Here is a broadcasting quiz. I got help compiling this info from Wikipedia, Broadcasting Yearbook and other sources. Answers below.
1. What is the highest power AM station in the U.S.?
2. What is the highest power AM station in North America?
3. Did any American AM station ever have "superpower" status?
4. What powerful American AM station has no call letters?
5. What is the highest power FM station in North America?
6. What is the oldest radio station in North America?
7. What is the oldest radio station in New York City?
8. What is the oldest TV station in North America?
9. When did the first radio commercial air?
10. When did the first TV commercial air?
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1. Highest Power AM Station in the U.S.... 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami - 100,000 watts. Radio Martí is owned and operated by the
U.S. Board of Broadcasting Governors. It has a very directional signal aimed at Cuba from the Florida Keys, although it can be picked up in
some parts of Southern Florida. All AM stations licensed by the FCC and Canada's CRTC are limited to 50,000 watts. But Radio Martí is not
subject to FCC rules. Its transmitter is in Marathon, Florida, with its studios in Miami.
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2. Highest Power AM Station in North America... It had been 900 XEW Mexico City, at 250,000 watts. But in 2016, XEW relocated its
tower and reduced power to 100,000 watts. There are nine stations in North America, eight of them in Mexico, that broadcast at 100,000
watts. XEWA San Luis Potosí is listed at 150,000 watts, although some DXers think it is no longer running that high power.
a) 540 XEWA San Luis Potosí -- 150,000 watts
b) 730 XEX Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
c) 900 XEW Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
d) 1050 XEG Monterrey -- 100,000 watts
e) 1060 XEEP Mexico City -- 100,000 watts days/50,000 watts nights
f) 1110 XERED Mexico City -- 100,000 watts days/50,000 watts nights
g) 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami -- 100,000 watts
h) 1220 XEB Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
i) 1570 XERF Ciudad Acuña -- 100,000 watts
Could there be an even higher power station in Cuba on 1180, jamming Radio Martí? Cuba doesn't report the power of its stations so we
don't know.
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3. Superpower AM Station... In 1934, 700 WLW Cincinnati got special FCC permission to run 500,000 watts. But other stations
complained about interference and being at a competitive disadvantage, so authorization was withdrawn in 1939. General Electric
experimented at times with 100 kw and 200 kw broadcasts on WGY Schenectady, but those never became permanent.
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4. No Call Letters... 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami. It operates outside the jurisdiction of the FCC so it has no call sign.
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5. Highest Power FM station in North America... 93.7 WBCT Grand Rapids broadcasts with 320,000 watts from a 720 foot tower. Two
Canadian stations come close: 97.5 CJKR Winnipeg runs 310,000 watts, but from a tower only 320 feet tall. And 96.9 CKOI is powered at
307,000 watts from a 710 foot tower in downtown Montreal. It will soon be moving to a tower atop Mount Royal at nearly 1000 feet, so it
will drop its power when that takes place. 94.9 WHOM Mount Washington NH-Portland ME claims to have the largest coverage of any FM
station in North America, hitting five states and two provinces (NH, ME, VT, MA, NY, Que., Ont.). It runs 48,000 watts from the highest peak
in the Northeast, more than 3700 feet above average terrain. The building housing WHOM's transmitter is tied down with chains due to high
winds on Mount Washington.
The most powerful FM station on the West Coast is 103.3 KVYB Santa Barbara, 105,000 watts on a tower nearly 3000 feet above average
terrain. But much of its signal falls on the Pacific Ocean. Several Denver stations run 100,000 watts from towers 1100 feet above average
terrain... which means they are more than 7000 feet above sea level and can be heard well over 100 miles away. Several Colorado Springs
and Pueblo stations run 50 to 70 kw from towers that are over 9000 feet above sea level. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, some FM stations
run 20 to 94 kw from more than 10,000 feet above sea level. By contrast, most New York City FM stations run around 6,000 watts from the
Empire State Building, apx. 1400 feet tall.
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5. Oldest Radio Station in North America... The history books give this honor to KDKA Pittsburgh, licensed by the FCC as a commercial radio
station in 1921 and broadcasting continuously to this day. But several stations make other claims...
--1907, 9BC Rock Island, Illinois, now 1420 WOC Davenport, Iowa (both communities part of the Quad Cities), starts experimenting with
Morse Code, and later with voice transmissions, although the station has not been on the air continuously to this day, due to World War I.
--1909, KCBS San Francisco, originally KQW San Jose, begins broadcasting voice transmissions as an experimental wireless telephone
service. (One of the men involved in putting the station on the air went on "I've Got A Secret" with Steve Allen in the 1960s. He looked to
be in his 80s. His secret was that his was "the first voice heard on radio" according to the show's producers.)
