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Early Network Radio on Short Wave

G

Gregg

I just acquired a radio guide from 1939. Very interesting stuff, listing network and local shows for many stations in the Northeast and Central Atlantic states. Many station have the same call letters today, but some have since changed frequencies and output power.

I notice many of the CBS and NBC-Red network shows are not just on a line-up of local stations but are on a Short Wave frequency as well.

I suppose CBS and NBC were trying to fill in parts of the country that couldn't get a local AM signal. But I'm surprised individual stations allowed it. Anyone in their community who listened to the Short Wave broadcast bypassed the local station's commercials.

An article also mentioned NBC was planning to put a new short wave transmitter on top of a building at 450 Fifth Avenue in NYC. I guess this was before NBC moved to Rockefeller Center and "Radio City."

By the way, the listings go from 8am to 11:30pm each day. I guess most stations in those days were off the air from Midnight till 8am? Or most networks didn't provide national programming before 8am, so it would be too complicated to provide local listings for about 3 dozen stations before 8am?



Gregg
[email protected]
 
Gregg said:
I just acquired a radio guide from 1939. Very interesting stuff, listing network and local shows for many stations in the Northeast and Central Atlantic states. Many station have the same call letters today, but some have since changed frequencies and output power.

I notice many of the CBS and NBC-Red network shows are not just on a line-up of local stations but are on a Short Wave frequency as well.
Click to expand...

NBC had shortwave stations in NYC in the early '40s. The call letters were WRCA and WNBI. Here is a New Yorker archive from 1941 mentioning those two stations, as well as WRUL Boston. NBC also operated a shortwave station that transmitted from Dixon, CA in the '40s. I believe it was that station that was eventually taken over by VOA.

CBS originally owned the shortwave facility in Delano, CA that also was taken over by VOA. I think they also had a NYC outlet but I don't know what the call letters were.

I suppose CBS and NBC were trying to fill in parts of the country that couldn't get a local AM signal. But I'm surprised individual stations allowed it. Anyone in their community who listened to the Short Wave broadcast bypassed the local station's commercials.
Click to expand...

Or they could have been targeting Europe, the Pacific, and/or Latin America with their network fare and newscasts (there was no VOA before 1942). I don't know for sure, but I don't think the FCC was as local-market-protective in the '30s and '40s as they are today. And since probably the entire country was served by 50,000-watt network affiliates in addition to local stations, those locals probably had more to gripe about from the WBBMs and WEAFs of the world than any shortwave station.

An article also mentioned NBC was planning to put a new short wave transmitter on top of a building at 450 Fifth Avenue in NYC. I guess this was before NBC moved to Rockefeller Center and "Radio City."
Click to expand...

Probably for the aforementioned WRCA and/or WNBI.
 
KeithE4 said:
I suppose CBS and NBC were trying to fill in parts of the country that couldn't get a local AM signal. But I'm surprised individual stations allowed it. Anyone in their community who listened to the Short Wave broadcast bypassed the local station's commercials.
Click to expand...

Or they could have been targeting Europe, the Pacific, and/or Latin America with their network fare and newscasts (there was no VOA before 1942). I don't know for sure, but I don't think the FCC was as local-market-protective in the '30s and '40s as they are today. And since probably the entire country was served by 50,000-watt network affiliates in addition to local stations, those locals probably had more to gripe about from the WBBMs and WEAFs of the world than any shortwave station.
Click to expand...

The network shortwave transmitters were aimed mainly at Latin America and Europe.

An article also mentioned NBC was planning to put a new short wave transmitter on top of a building at 450 Fifth Avenue in NYC. I guess this was before NBC moved to Rockefeller Center and "Radio City."
Click to expand...

Probably for the aforementioned WRCA and/or WNBI.
[/quote]

Unlikely. NBC's shortwave transmitters were near Bound Brook, NJ at the site that was then shared with WJZ. After the government took over the private shortwave stations at the start of WWII, additional transmitters had to be added at Bound Brook, so WJZ was moved north to Lodi, to the site still used by its successor, WABC.

(CBS's East Coast shortwave operations were in Wayne, NJ, at the site that had been used by WABC - the original CBS WABC - before it was moved to Columbia Island off New Rochelle circa 1940.)

The "short wave" transmitters mentioned in the 1939 article may well have been programming relays (probably operating well up in the VHF bands, above what we'd now consider "shortwave") sending signals out to Bound Brook.

