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PIONEER BROADCAST STATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES Thomas H. White - June 1, 1992 Any review of the first U.S. broadcast stations is complicated by conflicting interpretations and claims, plus a scarcity of information. This is an overview of the pioneer stations granted broadcasting authorizations, plus a review of the government policies in force at the time. Establishment of the Broadcast Service -------------------------------------- As with most innovations, there was a lag between the development of broadcasting, and formal recognition of its existence by government regulators. In the United States, beginning in 1912, radio was regulated by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation. One of the first steps taken by the Bureau, as recorded in the September 28, 1912 edition of "Regulations Governing Radio Communication", was to divide land station licences into eight classes: 1-Public Service, 2-Limited Commercial, 3-Experimental, 4-Technical and Training School, 5-General Amateur, 6-Special Amateur, 7-Restricted Amateur, and 8-High Power. (The High Power class was soon dropped, and its stations absorbed into the other categories). None of the licence classes included any reference to broadcasting. Thus, in the period of broadcast development and experimentation leading to the formal adoption of regulations in 1921, stations licensed under a number of classifications made experimental broadcasts. For example, among the numerous stations that engaged in early broadcast development, KDKA in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania held a Limited Commercial licence; many stations, including DeForest's "High Bridge" station, 2XG in New York City, and "California Theater" station, 6XC in San Francisco, plus the American Radio and Research Corporation's 1XE in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, and Frank Conrad's 8XK in Pittsburgh operated under Experimental authorizations; while additional stations, including the University of Nebraska's 9YY in Lincoln, had Technical and Training School licences. Other early dabblers in broadcasting, including the Detroit News' 8MK, held General Amateur licences, while KDKA's initial November 2, 1920 election broadcast actually went out under a temporary Special Amateur authorization, 8ZZ. In addition there were government stations, exempt from Commerce Department regulation, including AGI, operated by the Army Signal Corps at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, and the Navy's NOF-NSF, located in Anacostia, D.C. Adoption of Broadcast Service Regulations ----------------------------------------- On December 1, 1921 the Bureau of Navigation formally established standards for the first time for a broadcasting service. The new regulations were reported in the January 3, 1922 edition of the Radio Service Bulletin. However, instead of creating a new licence class, broadcasting was set up as a service category within the existing Limited Commercial classification. (Broadcasting would not become a separate licence until radio regulation was transferred to the Federal Radio Commission in 1927.) The new broadcast service was assigned two wavelengths: 360 meters (833 kHz) for "broadcasting news, concerts and such matter", and 485 meters (619 khz) for "broadcasting crop reports and weather forecasts". Thus, depending on the service offered, a broadcast station could be licensed for 360 meters, 485 meters, or for both wavelengths. Stations using the same wavelength in the same area had to share time in order to avoid interference. Also, a station licensed for both wavelengths had to switch from one wavelength to the other whenever its program fell into another service category. (This dual-wavelength setup was dropped in May, 1923 when the number of broadcast wavelengths was greatly expanded). Under the new standards, in order to be permitted to make broadcasts intended for the general public, a station had to hold a Limited Commercial licence, and its licence also had to authorize use of the broadcast wavelengths. Therefore, Limited Commercial stations that didn't have an authorization to use the broadcast wavelengths, and stations operating under other licence