Why did I just think about RG Stair but powered by ChatGPT? Or AI?
And paid for by crypto
You can’t spell “Stair” without “AI”!
Oh Lord
This is still puzzling to me. KKOB Albuquerque is a Class B station on 770 kHz, 930 miles from St. Louis. WABC is Class A in NYC, 870 miles from St. Louis. So they're both less than 1,000 miles from WEW, a Class D.
It still seems bizarre to me that a station that's not the class A station on the channel would be used as a reference point for a PSSA, especially one that's to the west of the class A station.
Albuquerque is a little over 5 degrees in latitude south of St. Louis. So winter days are longer and summer days shorter compared to St. Louis. The difference is probably 15 minutes at most at each end of the day, but still there.
When the FRC reallocated stations in 1927 and 1928, stations owned by educational and/or religious institutions tended to be at a disadvantage and were often forced to daytime status or to share time. WEW was then owned by St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution. It operated commercially but didn't have the political heft that stations such as KSD or KMOX possessed. (Even so, KSD was forced to share time with KFUO for 12 years, which resulted in a contentious relationship.) As for WEW's claim of being first west of the Mississippi, I would take that with giant grains of salt. When, in the 1990s, I was doing research into pioneering radio stations, I found that many such claims could not be definitely proved or disproved. Things were loose and easy in radio in the early 1920s; stations came and went without much documentation. The best source for tracking such things can be local newspapers but, even there, one must be cautious, because a lot of hype accompanied happenings in radio.
I heard KFUO twice in Laramie, 150 miles north of Denver where KOA peeled the paint, because of KFUO's allowed late sign off.
And Loyola University in Chicago has a 100-watt FM station. There may be a very loose affiliation among these institutions but they are far from identical.
Yes, that claim has been made but, as I mentioned before, it's impossible to prove or disprove with certainty. A lot of experimentation was going on in those years, interrupted by World War I, but recovering quickly after the war. In any event, claiming to be "first" with something or another just gives you the chance to brag; it's no guarantee of success.
There was a whole bunch of applications dismissed on 1964-06-22, the aftermath of the FCC's finally reaching some decisions in a clear-channel proceeding that dated back to 1945. This included the so-called "breaking down" of the clear channels to allow more 50 kw nighttime operations, mostly in the west. WEW had actually filed an application for a special service authorization to operate fulltime on 770 before the FCC started the proceeding in February of 1945, according to an article in Broadcasting, WEW must have seen the opportunity to go for something more permanent than an SSA (the modern equivalent would have been an STA). Anything involving 770 was fraught due to KOB's SSAs to operate on that channel, which took years to resolve. Even so, the Broadcasting article reported that KECA Los Angeles and KXA "Portland" (should have been Seattle, operated limited time to WABC) had also applied for fulltime operation on 770.
In my foggiest of foggy brains I seem to remember DXing them with Big Band music, late 70s, maybe early 80s.
It was a big band/nostalgia station for decades. I have an aircheck from the day before New Year's Eve 1997 that's in that format.
The most recent image (from c. 2023) clearly shows vegetation completely overtaking the satellite dish in the back. Hardly a surprise considering it’s Birach.