450 Fifth Ave. is not an address I've ever come across in my study of NYC broadcast history. Are you sure it wasn't "350 Fifth Ave.," which is the Empire State Building? It would have made perfect sense to use Empire as a relay point to get signals across to New Jersey, or to mount antennas for 26 MHz operation (at the upper end of today's shortwave spectrum). NBC would also have been operating an FM signal in the 40 MHz band in that era.

Radio City was in full swing by 1939. NBC had moved all of its studios there from its earlier 711 Fifth Ave. headquarters by 1932 or thereabouts.
 
...http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/1931sw.html shows several U.S. shortwave stations operating in 1931. Among them are W2XAD and W2XAF Schenectady, which I suspect retransmitted WGY; W8XK Pittsburgh, which may or may not have relayed KDKA; W3XAU Philadelphia, which, by the call sign, I'm assuming was a retransmitter for WCAU, thereby a CBS property; and W9XAA, owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, which retransmit WCFL, at the time one of three NBC Blue Network affiliates in Chicago...
 
KeithE4 said:
NBC had shortwave stations in NYC in the early '40s. The call letters were WRCA and WNBI. Here is a New Yorker archive from 1941 mentioning those two stations, as well as WRUL Boston. NBC also operated a shortwave station that transmitted from Dixon, CA in the '40s. I believe it was that station that was eventually taken over by VOA.

CBS originally owned the shortwave facility in Delano, CA that also was taken over by VOA. I think they also had a NYC outlet but I don't know what the call letters were.
Click to expand...

...http://members.aol.com/Jeff560/1947sw.html...
 
I just double-checked the article in the late July '39 "Radio Guide."

Even though it's listed under the title "Short Wave Shorts" on the short wave page, it IS about the future WNBC-FM. NBC is planning a 1000 watt transmitter on the top of 350 Fifth Avenue. (Interesting that the building is NOT called The Empire State Building.) And the station will broadcast at 42.8 "megs" in what the magazine calls "ultra-high frequency."

I remember that WNBC-FM listed it's sign-on date as 1939, NYC's first FM station, so this is it. I understand WQXR-FM and WNYC-FM were also among NYC's first FM's in the 40-somethings, before the band was moved to 88 to 108 kHz.

Also on this short wave page is an article that many short wave stations are getting regular broadcast call letters and losing their experimental calls. It mentions two stations in Schenectady becoming WGEA and WGEO. (The G.E. of course standing for General Electric. I wonder why G.E. got the calls WGY and not WGE for its Schenectady AM station?) And a station on Treasure Island, San Francisco gets the calls WGEI. (Not KGEI?)

Also mentioned, a Philadelphia SW station becoming WCAI (obviously a sister to WCAU) and one in Cincinnati getting the calls WLWO (obviously a sister to WLW).

It also gives the new call letters for a Pittsburgh SW station as WPIT. That one doesn't seem to be related to the three AM stations in Pittsburgh in the regular listings, 980 KDKA, 1220 WCAE or 1290 WJAS.

The article ends by saying RCA's W3XL and W3XLA and Columbia's W2XE (no locations given) will keep their experimental call letters for now.

CBS uses 21.57 in the morning, 15.27 in the afternoon and 11.83 in the evening. NBC uses 21.5 in the morning, 15.33 in the afternoon and 9.53 in the evening. Not all CBS shows have a SW listing. NBC also doesn't broadcast its entire schedule in SW either. And NBC's SW broadcast bounces between the Red and Blue networks.




Gregg
[email protected]
 
From the mid-30's to the end of WW2, shortwave was very common on radios, and stations used 2 or 3 frequencies throughout the day
to make the most of propogation changes with daylight. There was a good deal of interest in this direct-from-source listening,
as opposed to network feeds, for the same reason people enjoy picking up satellite network TV feeds.
The FCC never protected markets. Required protection of signals, yes. In those days there wasn't the kind of
market mentality as seen today, because AM's behavior was "normal" then. With long dx.

Getting huge coverage with a much smaller signal on SW was a simple decision for the big stations.
In the 30's wide regional or national coverage was something to aspire to and be proud of.
There were lots of active listeners.
When the war started, all these were relinquished to the US gov., who decided signals which could be heard internationally must
necessarily be stating the official line. The only standing instance of prior restraint of the press (otherwise unconstitutional) regards use of VOA transcripts, recordings, etc in "internal" US media. Transcripts may be viewed, excerpts used, but no wholesale reproduction or
broadcast of recordings. All materials aired on VOA are intended for exterior listening.