classifications, no longer were permitted to broadcast to the public. (Government stations remained exempt from Commerce Department control, so some continued to make broadcasts). The Bureau's introduction of broadcast service standards actually formalized developments of the previous two-and-a-half months. At the time of the introduction of the new regulations, nine stations already held Limited Commercial licences authorizing the use of 360 meters for broadcasting purposes. The existence of this group of stations was a side effect of a wavelength assignment request made by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Westinghouse's famous KDKA in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was first licensed, as a Limited Commercial station, on October 27, 1920. According to early publicity, KDKA's initial broadcasts, through the fall of 1921, went out on the wavelength of 330 meters (909 khz). With the success of KDKA, in the fall of 1921 Westinghouse began to set up three additional broadcasting stations -- WJZ, WBZ, and KYW -- which initially were assigned to a variety of wavelengths. According to an article in the September, 1922 issue of Radio News, at this point Westinghouse's L. R. Krumm asked the Bureau of Navigation to assign all the Westinghouse stations to a single wavelength, 360 meters. The first Westinghouse station to be issued a licence explicitly for 360 meters was WBZ on September 15, 1921. During the next two months the other three Westinghouse stations were also issued licences specifying use of 360 meters. Moreover, in the period before the December 1st adoption of the new regulations, five other new stations being set up for public broadcasting by other companies -- WDY, WCJ, WBL, WJX, and KQL -- were also licensed by the Bureau of Navigation as Limited Commercial stations operating on 360 meters. Thus, at the time of the adoption of the December 1st regulations, Limited Commercial licences for 360 meters had already been informally established as a standard operating setup for broadcasting stations. The new broadcast service regulations didn't require the nine stations already on 360 meters to make any changes, because they already met the new standards. In view of this, lists of the first broadcasting stations, issued over the years by the Federal Radio Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, generally begin with these nine 360 meter assignments, starting with WBZ on September 15, 1921. Exceptions and Additions ------------------------ A problem with using the 360 meter grants to identify WBZ as the first broadcasting station is that this is seemingly an overly restrictive standard. The question is whether there are radio stations which can claim existence, as broadcasting stations, prior to WBZ. In my view, two of the Westinghouse stations -- KDKA in East Pittsburgh, and WJZ in Newark, NJ (now WABC New York), qualify as being senior to WBZ. Both KDKA and WJZ were specifically set up to be fulltime broadcast stations, and received Limited Commercial licences, although neither initially specified 360 meters. (KDKA was first licensed on October 27, 1920 but didn't receive a licence specifying 360 meters until November 7, 1921. However, it's very possible that KDKA switched to 360 meters before the new licence was issued, since it's first licence also didn't specify the 330 meter wavelength it initially used. WJZ was first licensed in May of 1921, and was issued a new licence specifying 360 meters on September 30, 1921). Thus, given Westinghouse's pioneering work, in the following list of broadcast stations KDKA and WJZ are listed according to their initial licence dates of October 27, 1920 and May, 1921, respectively. Of course, once you start developing your own standards, others tend to come up with suggestions. Most of the broadcasting stations set up under the December 1st regulations were licensed to individuals or companies that had operated earlier radio stations. (This includes KDKA, which was an outgrowth of Frank Conrad's 8XK. The earliest claim is by KQW in San Jose -- now KCBS in San Francisco -- which identifies predecessors dating back to 1909). Although some of these earlier stations utilized spark transmitters, others used continuous wave transmitters and in some cases had