Information please; history of AM Daytimers

[jimoneal]

Having spent a majority of my terrestrial radio career at smaller AM facilities of 5,000 watts or less; I have lately become interested in researching in the origins of daytimers. So far I have come up short in finding any solid information on when the FCC began authorizing sunrise to sunset broadcasting. Does anyone know a reliable resource of this history and why the government began this practice?

 

[kruxman]

The primary reason for daytimer only AM's was to protect clear channel frequencies at night. If you want a history of specific AM stations that were/are daytimers, I doubt that anything exists. Here is what the FCC says about daytimers:

For the most part, the basic structure of the FCC's original frequency plan has remained unchanged over the past several decades. Additional stations gradually have been permitted to operate on the clear channels. In order to preserve the wide-area nighttime service provided by the dominant clear channel stations, when nighttime operation is permitted, many of these these stations are required to use directional antennas in order to protect the dominant clear channel station from interference to its nighttime skywave service area. Most of these stations are also required to reduce power at night, to avoid causing interference to the dominant stations and to each other. Other stations, which cannot afford the necessary protection at night to other AM stations, are presently licensed to operate during the daytime hours only. (New daytime-only stations are no longer being authorized, since December 1, 1987.)

 

[hrhwebmaster]

Here's a topic that I started a couple of years ago that drew a helpful response. So far as I know from my own research in the Houston market, AMs sprung up only after WWII. (but of course there were many stations in the 20s that operated only limited hours).

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=96625.0

Another factor might have been the availability of cheaper, table top radios in plastic or metal cabinets, replacing the big console sets that had been common before the war. This was fueled in part by a shortage of wood for cabinet making (and housing) after the war. Seems to me it might have encouraged some potential broadcasters to jump into the fray to take advantage of those additional sets as listening might no longer have meant an entire family gathered around one big set in the living room and there was the possibility of more formats being successful.

 

[w9wi]

Having spent a majority of my terrestrial radio career at smaller AM facilities of 5,000 watts or less; I have lately become interested in researching in the origins of daytimers. So far I have come up short in finding any solid information on when the FCC began authorizing sunrise to sunset broadcasting. Does anyone know a reliable resource of this history and why the government began this practice?

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/decdoc/radio_service_bulletins.html , select the September 1928 Bulletin.

It contains FRC Order #41, which defines a "daytimer". I believe this definition went into effect with the Nov. 11, 1928 effective date of massive changes to AM regulations & allocations. (see Order #40, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_40


The FRC inherited a bit of a mess. The Commerce Department had been regulating radio, but the Supreme Court ruled the Department didn't have the authority to deny a license to an otherwise-qualified applicant merely because there was no frequency available. They ended up with far more stations licensed than there was room.

When the FRC was established, they *did* have the power to deny licenses. But they were VERY reluctant to do it. (I suppose they knew any deleted stations would go screaming to Congress) They had to find a way to jam the 60 pounds of existing stations into the available 30-pound sack. In many cases, this involved time-sharing: two or more stations splitting time on the same frequency in the same area.

In a few cases, it involved daytime-only licenses. In the November 1929 Radio Service Bulletin, I count 35 daytimers. (34, if you count the two Decorah, Iowa stations that shared a daytime-only assignment as a single station) Many of these were non-commercial operations. Of the 35, I count 12 owned by educational institutions, and three more owned by churches.

Broadcast hours were considerably more limited at the time. All-night broadcasting was very rare until after WW2; in the 1920s, many stations didn't broadcast all day, and some didn't even broadcast every day. I wouldn't rule out the possibility some of these stations *volunteered* for daytime-only licenses.

 

[kruxman]

If my memory is correct, the extension of the AM broadcast band from 1600 to 1710, had three primary goals, to make more frequencies available for minority ownership, to reduce congestion, and to do away with daytime-only stations.

 

[davideduardo]

The primary reason for daytimer only AM's was to protect clear channel frequencies at night. If you want a history of specific AM stations that were/are daytimers, I doubt that anything exists.

You can look at Broadcasting Yearbooks back to 1935 and Radio Annual from 1939, and there are station listings for every station at www.americanradiohistory.com There are also more specialized radio fan publications like Whites and Radex that list every US station.

I find daytimers both on the regional channels (550, 560, etc) and the clears in 1935. Nothing I have from before 1935 identifies daytimers. If you look at the lists, remember that stations and channels above 750 kcs were moved by the NARBA pact that went into effect in 1942.

 

[w9wi]

I find daytimers both on the regional channels (550, 560, etc) and the clears in 1935. Nothing I have from before 1935 identifies daytimers. If you look at the lists, remember that stations and channels above 750 kcs were moved by the NARBA pact that went into effect in 1942.

David, the November 1930 RADEX on your site lists a number of daytimers -- marked with a "D" in the network column between the power and the city.

