A WHK question

[johnbasalla]

WHK has been sharing that they were Ohio's first radio station, signing on the air in 1922. So, why didn't they become a big, maybe 50,000 watt station, who wouldn't have to go down in power, and/or go directional at night?

 

[davideduardo]

WHK has been sharing that they were Ohio's first radio station, signing on the air in 1922. So, why didn't they become a big, maybe 50,000 watt station, who wouldn't have to go down in power, and/or go directional at night?

None of the early stations were 50 kw. That power level did not develop until the later 20's under the FRC (The FCC's predecessor). Initially, stations were low power and in the earliest time, all shared one or several frequencies. By the time some stations could increase power, the band was fuller and not everyone even applied.

In 1928 or so, 1 kw was enough to cover most larger cities. Many regional channel stations were non-directional 1 kw, and while lots of them went to 5 kw later, that often required directional systems. Such a case was on 620 where Milwaukee and Tampa wanted 5 kw, and to avoid interference, the directional antenna system was developed... allowing many 1 kw stations to go to a full 5 kw.

You can look at early station lists here: https://worldradiohistory.com/Radio_Log_Master_Page.htm

You can also look at early 50's maps of station patterns at https://worldradiohistory.com/Archi...Mutual-Standard-Broadcast-Allocation-Maps.pdf

 

[skiwest]

Several years ago, I emailed Ted Alexander about some radio questions I had. In his response, he mentioned that WHK had an opportunity to increase their power to 50 kW a long time ago, but they never did it.