conducted experimental broadcasts. Thus, in many cases broadcast stations are claimed to actually date back to licences issued to predecessor stations. However, to the best of my knowledge none of these predecessor stations can really be considered to be "broadcasting stations" -- at best they were "radio stations that also made broadcasts", with their broadcasts secondary or in addition to the station's normal functions. So, at the risk of great bodily harm, I personally see no compelling reason to date the "broadcasting station" ranks any earlier than KDKA's initial authorization. Licensing Policies and Procedures --------------------------------- As noted earlier, licensing at the time of the creation of the broadcasting service was conducted under the provisions of an act passed in 1912. Although the standard since the 1927 formation of the Federal Radio Commission has been that stations serve the "public convenience, interest, or necessity", no comparable guideline was mandated by the 1912 act, and licensing of the pioneer broadcast service stations amounted to little more than registration. Licensing authority was vested in the Secretary of Commerce, and exercised through the Bureau of Navigation. This body operated on a much more informal basis than successor regulators. Moreover, control was more decentralized, with oversight, performed primarily by nine regional Radio Inspectors, generally limited to insuring that stations maintained technical standards. The procedure normally used to procure a broadcast licence in the early twenties was as follows: the prospective station operator filled out an "Applicant's Description of Apparatus" (Form 761), obtained from the region's Radio Inspector. The completed form, which provided mostly technical information, was submitted to the inspector, who, if deemed necessary, inspected the proposed apparatus. Next the form, including the inspection report plus a recommendation on the type of authorization that should be issued, was forwarded to the Commissioner of Navigation in Washington, DC. In the case of new stations two distinct steps took place. First, when the Form 761 was received in Washington the station was immediately assigned a call sign, which was written at the top of the form. Later, if everything was in order, a licence was issued. (If the station equipment had not been inspected, the licence was issued with the notation "provisional".) The time period between assigning call letters and issuing a licence ranged from immediate action to as much as forty days, and according to Commerce records was usually in the range of one to three days. The assignment of the call sign was not considered as establishing a new station. Stations were not reported in the Radio Service Bulletin until the first operating authorization -- usually a licence but in a few cases a preliminary telephoned or telegraphed authorization -- was issued. Licence periods for broadcasting stations through the early twenties ranged from as few as ten days to one year, with one year licences the norm for grants made until early January, 1922, six months the standard during mid-January, 1922, and three months the norm thereafter. Licence renewal was obtained via the submission of an updated Form 761 at the required intervals. A serial licence number was assigned to the first licence issued to a given station, which normally was carried over to later licences issued to the station. Occasionally the same licence number was accidentally given to two different stations. In that case, a "1/2" was added to one of the licence numbers. Some mistakes were never caught -- according to a penciled note WBU's initial February 21, 1922 licence was supposed to be numbered "299". Instead, it was stamped "219", and this number was kept for its later licences. Although the above procedures were the ones normally used, Commerce files report that in a few cases the process was accelerated by direct letters, telegrams, and telephone conversations between applicants and Washington officials. Station Deletions ----------------- Station deletions in the early twenties were performed with even less formality and consistency than licensing. When a station discontinued broadcasting before the end of a licence period, the station operator could