Radio History

[tampalistener]

And the FIRST station to sign on in Tampa Bay was....
and on what frequency Kenneth?

If I recall correctly, it was WDAE on 1210 AM, but soon had to move to 1250 because it was getting interference from WOAI 1200 out of San Antonio, Texas.

 

[Chris Davis]

If I recall correctly it was WDAE 833kc that signed on May of 1922. 833 went silent in February of 1925. Then WDAE went on to 620 from November of 1928 until November of 1929. I can't find anything regarding WDAE from 1929 until 1941. After that it was on 1250 from March of 1941 until March of 2000 where it was moved back to the 620 signal.

Though I could be completely be wrong!

 

[sbe1]

Jeff Miller has done some good work putting the history of the Tamap area stations together. I know Jeff lurks here and may want to add to the discussion but his site is here: http://jeff560.tripod.com/tampa.html

 

[smedge2006]

I can't find anything regarding WDAE from 1929 until 1941.

WDAE was at 1220 during these years. All 1220 stations in the U.S. moved to 1250 on March 29, 1941.

When WDAE was at 1220, WOAI was at 1190, I believe.

 

[tampalistener]

I can't find anything regarding WDAE from 1929 until 1941.

WDAE was at 1220 during these years. All 1220 stations in the U.S. moved to 1250 on March 29, 1941.

When WDAE was at 1220, WOAI was at 1190, I believe.

There ya go. That sounds right.

I remember hearing that tidbit about WDAE/WOAI a few years ago, when some expert was on the air (probably 970) talking about the history of radio in Florida. Couldn't remember the frequencies involved, but I distinctly recall discussion about 'OAI bleeding over 'DAE, which led to (or helped prompt) a frequency change for 'DAE.

 

[jeff560]

Yes, WDAE was the first radio station in Tampa Bay and probably the first radio station in Florida. It signed on in 1922, the year radio really got started, with lots of stations. And every station operated on the same frequency - 833 kHz - although a few could use 750 kHz in some cases. So stations operated only on certain nights or certain hours to avoid interference with others. In 1923 the AM band was created and stations moved away from 833 kHz to frequencies that were multiples of 10 kHz as they are now.

If you are interested in local history, there is now a great resource -- the St. Petersburg Times and Evening Independent are searchable on google back to about 1910:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search

This search returns other newspapers too, but most searches involving Tampa and other nearby localities will give lots of St. Petersburg newspaper hits. I think google scanned the microfilm and they only added these two newspapers a few weeks ago.

 

[dwtpa97]

An out-of-print soft-cover book titled "WDAE Florida's Pioneer Radio Station" by Hampton Dunn was published in 1972 by the Fort Brooke Press in Tampa. It includes a 1971 letter from the FCC stating that WDAE was the "first radio station to begin operation in the State of Florida as a broadcast station". The book is very interesting and is probably on file at the Tampa/Hillsborough County library.