, but Big Bill 
Hill remained simulcast in the evening, even after the station bumped 
the wattage up to 6,000 watts.
  His career changed forever in 1963. He already owned a booking 
agency, a dry cleaner, a management company and he owned his own club, 
the Copa Cabana. Supposedly, he did remotes from all locations, even 
the dry cleaner. In 1967, it looked like it was all going to fall 
apart. WOPA was born again as a free form FM station full of 
underground music and hippies. His already floundering club, the Copa 
Cabana, closed. However, Bill defied all odds and started a R&B TV 
dance show on WCIU-TV. The ``Red Hot and Blues'' show ran until 1971. 
It was overtaken by another R&B dance program . . . Soul Train.

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