return the licence for cancellation. However, it appears that in most cases the station owners didn't bother -- instead they just let the licences expire in due course. Moreover, the lapse of a station licence was seen as no more than the close of an operating authorization, and rarely resulted in immediate deletion from the official station lists. Generally a grace period was allowed, on the assumption that many stations would eventually be relicensed. The timespan between the expiration of a licence and formal deletion varied greatly, and according to Commerce files most stations were not removed from the published lists until one to six months after their operating licences had lapsed. The whole process has a distinct "we'll delete them when we get around to it" feel, and appears to have been to some degree dependent on the diligence of the district Radio Inspectors. Because of the flexible deletion practices, the number of stations deleted in a given month is not a precise measure of the decline in activity for that month, as the licences for many of these stations had in fact expired a number of weeks or months previously. Likewise, official lists of this period invariably include stations no longer holding active licences, and merely awaiting formal removal. Temporary Stations ------------------ One category of broadcasting stations has been almost completely undocumented -- that of temporary grants. These were issued for special occasions, usually lasting a month or less, and were not reported in the Radio Service Bulletin. There is little information about these grants recorded in the Commerce files, although at least seventy were issued in the period from January, 1922 to October, 1928. For temporary grants made through May, 1922, where wavelength information is recorded, the wavelength assigned was always 360 meters. [Histories for five temporary stations operated by educational organizations can be found in S. E. Frost's "Educations's Own Stations": Bancroft School, Haddonfield, NJ (WRAQ); Gardenville High School, Gardenville, NY (WGHS); Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA (WDBG); Milton College, Milton, WI (WSAM); and Northern State Normal School, Marquette, MI, (WBI).] Listed below are the fifteen stations listed in Commerce files as receiving temporary grants for the period through the end of May, 1922: TEMPORARY BROADCAST STATION GRANTS THROUGH MAY, 1922 ---------------------------------------------------- 1st Air Call date Assign Call Location Grantee/notes ======= ====== ==== ======== ============================ 1/-- 1/20 WPU Buffalo, NY Buffalo Courier and Enquirer 2/-- 2/2 KDP Seattle, WA Saint James Cathedral 2/23 2/22 WHO Kansas City, MO Kansas City Post (2 days) 3/-- 3/1 WWS Pella, IA Fowler Telephone Company 3/10 3/-- WBI Marquette, MI Northern State Normal School (2 days) 3/16 3/6 WTB Evansville, IN Sieffert Electric Company 3/-- 3/10 WSH New York, NY Experimenter Information Service (2 days) 3/23 3/20 WMX Port Huron, MI Port Huron Times Herald (also for 3/27/22) 3/27 3/9 WTA Uhrichsville, OH Board of Trade 3/-- 3/27 WDS Richmond, VA Mann S. Valentine 4/16 4/15 WAAT Jersey City, NJ Jersey Review (also 4/19/22) 4/16 4/15 WAAU Philadelphia, PA H. C. Kuser 4/28 4/18 WBAC Des Moines, IA Kiwanis Club (2 days, also for 2 days starting 4/28/23) 5/13 5/5 WCAI Topeka, KS American Legion 5/-- 5/31 WEAL Des Moines, IA Mystic Shrine, special train "to coast and back" Call Letter Policies -------------------- One area which has been particularly murky is that of call letter policies. Following the adoption of the 1912 act, call signs for most non-amateur services were composed of three letters. Because most early commercial land stations were clustered along the coast, the original policy for land stations was that those on the Pacific coast were normally assigned calls starting with K, while calls starting with W were normally assigned to outlets along the Great Lakes and the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. With the development of inland services, further refinements were required. As land stations, broadcasters have generally followed the "K's in the West, W's in the East" standard. However, two different East-West dividing lines have been used. Originally the boundary ran along the