Old WMAK Transmitter Site

[SirRoxalot]

WikiPedia lists WMAK as a predecessor to WBEN, and has a sign-on date of September, 1922.

The entry also credits WMAK with an early foray into television:

"In 1928, then-WMAK joined with WGY in Schenectady to demonstrate television technology."

Here's a link to the WikiPedia Article.

 

[Buehly]

Thanks above to SirRoxalot for the info.... Didn't modify my original post in time to be more clear, so here it is.... Good to see it is listed as September, 1922 in the Wikepedia article. I hope that it is credited that way universally (ie: Broadcasting Yearbook, Buffalo Broacasters, etc.).


It would be nice to see WBEN credited for going on the air earlier than 1930. Other stations who were bought or later sold, still trace their history back to their beginnings. WBEN should be credited with its lineage as well. Seems the history was written based on the WBEN call-letters only, and in my opinion, it was not properly reported for the record books (probably was made so because some secretary filled out the form for the station's entry into the Broadcasting Yearbook--"and so 1930, it was"). WEBN's sign-on date was always listed in the Broadcasting Yearbook as 1930, and thus, unfortunately history was "officially revised." If you look at the sign-on dates of other early Buffalo stations (or any pioneering radio stations for that matter), you will find that even those who were silent for a time, re-established, moved frequencies and/or changed call-letters, still credit their original sign on dates (as WBEN should).

Just a few examples where the present-day "incarnation" of the station credits its original sign on date:

WEBR (was on 1340, moved to 970, had different owners, went non commercial, is now WNED-AM -- and still is credited with going on the air in 1924)
WYSL/WBNY
WNIA (Was dark for a LONG TIME and much longer than the month or so between WMAK shutting off the transmitter and the very same transmitter being turned back on with the WBEN calls. WNIA later became WECK. History still says it signed on in 1956)
WINE/WUFO (1948)

What year did WMAK go on the air?? Let's give WBEN credit where credit is due! WBEN even broadcasted from the very transmitter site and antennna on the same frequency, just weeks later. It was simply a call-letter and ownership change. If anyone at WBEN is reading this... Tim Wenger, Greg Reid, etc., it would be great to see this fixed after all these years!

Ok, maybe I am the only one who cares and I probably need to get a life.

Anyone??!

 

[jfc40ts]

Some years ago, I stumbled upon an interesting item in an antique shop which I purchased called "Cram's Detailed Radio Broadcasting Map of the United States and Canada". It was published in 1923. At that time, the 48 contiguous states were divided into 9 territories (WNY was in the 8th district)...

The information I have about WNY was that there were 3 stations in the Buffalo area and 2 in the Rochester vicinity:

WGR 319m (940KHz) Buffalo...Federal Telephone & Telegraph
WMAK 360m (833KHz) Lockport...Norton Laboratories
WWT 360m (33KHz) Buffalo...McCarthy Bros. & Ford

WHAM 383m (783KHz) Rochester...Eastman School of Music (U of R)
WSAW 275m (1090 KHz) Canandaigua...Curtice & McElwee

I'm afraid that's all I have. I hope the info helps somewhat. If there's anyplace you'd like me to look up for you in the US or Canada, let me know and I'll see what Mr. Cram has on hand...

 

[Kal]

I did a simple Google search the other night for WMAK and came up with some interesting and conflicting listings in documents that were said to be from the time period.

If we are to believe these listings, WMAK's power and frequency seems to have jumped all over the place in the '20's, although I suspect it may have been from some clerical and reporting errors back then, too.

Here's what I found and where I found it. ( I have added some minor adjustments in the listings for clarity) Hope it helps and doesn't just add to the the mystery!

~

"Radio stations as of June 30, 1923"… (http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/1923am.txt)

"WMAK","Lockport","NY",833 AM ,"Norton Laboratories",

~

"All known U. S. radio stations, 1920-1930"… (http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/192x.txt)

"WMAK,Buffalo","NY",
"WMAK, Lockport",NY, Norton Laboratories,
"WMAK, Martinsville",(now a neighborhood section of North Tonawanda/Wheatfield) "NY"
"WMAK Broadcast Station","near"
"WMAK,Tonawanda, NY",
"WMAK Broadcast Station"

~
The U. S. Radio Dial - June 30, 1927 From the DOC published list of 6/30/27 Calls
(http://www.oldradio.com/archives/dial/1927.txt)

550 AM

City State Power Owner
WMAK Lockport NY 750 Watts Norton Laboratories

~
U. S. Radio Stations as of June 30, 1923
The following was taken from the official Department of Commerce publication, courtesy of Barry Mishkind.
(http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1923am.html) Found in 'cache', no longer online, apparently.

WMAK Lockport NY Norton Laboratories 833 AM (No wattage listed)

~

U. S. Radio Stations as of June 30, 1926
Thanks to Barry Mishkind for providing the original Department of Commerce document from which this list was taken.
(http://www.members.aol.com/jeff560/1926am.html) Found in 'cache', no longer online, apparently

1130 (AM) WMAK Lockport NY 500 (Watts) Norton Laboratories

~~

Kal

 

[Kal]

(My own reply to my reply above.)

THIS is the kind of thing... real histories... that the Buffalo Broadcasters site should include and not just for the 'Big 4' Buffalo radio outlets but for all the radio and TV stations on the Niagara Frontier. (It should happen in Rochester, as well!)

