WDAN Party Line

I bought this coffee mug. I had never heard of the radio program and that's just the sort of thing that gets me curious. I discovered her obituary in the Danville Commercial News, June 26th 2008. Her name also appears, memorialized in the R&R December 2008 issue. [SOURCE] Thus I found the name of the program's host: Jeanne Eisenhauer. Thankfully it also gave her age so I also knew she was born about 1935. She was in broadcasting for 50 years working her way up from a job as a clerk to a radio host at Neuhoff Communications.  [SOURCE] That newspaper described her career:

Eisenhauer began in the radio station by doing clerical work. That progressed to an early program called Listen Ladies. But she is probably best known for a mid-‘80s program called Party Line that ran for several years, which she hosted with five people, including the mayor himself.

Her first show at 1490 WDAN-AM was called "Listen Ladies" than "Party Line" aired from 1984 until 1987 where she was part of a round table of personalities which included both Dr. John D. Bromley and the local mayor. But because of a quirk of fate I can't identify which mayor. David S. Palmer was elected in 1975, re-elected and severed until his death in 1985. Wilbur Scharlau was appointed by city council as a acting mayor, but subsequently appointed Hardin W. Hawes as acting mayor. Hawes subsequently quit. Scharlau had previously been convicted of "official misconduct" but that didn't stop the city counsel from re-appointing him. He remained until Robert "Bob" E. Jones was elected by popular vote. (Scharlau died in 1989) My suspicion is that it was David S. Palmer

The State of Illinois reports that Eisenhauer was the first woman to have a talk show on the station; and they did so by decree. [LINK] In her time there the station had five owners and she out lasted them all. In February of 2024, Neuhoff Media sold their Danville and Decatur radio stations to Champaign Multimedia Group for $2 million meaning so she missed that 6th owner. But I thought it would be interesting to identify all five.

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  1935 - WDAN signs on at 15,00 watts daytime only owned by Northwestern publishing. A Billboard article from 1943 mentions that by then it was being operated by the Danville Commercial News. 

• 1953 WDAN-TV signs on. The Television Almanac of 1959 lists all the same executive staff as Ch 24, WDAN-AM. Odd claim to fame but Gene Hackman was a cameraman for the TV station. More here.
   
• 1958 - This is the year Jeanne Eisenhauer was hired as a clerk. The station is owned by Northwestern publishing, and is a CBS affiliate. Robert Burow is the GM, Max Shaffer is the SM, Honore Ronan is the PD. Ronan and Shaffer had been there since at least 1946, and remained there until at least 1964. Shaffer and Honore Ronan together hosted an Almanac program on the TV side. I did find an image of the latter. Eisenhauer  and Ronan both being active in community theatre, I suspect that's how she was first hired.[SOURCE] Another Danville Light Opera program states that Ronan started as a receptionist at WDAN, and became program director 3 years later. She was the voice of Listen Ladies for over 20 years. I believe that she co-hosted that program with Eisenhauer.

• 1960 - WDAN-TV is sold to Plains television Corp, becomes WICD-TV. 

•  1967 - The 99.1 WDAN FM stick signed on in October 1967. 

• 1971 - Northwestern sells the AM and FM operations to First Danville Radio. The ownership was comprised of employees including Max Shaffer, John Eckert, and Bill Shoup.They changed the FM call letters to WMBJ. It's programming was partially changed to automated playback but still simulcast the morning program off the Am side.
  

• 1977 - Sangamon Broadcasting purchases First Danville Radio and fully ended the WDAN AM/FM simulcast. They change the format of the FM stick to emulate the WTAX-AM/WDBR-FM stations they operated in Springfield, changing the FM calls to WDNL. More here.
  

• 1986 - bought by David Keister Stations, a change David Quick described as "devastating." In 1983 Keister already owned WCBK-FM, WMCB-AM, WCHO-AM, WOFR-AM and WCNB-FM. In 1985 he also had WIQU. In the 1987 R&R Directory that changed to WBCI, WIFE, WCNB, WOFR and WCHO. By 1995 Broadcasting & Cable list them as owning: WBWN-FM, WIOU-AM, WZWZ-FM, WBAT-AM, WKNV-AM, WFMG-FM and WCJC-FM. Sounds like a mess.  1987  Broadcasting and cable lists the owner as Sangamon Broadcasting-Danville Inc. and since 1977 as if Keister never happened.  Initially I could not reconcile this with all the information about the David Keister acquisition.  Then I found a note in the WDNL history. [SOURCE] "WDAN/WDNL sold the first time to a group from Indiana, but the sale fell through on the closing day."
  

• 1988 - Both 1988 and 1989 Broadcasting and cable yearbooks lists the owner as MAJAC Inc. Doug Quick was General Manager at WDAN/WDNL during the last years of the Majac ownership. It was owned by Jack and Marc Steenbarger a father-son team. In that era WDNL-FM was upgraded to 50k watts.
  

• 1990 MAJAC Inc. sells the stations to Neuhoff Broadcasting

• 2008 Jeanne Eisenhauer passes.

 

Assuming we can ignore David Keister, I think we have our five. Eisenhauer had retired from radio in the late 1990s but was wooed back by Neuhoff Broadcasting to co-host the Master Gardener’s radio show on WDAN. She was forced to retire for real in 2007 after a stroke.

There was a "Party Line" program on WHAM around 1943, and there was a "Listen Ladies" program on WHBF in 1942, both with no connection to Eisenhauer's shows. But in other random notes, I found that from 1983 to 1997 WDAN had a Program director named Scott Eisenhauer, and a Traffic director Gene Eisenhauer. I think these are her kids!

WDAN celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2008. They first signed on in October 1938. Jeanne Eisenhauer had conducted reunion interviews at their 50th anniversary in 1988.  Unfortunately she died before their 70th anniversary celebration, but her memory was made a part of the event.