eastern borders of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. In late January, 1923 the line was shifted eastward, to the current standard of the Mississippi River. The rapid expansion of the ship service during World War One required utilization of four-letter calls for ship stations, including, in alphabetical order, calls from the KE--, KI--, KO--, KU--, and, starting June, 1920, KD-- blocks. (Land stations generally continued to receive three-letter calls.) The assignment of the conspicuous call KDKA to the pioneer East Pittsburgh broadcaster has been viewed as evidence of some sort of special status. However, review of the Radio Service Bulletin shows what actually occurred was more mundane. For some reason, during the period of June, 1920 through April, 1921 most commercial land stations received calls from the four letter ship blocks, and by nothing more significant than coincidence KDKA was the only broadcaster to be born in this period. The policy of three-letter calls for land stations was restored after this lapse, until the flood of broadcasting grants required that the broadcasting service switch to four-letter calls, with Western broadcasting stations sharing the KD--, and later KF-- and KG-- blocks with ship stations, while Eastern broadcasters were assigned calls from the W-A-, and later W-B-, blocks. Some received calls outside these blocks due to special requests, and eventually individual call requests became the norm. Critique of Period Sources -------------------------- While preparing the chronological list of station activity some idiosyncrasies of three traditional sources of licensing information became apparent. The best generally available source of information for the early twenties is the Radio Service Bulletin issued by the Bureau of Navigation, which reported monthly the changes, deletions, and new station grants made during the preceding month. Three important characteristics of the Bulletin have sometimes been overlooked. The first is that its station lists do not report chronologically the grants within a given month, as the Bulletin lists always used non-chronological formats, such as alphabetically by city of licence or call sign. Second, a few stations entered the broadcasting service classification by metamorphosis from another service category, so their debuts are recorded in the "alterations and corrections" lists, rather than the new station lists which report the appearance of more conventional entrants to the service. This alternate route was used by three stations in the period through May, 1922: KQV, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; KDPT, San Diego, California; and WRR, Dallas, Texas. Third, broadcasting station additions, changes, and deletions were not reported in a separate category until the July 1, 1922 issue. Prior to this date they were intermixed with the other classes of "commercial land stations", so care must be taken in extracting broadcast service information. The Bulletin was not completely free from occasional typographical errors -- for example, in the January 2, 1922 issue both KJB, Everett, Washington and KFL, Seattle, Washington are incorrectly listed as being broadcast grants, and one station, WGI (later WARC), Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, seems to have disappeared without benefit of official notification. However, overall there were only a few minor discrepancies between information contained in the Bulletin, and that found in government records. Another source of licensing information proved somewhat more suspect. W. E. Downey, Supervisor of Radio at the Department of Commerce, appears to have regularly provided monthly totals of broadcasting station additions, deletions, and outstanding authorizations. As seen in the listing below there are a number of discrepancies, for the period through May, 1922, between the monthly figures reported by Downey, and the information contained in Commerce records and the Radio Service Bulletin. W. E. Downey Figures Research Figures --------------------------------- -------------------------- Month New Deleted Increase Total New Deleted Increase Total ===== === ======= ======== ===== === ======= ======== ===== 1921 Sept 3 0 3 3 4* 0 4 4 Oct 1 1 4 3 0 3 7 10 Nov 1 1 5 2** 0 2 9 