--1911, Iowa State University sets up a Morse Code station, as 9YI. It broadcasts an hour of concert music in 1921 and in 1922 it becomes
the first fully-licensed non-commercial station west of the Mississippi, as WOI Ames.
--1911, University of Iowa also begins transmitting Morse Code as 9YA. It starts voice broadcasts in 1919 and gets a full non-commercial
license in 1922. Today it is WSUI Iowa City.
--1911, The Mallory Battery Company of Lincoln IL begins transmitting Morse Code. By 1924, the station is commercially licensed as WBBM
Chicago, with the call letters standing for World's Best Battery Maker.
--1912, General Electric begins experimental broadcasts as 2XI at its facility in Schenectady NY. This becomes WGY, which gets its
commercial license on February 20, 1922.
--1912, 9ZP Pierre SD gets an experimental license to begin Morse Code transmissions. The station then starts voice transmissions as 9CLS
in 1916 and today that same station is 1060 KGFX.
--1912, The University of Texas begins experimenting with Morse Code and gets its experimental license on March 22, 1921 as 5XU. In 1922,
it becomes WCM, used both by students and agriculture officials to broadcast crop prices and weather. It later switches to the call sign KUT.
But the license was sold by the university to a private broadcaster, who moved it to Houston and is today KTRH.
--1912, St. Louis University starts transmitting Morse Code as 9YK. It begins audio broadcasts in 1921 and on March 23, 1922, gets its
commercial license as WEW. WEW says it's the second oldest radio station in the U.S. and the oldest west of the Mississippi River
(although KCBS, WSUI and WOI all started experimenting west of the Mississippi before WEW).
--1912, University of Minnesota starts a Morse Code station on its Minneapolis campus. In 1919, the station becomes WX2, used to train
soldiers returning from World War I. In 1921, it broadcasts a college football game as 9XI. In 1922, it becomes fully licensed as WLB and
today is 770 KUOM.
--1915, University of Wisconsin's 9XM, now 970 WHA Madison, gets its experimental license, at first transmitting Morse Code. Despite WWI
ending radio experiments in many locations, 9XM is allowed to continue providing weather reports to ships on the Great Lakes throughout
the war, so it's been in continuous operation more than 100 years.
--1915, Dr. William D. Reynolds begins transmitting Morse Code as 9WH in Minneapolis, then moves to Colorado Springs, transmitting as
9JE and airing nightly classical concerts beginning in 1920. Today that station is 560 KLZ Denver.
--1916, Frank Conrad puts 8XK on the air in Wilkinsburg, PA. See "History of KDKA" below.
--1917, the James Bush Grain Elevator Company of Tuscola IL begins broadcasting agricultural prices as 9JR. It later begins playing music
in between its farm reports and in 1922 it becomes WDZ Decatur, now on 1050 AM.
--1919, 8ZAE Pittsburgh begins broadcasting, later becoming KQV. It says it beat KDKA on the air by more than a year, although KQV didn't
get its commercial license until 1922, a year after KDKA. KQV signs off on December 31, 2017, with its new owner planning its return.
--1919, XWA Montréal goes on the air, with the call letters standing for "eXperimental Wireless Apparatus." By May 1920, it has a regular
weekly schedule, months before KDKA. It later becomes CFCF, often saying it was "Canada's First Station."
--1920, 8MK Detroit, now WWJ, begins broadcasting what it says were the nation's first regularly-scheduled radio newscasts and religious
programs, before KDKA had a regular schedule.
--1921, WBZ Boston, originally in Springfield MA, says it got its commercial license on September 15, more than a month before KDKA.
As for the "History of KDKA," Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad, using his own time and funds, puts 8XK on the air in 1916 from his
garage in Wilkinsburg PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. People in Pittsburgh begin buying radios to hear his nightly broadcasts of records and
talk. As 8XK grows in popularity, Westinghouse notices and asks Conrad to help construct a company-owned radio station at its plant in
East Pittsburgh, going on the air in 1920. The following year it got its commercial license as KDKA. If we say KDKA only started in 1920,
that was years later than many other stations. Can we say KDKA was the successor to 8XK, beginning in 1916? Is KDKA is the oldest
radio station, still operating today? Or should we specify that KDKA was the first "commercially-licensed" station, which means it is only
one of many American radio stations with "firsts"?
