
                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.