11 Dec 23 0 23 28 20 0 20 29 1922 Jan 8 0 8 36 9 0 9 38 Feb 24 0 24 60 23 0 23 61 Mar 77 0 77 137 79 2 77 138 Apr 77 0 76 213 83 0 83 221 May 97 0 97 310 96 5 91 312 * includes WJZ ** includes KDKA The most troubling feature about the Downey figures is the complete absence of deletions. In fact, Downey reports no deletions until September of 1922. However, review of the Commerce records and the Radio Service Bulletin clearly shows that fifteen stations were deleted prior to September, beginning with two in March. Since the Downey figures do not list specific stations, the cause of the omissions not clear. Finally, the new station totals appearing in Gleason Archer's "History of Radio to 1926" have a readily identifiable flaw. These figures are inflated, because they actually are the number of new "commercial land stations" reported by the Radio Service Bulletin. As noted earlier, this means the figures erroneously include many non-broadcast service grants, and also omit a few transfers to the broadcast service that were reported in the change lists. Broadcast Service List ---------------------- Included at the end of this article is a chronological list of all broadcasting service additions, deletions, and changes that took place during the period from October, 1920 through May, 1922. The vast majority of these actions are new station grants. Station additions are listed chronologically by their initial broadcasting authorization date -- normally the date of their first broadcast service licence. "LIC" refers to the standard case where the station's first broadcast authorization was a licence. "TRN" denotes stations whose first broadcast licence was issued in conjunction with a transfer from a previous non-broadcast service classification, using the same call sign. "REL" refers to the relicensing of a previously deleted broadcast station. In a few cases an authorization to broadcast was made before the station's first licence was issued. Initial authorizations by telephone and telegraph are denoted "TP" and "TG" respectively. "STA" stands for "Special Temporary Authorization", while "AUT" appears in a case where the station is only listed as "authorized". Included with the initial authorization date is the station's call sign, city of licence, owner, and frequency assigned. "E" denotes the entertainment wavelength of 360 meters (833 kilohertz), while "M" refers to the market and weather wavelength of 485 meters (618 kilohertz). "EM" means the station was authorized for both wavelengths. The next column covers the call sign assignment, which as noted earlier was included as part of the application process, and took place prior to the issuance of a licence or other operating authorization. The three entries here are the date of the call assignment, the form of the station application, and its origin. In most cases the standard procedure was followed, with a call assigned upon the receipt in Washington of a Form 761 from a regional Radio Inspector. The nine radio inspection districts were headquartered in the following locations: 1. BOS-Boston, Massachusetts 6. SF-San Francisco, California 2. NYC-New York, New York 7. SEA-Seattle, Washington 3. BAL-Baltimore, Maryland 8. DET-Detroit, Michigan 4. SAV-Savannah, Georgia 9. CHI-Chicago, Illinois 5. NO-New Orleans, Louisiana In addition, a few of the Form 761s came via Norfolk, Virginia (NOR) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PHI). Most exceptions to the standard procedure occurred when the station owners (OWN) dealt directly with Washington, via telephone (TP), telegraph (TG), letter (LET), or call letter reservation (RES). In one case W. E. Downey (WED) was listed as the person involved in making the call assignment. The next column notes the date of the first broadcast service licence, the duration of that initial licence (with "D" signifying days, "M" months, and "YR" years), and the licence number assigned. (These licence numbers were used on subsequent station licences until 1927, when the newly formed Federal Radio Commission assigned new licence numbers to all existing stations). The final "status" column lists the eventual fate of the station--either its deletion date (with call sign if different from the original) or status as of June 1, 1992. When only the month of