The November 9, 1929 Radio Service Bulletin on the FCC website similarly identifies a number of daytimers.

I would expect RADEXs from earlier in 1929 would list daytimers? (having a rather slow connection, I haven't been able to look for them on your site)

 

[joepa4ever]

I stumbled onto a history of early radio recently that cited Saint Louis' 770/WEW as an example of a daytime-only AM that began broadcasting in 1922. The general explanation was that even in radio's infancy, it became obvious almost immediately that interference was an enormous problem... and that "daytimer" status was an early attempt to minimize the problem. (Or, from the broadcaster's perspective, perhaps, avoid interference).

 

[fybush]

I can find no evidence of WEW being a daytimer prior to 1928. The earliest edition of RADEX on David's site, from October 1926, shows WEW as one of three stations still operating on the old 360 meter channel where broadcast radio began. It's shown with 1000 watts on 360 meters (833 kc), with no indication of any daytime-only restriction. The only other stations still on the channel were WPAP/WQAO in the New York City area.

By 1928, just before General Order 40 took effect, WEW was on 850 kc, which appears to have been the rough equivalent of a "regional" channel in the days before those designations were used. It had 1000 watts, with no indication of daytime-only operation, with three other (fairly prominent) stations on the channel: KLZ Denver, WWJ Detroit and KYA San Francisco.

General Order 40 didn't quite get all of those stations to their final places, but it got them close: KLZ landed on 560, where it's been ever since. KYA landed on 1220, a regional channel, and would shift once more, to 1230, before ending up on 1260 where it remained. WWJ actually got a clear channel out of the deal: it went to 820, and had the channel to itself, but that didn't last long before WHAS took the 820 clear and WWJ went to 920, which morphed to 950 in NARBA.

And WEW? General Order 40 landed it on 760 kc, where its only co-channel neighbor was WJZ in New York. The 1928 RADEX showing the General Order 40 changes doesn't identify WEW's operation on 760 as a daytime-only license, but I believe it had to have been the case, if not right away in 1928 then pretty quickly thereafter, since WJZ on 760 had the channel completely clear at night.

Indeed, even after the NARBA shift to 770, the channel-sharing that was put in place by General Order 40 remains in place today: WEW as a 1000-watt daytimer, WJZ (WABC) as the I-A clear.

(Yes, I'm well aware of the long, bitter fight between WABC and KOB for that I-A status, but that's irrelevant to WEW!)

 

[joepa4ever]

Thanks, Scott! That's a great history of WEW--and the early machinations of the feds to try to organize what apparently was quite a mess 80-some years ago.

I gather that WEW now has a CP to go fulltime with 200 watts from across the river--and 10kw daytime. With all due respect, it's hard to imagine those folks will ever see that engineering/construction money again, but I guess we should admire their entrepreneurial spirit (of St. Louis)!

 

[gr8oldies]

Seems I remember WDZ-1050 Decatur IL claiming to be the U.S.'s oldest daytimer..think when they were celebrating an anniversary.

 

[w9wi]

Seems I remember WDZ-1050 Decatur IL claiming to be the U.S.'s oldest daytimer..think when they were celebrating an anniversary.

I don't at all doubt WDZ *claimed* to be the oldest daytimer, but I think one can reasonably presume it's *not* the oldest daytimer.

I think there are two reasonable definitions of "oldest daytimer", and I would suggest WDZ doesn't qualify by either definition:

1. Among all stations holding a "daytimer" (Class D) license today, which one was licensed first?

In a number of places (including a Historical Society plaque posted outside their building...) WHA-970 Madison, Wis. claims to be the first broadcasting station. Most experts (including the WHA employees who wrote the station's history) cede the honor to KDKA. They do, however make a good case for WHA as the second station.

WHA has been a daytimer since at least November 1929, and still holds a Class D license today.

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2. Which station -- which may have been previously licensed for fulltime operation -- first received a license specifying daytime operation only?

I think Scott pulled this info up on another thread as well.. it appears that a number of daytimers (roughly three dozen) were created simultaneously when the band was refarmed in November 1928. WDZ was one of them - but there were about 35 more. You could argue that there was a 36-way tie for first daytimer...

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(FWIW, WDZ isn't a daytimer anymore... they now hold a Class B license, since 1999 I think.)

 

[Bob1370]

All sorts of stations began as daytimers before the days when directional antennas were proven. (The first one was WSUN/620 in Tampa/St.Petersburg in 1932; it was able to go fulltime after the DA meant it no longer had to shut up at night to protect WTMJ in Milwaukee.) The station I work for now, WXXI-AM 1370 in Rochester, NY began as 250 watt daytimer WSAY in 1936 on 1210 kHz, but eventually wound up as a 5 KW-U, DA-N facility further up the dial in 1947 and runs the same 5 kW using the same four towers (in a somewhat looser night pattern) today.