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7. New York's oldest radio station is WABC. The station, started by Westinghouse, went on the air as WJZ Newark in October 1921. While
WABC signed on eleven months after co-owned KDKA, both stations got their commercial license on the same day. WOR (then owned by
Bamberger's Department Store in Newark), WFAN (originally AT&T's WEAF, later WNBC) and WEPN (then WHN), all got their commercial
licenses the following year. WCBS (originally WAHG, later WABC, but not related to today's WABC) and WINS (originally WGBS, which
stood for Gimbel Brothers Department Store) signed on in 1924.
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8. Oldest TV Station in North America... W2XB, unofficially called WGY-TV, now WRGB 6, started experimental video broadcasts at the
General Electric complex in Schenectady in January 1928. The station is credited with airing the first TV drama when it televised a
community theater play. In March 1929, RCA started W2XBS New York (later WNBT, then WRCA-TV, now WNBC). To coincide with the
NY World's Fair, in 1939 it began broadcasting a daily schedule. In 1931, CBS started W2XAB, later WCBW, now WCBS-TV. It
set up studios on Madison Avenue, with broadcasts featuring Kate Smith and George Gershwin. Also in 1931, VE9VC Montréal,
co-owned by CKAC Radio, became Canada's first experimental TV station, although it took until 1952 for Canada to get its first
permanent TV station, CBFT 2 Montréal.
So they would each have the same starting date, the FCC granted America's first full commercial TV licenses to both NBC's WNBT and
CBS's WCBW on July 1, 1941, although WNBT beat WCBW on the air by an hour. (In those days, there was no "-TV" suffix. Both
stations took call letters similar to their sister AM stations, WNBC and WCBS.)
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9. First Radio Commercial. The first radio commercial for trade, not cash, may have been on 8XK Wilkinsburg PA, the forerunner to
KDKA, run from a garage at the home of Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad. In 1919, a Pittsburgh music store agreed to give Conrad
a phonograph and records if he would credit the business on the air. In 1922, WEAF New York, now WFAN, broadcast what may have
been the first paid radio commercial. WEAF was commissioned by a new apartment complex in Jackson Heights, Queens, near the
just-completed #7 subway line, to air a ten minute talk seeking tenants.
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10. First TV Commercial. On the same day it got its commercial license, July 1, 1941, WNBT New York (now WNBC) aired the first TV
commercial, a ticking watch with the words "Bulova Watch Time" on the screen.
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1. What is the highest power AM station in the U.S.?
2. What is the highest power AM station in North America?
3. Did any American AM station ever have "superpower" status?
4. What powerful American AM station has no call letters?
5. What is the highest power FM station in North America?
6. What is the oldest radio station in North America?
7. What is the oldest radio station in New York City?
8. What is the oldest TV station in North America?
9. When did the first radio commercial air?
10. When did the first TV commercial air?
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1. Highest Power AM Station in the U.S.... 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami - 100,000 watts. Radio Martí is owned and operated by the
U.S. Board of Broadcasting Governors. It has a very directional signal aimed at Cuba from the Florida Keys, although it can be picked up in
some parts of Southern Florida. All AM stations licensed by the FCC and Canada's CRTC are limited to 50,000 watts. But Radio Martí is not
subject to FCC rules. Its transmitter is in Marathon, Florida, with its studios in Miami.
-----------------------
2. Highest Power AM Station in North America... It had been 900 XEW Mexico City, at 250,000 watts. But in 2016, XEW relocated its
tower and reduced power to 100,000 watts. There are nine stations in North America, eight of them in Mexico, that broadcast at 100,000
watts. XEWA San Luis Potosí is listed at 150,000 watts, although some DXers think it is no longer running that high power.
a) 540 XEWA San Luis Potosí -- 150,000 watts
b) 730 XEX Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
c) 900 XEW Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
d) 1050 XEG Monterrey -- 100,000 watts
e) 1060 XEEP Mexico City -- 100,000 watts days/50,000 watts nights
f) 1110 XERED Mexico City -- 100,000 watts days/50,000 watts nights
g) 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami -- 100,000 watts
h) 1220 XEB Mexico City -- 100,000 watts
i) 1570 XERF Ciudad Acuña -- 100,000 watts
Could there be an even higher power station in Cuba on 1180, jamming Radio Martí? Cuba doesn't report the power of its stations so we
don't know.
------------------------
3. Superpower AM Station... In 1934, 700 WLW Cincinnati got special FCC permission to run 500,000 watts. But other stations
complained about interference and being at a competitive disadvantage, so authorization was withdrawn in 1939. General Electric
experimented at times with 100 kw and 200 kw broadcasts on WGY Schenectady, but those never became permanent.