an action is known, usually reflecting data derived from the Radio Service Bulletin, two dashes appear for the day the action took place. A "(?)" marks a "best guess" required because of incomplete or ambiguous information, which in most cases should not be more than a few days off. As might be expected, some errors, both in the original records and during the research process, must be assumed to have crept in. However, extensive cross-referencing of original records and other source material should insure that errors have been minimized. Moreover, it is certain that these 319 grants comprise the complete roster of non-temporary broadcasting authorizations issued during this period. The one entry which must be viewed with due caution is current status. Unlike human beings, which have clearly defined births, lives, and deaths, these stations sometimes had very complicated histories, complete with resurrections, call sign and ownership changes, consolidations of two or more stations under a single call, and facility exchanges. Review of the station histories in Education's Own Stations will give a good idea of the tumultuous histories some of these stations enjoyed. With this caveat in mind, the status information was included to provide an overview of the fate of these stations, although a few station histories are too tangled to allow easy refinement to a single entry. A general standard for status entries was that, in case of doubt, the nod was given to interpretations which provide continuity and longevity. In particular, stations which were deleted but then immediately relicensed were treated as having a single unbroken lifespan, so deletion dates are those where the final unreversed deletion took place, and stations still active might have been deleted and then quickly relicensed somewhere along the way. Summary ------- The information presented will hopefully provide a more complete understanding of the policies of the period, and permit more detailed analysis of the development of the broadcast service. For instance, the list of new broadcast station grants shows the abrupt shift from the slow initial expansion of the service though November of 1921, with the first grants dominated by northeast and midwest radio equipment firms, to the popular expansion that began in December of 1921, when owners of all kinds sponsored stations. This popularization has every appearance of a rapidly spreading West Coast fad, as fully sixteen of the twenty-two grants made from December, 1921 to January 4, 1922 were for West Coast facilities. The 319 entries actually comprise only 317 different stations, because the Marshall-Gerken Company's WBAJ [202] in Toledo, OH was a relicensing of its deleted WDZ [37], and the Electric Lighting Supply Company's KNX [233] in Los Angeles, CA supplanted its earlier KGC [14]. According to my research, 90 of the 319 entries are listed as surviving to this day, although only as 88 different stations -- in addition to KGC and KNX being essentially the same station, WFI [94] and WDAR [286] in Philadelphia were consolidated in 1935, and are now WEAZ. Thus, based on the research list that follows, below are the 88 United States broadcast stations that date back to May, 1922 and have survived to today: OLDEST BROADCASTING STATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES ------------------------------------------------- # Auth Date Call/Freq City of Licence Research Entry == ========= ========= =================== ============== 01. 10/27/20 KDKA-1020 Pittsburgh, PA KDKA [1] 02. 05/--/21 WABC-770 New York, NY WJZ [2] 03. 09/15/21 WBZ-1030 Boston, MA WBZ [3] 04. 10/13/21 WWJ-950 Detroit, MI WBL [8] 05. 11/09/21 KYW-1060 Philadelphia, PA KYW [9] 06. 12/07/21 KWG-1230 Stockton, CA KWG [10] 07. 12/08/21 KNX-1070 Los Angeles, CA KGC [14] 08. 12/09/21 KCBS-740 San Francisco, CA KQW [21] 09. 01/09/22 KQV-1410 Pittsburgh, PA KQV [32] 10. 01/13/22 KUOM-770 Minneapolis, MN WLB [34] 11. 01/13/22 WHA-970 Madison, WI WHA [35] 12. 02/04/22 WGY-810 Schenectady, NY WGY [40] 13. 02/18/22 WOC-1420 Davenport, IA WOC [48] 14. 02/20/22 WOR-710 New York, NY WOR [49] 15. 02/21/22 WHK-1420 Cleveland, OH WHK [52] 16. 02/28/22 KAQQ-590 Spokane, WA KHQ [58] 17. 03/02/22 WLW-700 Cincinnati, OH WLW [62] 18. 03/09/22 KJR-950 Seattle, WA KJR [64] 19. 