Sears opened the station in 1924 as a service to farmers and subsequently sold it to the "Prairie Farmer" magazine in 1928. The station moved to the Prairie Farmer Building on West Washington in Chicago, where it remained for 32 years. For a few months after ABC's 1960 purchase of it and the format change, the "bright new sound" that began in May 1960 was broadcast from the Prairie Farmer Building. WLS didn't make the move to downtown Michigan Avenue's Stone Container Building, located at 360 North Michigan Avenue, until October of that year. Thirty years later, it would move once more, to 190 North State in downtown Chicago. It was the scene of the "National Barn Dance", which featured Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, and George Gobel, and which was second only to the "Grand Ole Opry" (itself a local "National Barn Dance" spinoff) in presenting country music and humor.