The very-high (40 Mhz) AM experimentals were intended to be wide-regional hi-fidelity similar to todays 88-108 Mhz.
The wide regional concept wasn't embraced by broadcast, who were more into local market service.
This range was also where FM rev 1 ran, also not accepted because of "too much skip".
With capture on FM it was horrifying to the early prospective buyers to hear one signal get
taken over by a distant signal.
 
This is a fascinating subject, as many old radios had shortwave bands on them - and some frequencies were even marked with the origin of the stations at the time (i.e. "London", "Paris", "Berlin").

And, there was an Abbott and Costello film ("Who Done It?") from 1942 that took place at the studios of a radio network in New York. There were live shows, rooms filled with transcriptions, and (of course) murder! Great movie! One of the scenes in the film features the premiere of the networks' short wave broadcasts (I think they said it was to South America). Of course, Costello was walking a tightrope between the towers when the juice went on!

Anyhow, that whetted my curiosity about shortwave broadcasting back then and if popular shows were really broadcast that way. Apparently, they were. So, shortwave broadcasting must have been more of a mainstream listening mode than it is today. I wonder what sorts of antennas those old radios used for AM and SW.....
 
One of the local stations had an interview with someone who used to work at CBS Radio and there was hardly anybody calling in to ask questions. So, I called in and asked about Paul White, the Director of News at CBS in the forties, and his "piano." The piano was a box with dials and switches that were connected with shortwave transmitters so that he, or others, could communicate with bureaus in foreign countries. There were different frequencies in use at various times of the day and to the various parts of the world.

I don't have time to look it up right now, but I recall a special Broadcasting Magazine that gave capsule summaries of important articles in their history on their 40th anniversary. There was something about a couple of radio networks beaming programming to South America. The blurb I read gave limited information, but finding the actual issue with that article would probably be next to impossible.

If I remember to look it up later I'll check it out and try to relay more information.

Sorry.

Mike
 
Thanks for the link. I've just spent two hours reading and enjoying the many photos they have, besides the info on SW network radio broadcasts. I've lived in the Wilmington Del. area all my life and really enjoyed re-living some of the great memories I have of Philly TV that is a major part of that web site.
 
I can't find my copy of the Broadcasting magazine 40th anniversary issue, but I do have the 50th anniversary issue at hand. (Oct. 12, 1981).

Here's an item they ran in the Set 8, 1941 issue:
1941 Sept 8 Completion of arrangement for 92-station Pan American Network to rebroadcast NBC programs shortwaved from U.S. is announced by John F. Royal, NBC vice-president on his return from six-week, 20,000-mile tour of Latin America.

I thought I had seen something similar with CBS, but that must have been in the 1971 recap. I'll keep looking.

Mike
 
Did WLWO ever operate as a WLW relay or was it taken by the VOA before it even operated? I remember WNYW Radio New York Worldwide with CBS News before they became WYFR
 
Do not remember WLWO being a WLW simulcast

(See Wikipedia on "Crosley Broadcasting Corporation"...or if you can find an old copy of the Dick Perry book "Not Just A Sound, The Story of WLW.")

WLWO was for the most part a unit of VOA's Bethany Relay site near Mason, Ohio since the transmitter was located there.

When Bethany Relay bit the dust so did WLWO. In all the years I listened to shortwave in the 80s and 90s I never ever heard the WLWO callsign mentioned.

Would have loved to see Bethany Relay sold to other broadcasters and stayed on the air instead of being razed for yet another Cincy strip mall. WLWO could have been a relay for EWTN or Radio Maria on shortwave. A piece of radio broadcasting history is now gone. At least a Bethany Relay museum should have opened at the site..heard talk about it ..but nothing materialized when I visited there in hopes of seeing a tribute/museum site in the summer of 2001.
 
Actually part of the grounds is now a park known as VOA park and the transmitter building is still there as a museum and meeting area.
 
In listening to shortwave radio in the 1960's, I heard the VOA callsign of WLWO. As close as I was to that location - probably 15 miles or so by air - it seemed so distant, like much of the other things heard on shortwave. However, I never heard the ID include the mention of Bethany - just WLWO. On the other hand, when you heard the other VOA transmitters in Greensboro, North Carolina or Delano, California, it gave the city and state.

On a related matter, I was once told that the VOA north of Cincinnati was really not in Bethany, but was referred to that way to differentiate it from the nearby powerful WLW transmitter. I have read and was told that for a time, engineers from WLW also help operate the VOA facility and some of WLW's relay eqipment was located on the VOA property. One explantion for the location of a VOA facility in this part of the country was it was less vulnerable to enemy attack than those on the east and west coasts.
 
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