-------------------
4. No Call Letters... 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon-Miami. It operates outside the jurisdiction of the FCC so it has no call sign.
-------------------
5. Highest Power FM station in North America... 93.7 WBCT Grand Rapids broadcasts with 320,000 watts from a 720 foot tower. Two
Canadian stations come close: 97.5 CJKR Winnipeg runs 310,000 watts, but from a tower only 320 feet tall. And 96.9 CKOI is powered at
307,000 watts from a 710 foot tower in downtown Montreal. It will soon be moving to a tower atop Mount Royal at nearly 1000 feet, so it
will drop its power when that takes place. 94.9 WHOM Mount Washington NH-Portland ME claims to have the largest coverage of any FM
station in North America, hitting five states and two provinces (NH, ME, VT, MA, NY, Que., Ont.). It runs 48,000 watts from the highest peak
in the Northeast, more than 3700 feet above average terrain. The building housing WHOM's transmitter is tied down with chains due to high
winds on Mount Washington.
The most powerful FM station on the West Coast is 103.3 KVYB Santa Barbara, 105,000 watts on a tower nearly 3000 feet above average
terrain. But much of its signal falls on the Pacific Ocean. Several Denver stations run 100,000 watts from towers 1100 feet above average
terrain... which means they are more than 7000 feet above sea level and can be heard well over 100 miles away. Several Colorado Springs
and Pueblo stations run 50 to 70 kw from towers that are over 9000 feet above sea level. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, some FM stations
run 20 to 94 kw from more than 10,000 feet above sea level. By contrast, most New York City FM stations run around 6,000 watts from the
Empire State Building, apx. 1400 feet tall.
----------------------
5. Oldest Radio Station in North America... The history books give this honor to KDKA Pittsburgh, licensed by the FCC as a commercial radio
station in 1921 and broadcasting continuously to this day. But several stations make other claims...
--1907, 9BC Rock Island, Illinois, now 1420 WOC Davenport, Iowa (both communities part of the Quad Cities), starts experimenting with
Morse Code, and later with voice transmissions, although the station has not been on the air continuously to this day, due to World War I.
--1909, KCBS San Francisco, originally KQW San Jose, begins broadcasting voice transmissions as an experimental wireless telephone
service. (One of the men involved in putting the station on the air went on "I've Got A Secret" with Steve Allen in the 1960s. He looked to
be in his 80s. His secret was that his was "the first voice heard on radio" according to the show's producers.)
--1911, Iowa State University sets up a Morse Code station, as 9YI. It broadcasts an hour of concert music in 1921 and in 1922 it becomes
the first fully-licensed non-commercial station west of the Mississippi, as WOI Ames.
--1911, University of Iowa also begins transmitting Morse Code as 9YA. It starts voice broadcasts in 1919 and gets a full non-commercial
license in 1922. Today it is WSUI Iowa City.
--1911, The Mallory Battery Company of Lincoln IL begins transmitting Morse Code. By 1924, the station is commercially licensed as WBBM
Chicago, with the call letters standing for World's Best Battery Maker.
--1912, General Electric begins experimental broadcasts as 2XI at its facility in Schenectady NY. This becomes WGY, which gets its
commercial license on February 20, 1922.
--1912, 9ZP Pierre SD gets an experimental license to begin Morse Code transmissions. The station then starts voice transmissions as 9CLS
in 1916 and today that same station is 1060 KGFX.
--1912, The University of Texas begins experimenting with Morse Code and gets its experimental license on March 22, 1921 as 5XU. In 1922,
it becomes WCM, used both by students and agriculture officials to broadcast crop prices and weather. It later switches to the call sign KUT.
But the license was sold by the university to a private broadcaster, who moved it to Houston and is today KTRH.
--1912, St. Louis University starts transmitting Morse Code as 9YK. It begins audio broadcasts in 1921 and on March 23, 1922, gets its
commercial license as WEW. WEW says it's the second oldest radio station in the U.S. and the oldest west of the Mississippi River
(although KCBS, WSUI and WOI all started experimenting west of the Mississippi before WEW).
--1912, University of Minnesota starts a Morse Code station on its Minneapolis campus. In 1919, the station becomes WX2, used to train
soldiers returning from World War I. In 1921, it broadcasts a college football game as 9XI. In 1922, it becomes fully licensed as WLB and
today is 770 KUOM.
--1915, University of Wisconsin's 9XM, now 970 WHA Madison, gets its experimental license, at first transmitting Morse Code. Despite WWI
ending radio experiments in many locations, 9XM is allowed to continue providing weather reports to ships on the Great Lakes throughout
the war, so it's been in continuous operation more than 100 years.
