WHOW (1520 kHz, "The Big 1520") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Clinton, Illinois, United States. The station, established in 1947, is owned by the Miller Media Group and the broadcast license is held by Kaskaskia Broadcasting, Inc. WHOW is a daytime-only station broadcasting on the United States clear-channel frequency of 1520 AM. It must sign-off at night to protect Class A WWKB Buffalo, New York, and KOKC Oklahoma City.

WHOW broadcasts a farm news and talk radio format branded as "The Big 1520". The station airs local news and public affairs programs, agricultural news, and a tradio program called "RFD Trading Post". WHOW places special emphasis on serving the farm community of Central Illinois with a weekday morning farm show, live and local agriculture talk shows, a syndicated noon farm show, "The Horse Show", and frequent market reports.

Weekday syndicated talk programming includes Michael Medved, Jim Bohannon, Larry Elder and Red Eye Radio overnights. On weekends, WHOW carries CBS Sports Radio programming, along with a Saturday morning farm show, local Clinton High School football and basketball games, and afternoon blocks of classic country music.

This station began broadcast operations in August 1947 as a 1,000 watt daytime-only radio station broadcasting at 1520 kHz as WHOW. The station, licensed to serve the community of Clinton, Illinois, was owned by Dr. Keith Rhea, H.E. Rhea, Rex K. Rhea, Tom Dinsmore, and Frank Moots doing business as the Cornbelt Broadcasting Company.

WHOW licensee Cornbelt Broadcasting Company was acquired by James R. "Ray" Livesay in September 1950. The station was able to increase its daytime signal to 5,000 watts in 1962. On April 19, 1972, the station's studios were moved from the downtown square to an office building at its tower site, four miles (6 km) south of Clinton, built to resemble a "big red barn". (The station and its FM sister station still operate from this facility.) Inspired by the April 1987 opening of the Clinton Nuclear Generating Station, WHOW changed its motto to "WHOW, your radio active station" in 1989.

Livesay founded the Daytime Broadcasters Association in 1955 and served as its president until 1982. The National Association of Broadcasters presented the National Radio Award to Livesay in 1989 citing his "lifelong contributions to the industry". Ray Livesay died in May 1995. Livesay's son, James R. "Jim" Livesay II, took over operation of WHOW and WHOW-FM after his death. Alonzon Newnum, the chief engineer for WHOW for more than four decades, died in late November 1999.

In June 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture to Cornbelt Broadcasting for its failure to maintain an operational Emergency Alert System decoder, post an antenna structure registration number, and enclose its AM antenna structure within effective locked fences or other enclosures." Cornbelt Broadcasting did not file a response and on October 31, 2002, the FCC issued a forfeiture notice that ordered the WHOW and WHOW-FM licensee to pay a fine of $17,000 for "willfully and repeatedly violating" FCC regulations.

In response, WHOW and WHOW-FM went off the air on November 1, 2002, and notified the FCC that they had gone "silent" on November 5, 2002. At the time of the shutdown, the financially struggling stations had a combined 8 to 10 part-time employees and had maintained an "irregular broadcast schedule" in the months leading up to the shutdown. Within days, the station's office hours sign had the normal "8 a.m.-6 p.m." crossed out and "Permanently closed forever" written in its place.