Who Was First?

[trusty]

OK, I’m stuck. I’m interested in radio history and always thought WSB was the first station in Georgia – on the air 3/15/1922.

Then, I ran across a history of the Georgia Power Company, which, in the 1920s, was known as Georgia Railway and Power Company (GR&PC) Georgia Power Company/Southern Company - New Georgia Encyclopedia which stated, “…in 1920 the company built the first radio broadcasting station in Georgia, 4FT, later WDAW.”

It also said, “GR&PC donated its radio station to the Atlanta Constitution, which, in turn, donated it to the Georgia Institute of Technology to establish the station WGST.” The Constitution’s station, WGM, hit the air two days after WSB, and the competition was fierce (The Atlanta airwaves in the ‘20s were (ahem) ‘roaring’.)

Then, I clicked on Radio Broadcasting - New Georgia Encyclopedia which said, “The Atlanta Journal hired engineers George Iler and Walter Tison to start a station.” (which we know as WSB) It also said that WDAW came after WSB.

Then, I looked up Amateur Radio Stations Of The United States 1920 - 1923 : United States. Dept. of Commerce. Bureau of Navigation. Radio Service : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive which, on pages 456 and 458 (130 and 132 of the June 30, 1922 issue), listed amateur station 4FT as being 25 watts and owned by George A. Iler on “Ponce de Leon St.”

So, it seems that Mr. Iler owned station 4FT, which became WDAW, which went dark and was given to the Journal’s rival newspaper to start the Journal’s rival radio station (WGM – which went dark in 1923 and its equipment given to Ga. Tech in 1924 to start WBBF which became WGST in 1925 – or something like that), but Mr. Iler had already been hired to start the Journal’s station (WSB), and 4FT was listed in the June, 1922, issue for the first time – after WSB hit the air in March.

It’s amazing that Georgia Power has been able to keep the electricity on.

Then, I came across the April 1, 1921 edition of Radio Service Bulletin (page 3) which said GR&PC actually owned station 4ZB. (This really is turning into “Who’s on First”.)

Now, it is well documented that Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can believe everything you read on the internet,” but I’m more than a little confused about this. Will somebody who actually knows how 4FT/WDAW became the “first radio broadcasting station in Georgia” please help!

Anybody.

 

[jabba17]

OK, I’m stuck. I’m interested in radio history and always thought WSB was the first station in Georgia – on the air 3/15/1922.

Then, I ran across a history of the Georgia Power Company, which, in the 1920s, was known as Georgia Railway and Power Company (GR&PC) Georgia Power Company/Southern Company - New Georgia Encyclopedia which stated, “…in 1920 the company built the first radio broadcasting station in Georgia, 4FT, later WDAW.”

It also said, “GR&PC donated its radio station to the Atlanta Constitution, which, in turn, donated it to the Georgia Institute of Technology to establish the station WGST.” The Constitution’s station, WGM, hit the air two days after WSB, and the competition was fierce (The Atlanta airwaves in the ‘20s were (ahem) ‘roaring’.)

Then, I clicked on Radio Broadcasting - New Georgia Encyclopedia which said, “The Atlanta Journal hired engineers George Iler and Walter Tison to start a station.” (which we know as WSB) It also said that WDAW came after WSB.

Then, I looked up Amateur Radio Stations Of The United States 1920 - 1923 : United States. Dept. of Commerce. Bureau of Navigation. Radio Service : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive which, on pages 456 and 458 (130 and 132 of the June 30, 1922 issue), listed amateur station 4FT as being 25 watts and owned by George A. Iler on “Ponce de Leon St.”

So, it seems that Mr. Iler owned station 4FT, which became WDAW, which went dark and was given to the Journal’s rival newspaper to start the Journal’s rival radio station (WGM – which went dark in 1923 and its equipment given to Ga. Tech in 1924 to start WBBF which became WGST in 1925 – or something like that), but Mr. Iler had already been hired to start the Journal’s station (WSB), and 4FT was listed in the June, 1922, issue for the first time – after WSB hit the air in March.

It’s amazing that Georgia Power has been able to keep the electricity on.

Then, I came across the April 1, 1921 edition of Radio Service Bulletin (page 3) which said GR&PC actually owned station 4ZB. (This really is turning into “Who’s on First”.)

Now, it is well documented that Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can believe everything you read on the internet,” but I’m more than a little confused about this. Will somebody who actually knows how 4FT/WDAW became the “first radio broadcasting station in Georgia” please help!

Anybody.

The simple answer is probably discounting those times the station was operational prior to going dark. It's "traditional" to not include those instances in a radio station's history. Compare this with the history of channel 36 in ATL, including under the callsign of WATL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WATL )

If you look at Wikipedia's history of WSTR 94.1, it doesn't include its short stint as WGST-FM way back when. I don't know if Georgia Tech owned that WGST-FM; what little I know about that WGST-FM includes the fact that they had a now-above-legal-limits power of 200-250kW. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSTR_(FM)

Maybe as an NBC affiliate, WSB took a tip from RCA's PR department and put their own stake in the ground about being first. RCA was notorious about pushing their own storylines--Marconi vs Tesla, who had color TV first (and disregarding CBS's ultimately failing work prior to RCA's), the whole (and eventually tragic) embroglio over FM with Armstrong, and so forth. Heck, RCA/NBC have pretty much ignored the fact that the "NBC chimes" were originally WSB's.

 

[trusty]

And then I uncover 4CD by Carter Electric Company in Atlanta in1922. Any lists of the stations back then that began with numbers?

 

[ron]

Opps, I mistakenly posted this in the Christmas thread..... re-posting here.

Another tidbit related to WSB: WSB was actually the first Country music station (it was called Hillbilly music at the time). The first Country record was by Georgia native Fiddlin' John Carson in 1923. My Great Grandfather (Land Norris, also from North GA) was in Fiddlin' John's band at the time. In 1924 Norris released the first record that featured a person singing and playing the banjo at the same time. Both records are pretty raw by today's standards, but WSB was there. Radio infancy!

 

[LegalTender]

Amateur radio licensing is puzzling. Isolating "4-FT as being 25 watts and owned by George A. Iler on “Ponce de Leon St.” is open to debate.