We should be collecting and documenting all the info we can, before all the folks that know the facts and lived it all, say 'We'll be right back!' and take that LONG commercial break.

Kal

 

[Mike Sheridan]

What year did WMAK go on the air?? Let's give WBEN credit where credit is due! WBEN even broadcasted from the very transmitter site and antennna on the same frequency, just weeks later. It was simply a call-letter and ownership change. If anyone at WBEN is reading this... Tim Wenger, Greg Reid, etc., it would be great to see this fixed after all these years!

Ok, maybe I am the only one who cares and I probably need to get a life.

Anyone??!

You're not the only one, count me in too.

The really frustraiting thing is to see this happen to some of the more recent FM transfers. WTMI the Classical station in Miami listed itself as going on in 1971 when it was on many years before that as WKAT-FM and there wasn't even a break in service. People who submit the information to the Broadcasting Yearbook often get it wrong I guess.

It's not hard to trace this stuff most of the time. I have found all sorts of information looking at the Newspapers on microfile in the Public Library. The trick is you have to be in the city where the station is located!

I often find doing this very interesting since you find out how some things came about. It's a bit like finding a missing puzzle piece that you didn't even know was missing!

An example would be finding out that NBC built 2077 Elmwood for WBUF-TV. I remember watching network shows on 17 but vaguely. I don't remember anything they did as a local station. I do remember watching WNED 17 in school.

Mike

 

[Bob1370]

"If we are to believe these listings, WMAK's power and frequency seems to have jumped all over the place in the '20's, although I suspect it may have been from some clerical and reporting errors back then, too."

That was common for ALL radio stations back in the 20s, as first the Commerce department (which handled radio regulating from 1912 to 1927) and then the Federal Radio Commission (1927-33) redrew the AM allocation chart several times. It wasn't clerical error, it was Washington bureaucracy moving stations around the dial to try to cure or at least alleviate a growing interference problem. They first tried to cram all stations on to one frequency, 833 kHz, in 1921-22 (although somehow KDKA stayed out of that mess and operated, first at 910 through 1927, then at 980 from 1927 to 1941); when that clearly didn't work they tried first a second channel at 750, then spread all the stations out from 550 to 1350 and finally 550 to 1500. At the same time they started splitting stations up into local coverage, regional and wide-area coverage operations, kind of like today's class C, B and A stations. Buffalo and Rochester each got a local and a bunch of regionals along with one wide-area station, but where those stations landed moved several times as the Feds shuffled the decks repeatedly to try to reduce interference. WGR wound up at various times on 833, 940, 740 and finally (in the late 1920s) at 550. WMAK (the future WBEN) moved around too, but settled early on at 900. WKBW also moved a bunch of times before settling at 1480, and WEBR and its predecessors jumped among the local channels, settling at 1310 before making the postwar move to regional-signal status. Over in Rochester, WHAM was all over the place from 1080 to 1170 before settling at 1150, and WHEC jumped around from 1160 to 1440 to 1430. There were other short-lived stations in both cities, as well as more long-lived new arrivals WBNY in Buffalo in 1934 and WSAY in Rochester in 1936...both of those stations started as graveyard-channel locals, though WSAY (like WEBR) graduated to class B regional status at the end of the war.

There were more shuffles in March of 1941 as the NARBA treaty saw the band expanding to cover 540 to 1600, but that's another story.

 

[Penrod Rightout]

I did a Google search researching WMAK and found this thread - looks like we just passed the 7th anniversary of it's birth in 2008. I've done quite a bit of research on the history of WMAK and would like to add a few points to what's already been mentioned.

I also find it surprising WBEN chose not to acknowledge the WMAK era of the 1920's, as WMAK was one of the original CBS Radio network affiliates and Buffalo's 2nd oldest surviving station. Ike Lounsberry was WMAK's GM when they signed on September 15, 1922. Norton Labs was on Mill Street at Transit, south of Mill and West of Transit. Norton was one of only four plants in the world manufacturing magnesium and were one of the early fabricators of Bakelite components. While attending Lockport High School, a young Leroy Fiedler learned his trade working after school at the station, he later became chief engineer for WKBW.

Lounsberry bought the station in 1928 and built a new transmitter site on Shawnee Road, a move supported by the FRC because the 750-watt transmitter was causing interference to nearby residents. Studios moved to the Liberty Bank Building. The station now was controlled by the Buffalo Broadcasting Company with plans to move studios into the Rand Building when it was completed--WMAK, WGR, WKBW, and WKEN run by the BBC was a radio monopoly in the late '20s.

The Buffalo Evening News challenged this monopoly and ultimately won the battle with the Federal Radio Commission awarding them the license. The History Cards featured as part of the FCC AM Database site indicate WMAK's change from it's initial 550 kHz to 900 kHz. "History Cards were first used by the Department of Commerce to keep track of applications filed by, and changes to, the earliest AM broadcast stations in the early 1920s. The records were subsequently transferred to the Federal Radio Commission in 1927, and after that to the Federal Communications Commission when that agency was created in 1934. These cards contain brief entries and notes about station faculties, applications, and ownership."

The BBC moved the WMAK calls to WKEN and attempted to sell the station to a group from Niagara Falls. No doubt the depression had a major factor in the failure of the sale; the station ended up going dark after transmitting for a short time from the west side of Grand Island on Bush Road.