This is where it gets murkey. If we only looked at 100 year old stations that NEVER changed frequencies, and still have the original call letters from that first license, how many would qualify...would any station?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Will or should they celebrate 100 Years?
- Thread starter secondchoice
- Start date
I believe KDKA kept the same calls throughout their 100 year history if I'm not mistaken, but there were definitely frequency changes over the years.
There is no Ancient Modulation station that has been around for 100 years (and very few that were licensed prior to NARBA in 1941) that hasn't changed frequencies at least once. Prior to 1923, all broadcasters were assigned to 360 meters (833 kHz), with some specialty stations, mostly related to farm reports and weather, on 400 meters (750 kHz). The AM band as we know it today didn't come into existence until 5/15/1923.
Let's use KTAR-AM as an example, started out on 833 Khz. But, the call letters were KFAD from 1922-1930.
So, technically they can't celebrate 100 years as KTAR until 2030.
KJR is a prime example, although over the years it changed frequencies as the AM band was reallocated.
KFAD was bought by the Arizona Republic in November 1929, and the call letters were changed to KREP. Upon further review, the paper decided that they were really KREPpy call letters, and changed them to KTAR, effective 2/23/1930.
They can celebrate 100 years of the same radio station, regardless of owner, callsign, or frequency. They are all directly connected.
So, to bring this full circle back to KOY, on September 6, 2022, they will qualify to be able to officially celebrate 100 years of broadcasting. Using the date they were licensed as KFCB (Kind Friends Come Back).
I know it's at least 70-something years old. I have an old plastic? vinyl? Bakelite? 78 RPM record from WWII. An interview with my father when they told him I was born. At the time he was in a Hawaiian military hospital recovering from wounds suffered during the Leyte invasion (late 1944). The label on the record was from KTAR and it plays from the inside out.
Rochester’s WHAM Celebrates 100th Anniversary.
WHAM, recognized as the longest surviving radio station in Rochester, NY celebrates its 100th anniversary today. The iHeartMedia news/talk outlet debuted July 11, 1922, with the call letters of WHQ.
WHAM-AM celebrates its 100th anniversary.
I am a retired broadcaster with 37 years experience in commercial radio. That said, today’s listeners don’t care radio is 100. In fact every year results in less radio listenership (covid may have slowed this somewhat) But todays audiences have no interest in this anniversary. Radio will hold on for perhaps decades but the future isn’t bright so you don’t need shades.
Last edited:
When did it *become* WHAM? Your link does not say, and I searched Wiki for "WHAM" attempting to find out such and came up with nothing but WHAM-TV.Rochester’s WHAM Celebrates 100th Anniversary.
WHAM, recognized as the longest surviving radio station in Rochester, NY celebrates its 100th anniversary today. The iHeartMedia news/talk outlet debuted July 11, 1922, with the call letters of WHQ.www.insideradio.com
WHAM-AM celebrates its 100th anniversary.
WHAM radio signed on with those calls on July 11, 1922.
WHQ was a different license that existed only from March until May 1922. Some of its equipment was sold to the new WHAM, which was a new license under new ownership at a different location.
Pretty early in broadcasting history to be issued calls that were "words" or otherwise customized, wasn't it? Didn't that era come later?
Being a word was a coincidence. WHAM was sequentially assigned, right after WHAL Lanising MI and before WHAN Wichita KS. But WHAM was a reactivation of WHQ, which had been licensed on 2/24/1922. WHQ must not have been on the air long.
https://jeff560.tripod.com/chrono1.html (Scroll down to July 1922).
EDIT: Per Wikipedia, the WHAM call letters were suggested by Kodak's George Eastman. That may have been true, but the calls were sequentially assigned.
Last edited:
WHAM reused some of WHQ's equipment, but it was in no way a "reactivation." Different location, different licensee, new license.
As for Mr. Eastman, he had the best PR machine in town, but the callsign was unquestionably sequential. At most, he might have had pull with the Commerce Department to know exactly when to file the application to get the right call, but there's no evidence 100 years later to prove that.
This is the 1st radio station I regularly listened to, the only DJ I remember was using the name "Young Bobby Day".
I picked up many WHB Super Hit Surveys, some at the nearby CMC Stereo store where I got my 1st cassette recorder.
After moving to IA in late 1972, I began listening to FM more and more, in the spring of 1979, I did receive a noisy WHB 710 once on a car radio in Iowa City IA.
A friend had a new Pontiac Fiero, the Stereo light came on during a quick check of WHB with the Fiero car radio in 1987.
Kirk Bayne
WHB came in at a listenable, but not great, level in the Hannibal/Quincy market during the day when I lived there. It was oldies at the time (1985-86). KCMO, then on 810, was talk and about the same, daytime signal wise
- Status