03/10/22 KDIA-1310 Oakland, CA KLS [65] 20. 03/10/22 KWKW-1330 Los Angeles, CA KJS [66] 21. 03/10/22 KLZ-560 Denver, CO KLZ [67] 22. 03/11/22 KBLX-1400 Berkeley, CA KRE [70] 23. 03/13/22 KAAM-1310 Dallas, TX WRR [71] 24. 03/14/22 KUSA-550 Saint Louis, MO KSD [76] 25. 03/14/22 WGR-550 Buffalo, NY WGR [77] 26. 03/14/22 KGU-760 Honolulu, HI KGU [78] 27. 03/15/22 WSB-750 Atlanta, GA WSB [82] 28. 03/16/22 WKY-930 Oklahoma City, OK WKY [87] 29. 03/18/22 WEVD-1050 New York, NY WHN [89] 30. 03/18/22 KKHJ-930 Los Angeles, CA KHJ [90] 31. 03/18/22 WBT-1110 Charlotte, NC WBT [92] 32. 03/18/22 WEAZ-560 Philadelphia, PA WFI [94] 33. 03/20/22 WIP-610 Philadelphia, PA WIP [96] 34. 03/21/22 KGW-620 Portland, OR KGW [102] 35. 03/22/22 KTRH-740 Houston, TX WCM [103] 36. 03/23/22 WEW-770 Saint Louis, MO WEW [109] 37 03/23/22 KMJ-580 Fresno, CA KMJ [111] 38. 03/28/22 WILL-580 Urbana, IL WRM [124] 39. 03/29/22 WMAQ-670 Chicago, IL WGU [129] 40. 03/30/22 KGY-1240 Olympia, WA KGY [133] 41. 03/30/22 KKMO-1360 Tacoma, WA KMO [135] 42. 03/31/22 KFI-640 Los Angeles, CA KFI [137] 43. 03/31/22 WWL-870 New Orleans, LA WWL [140] 44. 04/05/22 WBAA-920 West Lafayette, IN WBAA [144] 45. 04/05/22 KKOB-770 Albuquerque, NM KOB [146] 46. 04/05/22 WRTH-1430 Saint Louis, MO WEB [149] 47. 04/05/22 WDZ-1050 Decatur, IL WDZ [151] 48. 04/05/22 KMBZ-980 Kansas City, MO WPE [152] 49. 04/06/22 KKSU-580 Manhattan, KS WTG [159] 50. 04/07/22 WJPC-950 Chicago, IL WAAF [160] 51. 04/10/22 WNEW-1130 New York, NY WAAM [162] 52. 04/12/22 KBBT-970 Portland, OR KQP [177] 53. 04/17/22 WJBO-1150 Baton Rouge, LA WAAB [189] 54. 04/17/22 KNBR-680 San Francisco, CA KPO [190] 55. 04/19/22 KCRO-660 Omaha, NE WAAW [194] 56. 04/21/22 KSL-1160 Salt Lake City, UT KZN [197] 57. 04/22/22 KKFX-1250 Seattle, WA KTW [204] 58. 04/25/22 WSOY-1340 Decatur, IL WBAO [210] 59. 04/26/22 WBAP-820 Fort Worth, TX WBAP [215] 60. 04/28/22 WOI-640 Ames, IA WOI [216] 61. 04/29/22 WTVN-610 Columbus, OH WBAV [219] 62 04/29/22 WBAX-1240 Wilkes-Barre, PA WBAX [223] 63. 05/03/22 KNEW-910 Oakland, CA KLX [226] 64. 05/03/22 WTAE-1250 Pittsburgh, PA WCAE [229] 65. 05/04/22 WJR-760 Detroit, MI WCX [235] 66. 05/08/22 WCAO-600 Baltimore, MD WCAO [243] 67. 05/08/22 KCPX-1320 Salt Lake City, UT KDYL [244] 68 05/09/22 KTSA-550 San Antonio, TX WCAR [248] 69. 05/10/22 WOGL-1210 Philadelphia, PA WCAU [251] 70. 05/10/22 WHB-710 Kansas City, MO WHB [255] 71. 05/13/22 WVMT-620 Burlington, VT WCAX [259] 72. 05/13/22 WBNS-1460 Columbus, OH WCAH [263] 73. 05/15/22 WDAE-1250 Tampa, FL WDAE [264] 74. 05/15/22 WTMJ-620 Milwaukee, WI WCAY [266] 75 05/15/22 WCAZ-990 Carthage, IL WCAZ [270] 76. 05/16/22 WDAF-610 Kansas City, MO WDAF [273] 77. 05/16/22 KGNC-710 Amarillo, TX WDAG [274] 78. 05/19/22 WFAN-660 New York, NY WDAM [278] 79. 05/19/22 KEEL-710 Shreveport, LA WDAN [280] 80. 05/19/22 WGN-720 Chicago, IL WDAP [282] 81. 05/23/22 KULL-1300 Seattle, WA KDZE [292] 82. 05/23/22 WDAY-970 Fargo, ND WDAY [293] 83. 05/25/22 WFDF-910 Flint, MI WEAA [301] 84. 05/26/22 KFH-1330 Wichita, KS WEAH [305] 85. 05/27/22 KUSD-690 Vermillion, SD WEAJ [308] 86. 05/27/22 WHCU-870 Ithaca, NY WEAI [309] 87. 05/31/22 KTTS-1260 Springfield, MO WEAK [315] 88. 05/31/22 KHOW-630 Denver, CO KDZQ [317] Notes On Sources The Commerce Department's Call and Licensee card files were the main source for station information up to March, 1927. Additional information came from the FCC's "History Card" files, available at the FCC's Public Reference Room on the 2nd floor of 1919 M Street, NW, Washington, DC. This data was double-checked against a number of sources, including the Radio Service Bulletin grant, deletion, and cumulative station lists, original 761 Forms and station licences at the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, MD, and an undated "List of First Stations Licensed for Broadcasting" (through March, 1922, although it omits a number of stations licensed in March), which was prepared by unidentified FCC personnel, and obtained through the Broadcast Pioneers Library in Washington, DC. This article was from the pages of DX News, the magazine of the National Radio Club, Inc. (The World's Oldest & Largest Medium Wave DX Club). Reprint permission obtained from: Ken Chatterton, National Radio Club Publications, P.O. Box 164, Mannsville, NY 13661-0164 USA.