ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Jon C Habermaas, November 1999
WGN organ was in a TV studio in the broadcast building on Bradley Place. It was
not used for broadcasting for years, the few times an organ was used the organist
playing preferred to use an electronic. Only time the organ was heard was for
an occasional organ club activity. TV station wanted the organ out of their way,
so the Tribune Company donated the organ to the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The organ was originally a 2/7 WurliTzer with a brass trumpet, very unusual for
a small organ.
When the WGN radio studios were built next to the Tribune Tower,
Kimball was contracted to enlarge the organ and they added a Diapason,
Clarinet and English Horn (classical style) to augment the Wurlitzer and controlled
the new installation with a 3 manual Kimball console.
The organ was removed and
the WurliTzer portion of the organ was incorporated into the theatre organ
in the seminary auditorium at Mundelein, Illinois.
The Kimball console and Kimball
portions were sold to a party in Wisconsin. A fire where the organ was
stored severely damaged the console and destroyed some of the pipes.
From: Jon C Habermaas, January 2010
The WGN organ started out in the radio studio in the Bismark Hotel as a 2/7 Special (with a Brass Trumpet)
which was a second hand organ which Wurlitzer had repossessed from its' original band leader owner.
When the Tribune Company built the WGN building next to Tribune Tower the organ was moved an enlarged by Kimball
for installation in the new studio building by adding three ranks (Clarinet, Open Diapason, and church style English Horn)
and two 3 manual consoles (the 2nd console was located in a first floor studio and the organist used headphones to hear the organ).
Always a favorite with Col. McCormack, the organ was retained long after most other broadcasters had divested the organs.
In the late fifties the organ was removed from the radio studio by Frank Wichlac and Associates and later installed
in the larger TV studio in the new WGN Broadcast facility on the NW side of Chicago.
(The radio studios on the second floor were too small to accommodate a pipe organ)
After organist Harold Turner retired the pipe organ was seldom used and eventually removed, donated to the
seminary at Mundelein and the Wurlitzer portion is part of the auditorium Howell-Wurlitzer.