--1915, Dr. William D. Reynolds begins transmitting Morse Code as 9WH in Minneapolis, then moves to Colorado Springs, transmitting as
9JE and airing nightly classical concerts beginning in 1920. Today that station is 560 KLZ Denver.
--1916, Frank Conrad puts 8XK on the air in Wilkinsburg, PA. See "History of KDKA" below.
--1917, the James Bush Grain Elevator Company of Tuscola IL begins broadcasting agricultural prices as 9JR. It later begins playing music
in between its farm reports and in 1922 it becomes WDZ Decatur, now on 1050 AM.
--1919, 8ZAE Pittsburgh begins broadcasting, later becoming KQV. It says it beat KDKA on the air by more than a year, although KQV didn't
get its commercial license until 1922, a year after KDKA. KQV signs off on December 31, 2017, with its new owner planning its return.
--1919, XWA Montréal goes on the air, with the call letters standing for "eXperimental Wireless Apparatus." By May 1920, it has a regular
weekly schedule, months before KDKA. It later becomes CFCF, often saying it was "Canada's First Station."
--1920, 8MK Detroit, now WWJ, begins broadcasting what it says were the nation's first regularly-scheduled radio newscasts and religious
programs, before KDKA had a regular schedule.
--1921, WBZ Boston, originally in Springfield MA, says it got its commercial license on September 15, more than a month before KDKA.
As for the "History of KDKA," Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad, using his own time and funds, puts 8XK on the air in 1916 from his
garage in Wilkinsburg PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. People in Pittsburgh begin buying radios to hear his nightly broadcasts of records and
talk. As 8XK grows in popularity, Westinghouse notices and asks Conrad to help construct a company-owned radio station at its plant in
East Pittsburgh, going on the air in 1920. The following year it got its commercial license as KDKA. If we say KDKA only started in 1920,
that was years later than many other stations. Can we say KDKA was the successor to 8XK, beginning in 1916? Is KDKA is the oldest
radio station, still operating today? Or should we specify that KDKA was the first "commercially-licensed" station, which means it is only
one of many American radio stations with "firsts"?
--------------
7. New York's oldest radio station is WABC. The station, started by Westinghouse, went on the air as WJZ Newark in October 1921. While
WABC signed on eleven months after co-owned KDKA, both stations got their commercial license on the same day. WOR (then owned by
Bamberger's Department Store in Newark), WFAN (originally AT&T's WEAF, later WNBC) and WEPN (then WHN), all got their commercial
licenses the following year. WCBS (originally WAHG, later WABC, but not related to today's WABC) and WINS (originally WGBS, which
stood for Gimbel Brothers Department Store) signed on in 1924.
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8. Oldest TV Station in North America... W2XB, unofficially called WGY-TV, now WRGB 6, started experimental video broadcasts at the
General Electric complex in Schenectady in January 1928. The station is credited with airing the first TV drama when it televised a
community theater play. In March 1929, RCA started W2XBS New York (later WNBT, then WRCA-TV, now WNBC). To coincide with the
NY World's Fair, in 1939 it began broadcasting a daily schedule. In 1931, CBS started W2XAB, later WCBW, now WCBS-TV. It
set up studios on Madison Avenue, with broadcasts featuring Kate Smith and George Gershwin. Also in 1931, VE9VC Montréal,
co-owned by CKAC Radio, became Canada's first experimental TV station, although it took until 1952 for Canada to get its first
permanent TV station, CBFT 2 Montréal.
So they would each have the same starting date, the FCC granted America's first full commercial TV licenses to both NBC's WNBT and
CBS's WCBW on July 1, 1941, although WNBT beat WCBW on the air by an hour. (In those days, there was no "-TV" suffix. Both
stations took call letters similar to their sister AM stations, WNBC and WCBS.)
------------------
9. First Radio Commercial. The first radio commercial for trade, not cash, may have been on 8XK Wilkinsburg PA, the forerunner to
KDKA, run from a garage at the home of Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad. In 1919, a Pittsburgh music store agreed to give Conrad
a phonograph and records if he would credit the business on the air. In 1922, WEAF New York, now WFAN, broadcast what may have
been the first paid radio commercial. WEAF was commissioned by a new apartment complex in Jackson Heights, Queens, near the
just-completed #7 subway line, to air a ten minute talk seeking tenants.
-------------------
10. First TV Commercial. On the same day it got its commercial license, July 1, 1941, WNBT New York (now WNBC) aired the first TV
commercial, a ticking watch with the words "Bulova Watch Time" on the screen.
--------------------
