WPEN-FM:
Began life in June 1942 at a frequency of 47.3 using the call W73PH. (William Penn Broadcasting Company & later the Philadelphia Bulletin Newspapers)
In June of 1945, The Federal Communications Commission decided to move the "FM dial" to 88 to 108 MHz.
During the late 1940's WPEN-FM along with many other Philadelphia stations, would change frequencies several times. WPEN FM would flip from 95.9, to 99.5, and then finally to 98.1. Yes, it was 98.1 WPEN FM, and owned by the Philadelphia Bulletin Newspapers.
The Bulletin Newspapers in the comming years subsequently purchased WCAU AM & FM, (Then owned by The Philadelphia Record newspapers) and sold off the less powerful WPEN AM & FM, but not before flipping the frequencies of WPEN FM 98.1 to WCAU FM which was at 102.9.
WPEN TV:
WCAU Broadcasting Company was owned by the Levy brothers. In November of 1946 the Levys sold the station to J. David Stern and his newspaper, the Philadelphia Record. It sold for six million dollars, the largest station sale in radio history up to that time. The Record announced plans for the construction of a large broadcasting center on the southwest corner of Broad and Spring Garden Streets, encompassing the entire block south to Buttonwood. The plant was never constructed.
By February of 1947, the newspaper ceased operations (because of labor troubles) and its rights to purchase the WCAU stations went to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin newspaper, which at that time owned WPEN AM & FM and the construction permit for WPEN-TV, Channel 10. The Bulletin purchased WCAU AM & FM, sold off the less powerful WPEN AM & FM (WCAU-FM and WPEN-FM flipped frequencies) to Sun Ray Drugs and transferred WPEN-TV's construction permit (January 16, 1948) to WCAU becoming WCAU-TV.
More history Factoids:
In 1946, WPTZ (Philco) was already on the air as a commercial station operating on Channel 3 in Philadelphia. In that year, there were two CP's (construction permits) issued for Philadelphia television. One was to WPEN for a CP to build a television station on Channel 10. The other was a CP for Channel 6 issued to CBS Radio affiliate, WCAU, owned by the Levy Brothers. The Channel 6 CP was a reassignment of the 1940 WCAU allocation of Channel 5.
When WCAU applied for a CP to build a VHF TV station, the FCC assigned them Channel 6. However, the head of CBS Laboratories (Peter Goldmark), convinced someone (at WCAU and other CBS affiliates) that the frequency they wanted was on the UHF band as that was where all the activity was going to be. Hence WCAU turned in their CP for VHF Channel 6.... Needless to say, just like many other predictions by Peter Goldmark, the President of CBS Laboratories, he was wrong. Thus WCAU was left without a VHF TV CP.
The Philadelphia Inquirer publisher Walter Annenberg, owner of the WFIL radio stations, quickly applied for the turned in frequency of Channel 6. He received it and on September 13, 1947 put WFIL-TV on the air as Philadelphia's second commercial television station.You might wonder why WCAU would listen to CBS since the station wasn't owned by the network but by Isaac and Leon Levy. Well, one reason was that William Paley, founder of CBS was a relative. Leon married Bill Paley's sister. Another reason was that the Levy Brothers were big stockholders of the Columbia Broadcasting System. They would, of course, think that their experts would know what they were talking about.
Not only was WCAU convinced to turn in their CP for Television, but ALL of the CBS O & O stations (except New York City) turned back their CPs. CBS-TV was the last network to get started. CBS had to purchase Los Angeles, St. Louis and Chicago TV stations. For some time WCAU-TV was also a Dumont TV network station. I can recall that when I first went there in 1949 we carried almost all of Dumont network on Saturday evenings...
It was recalled on a visit to the PSFS building at 12th & market in Phialdephiand, the call was listed on the building directory as WPEN-TV. I did see paper work which had WCAU on Channel 6 (post war) and they (and other CBS o & o and affiliates) turned back VHF assignments, since CBS experts thought that CBS color would be the operating system (and not being compatible with Black & White TV) would be on UHF.
AM radio assignments in the late 40's:
KYW - 1020
WCAM - 1280
WCAU - 1170
WDAS - 1370
WFIL - 560
WIBG - 970
WIP - 610
WPEN - 920
WTEL - 1310
Began life in June 1942 at a frequency of 47.3 using the call W73PH. (William Penn Broadcasting Company & later the Philadelphia Bulletin Newspapers)
In June of 1945, The Federal Communications Commission decided to move the "FM dial" to 88 to 108 MHz.
During the late 1940's WPEN-FM along with many other Philadelphia stations, would change frequencies several times. WPEN FM would flip from 95.9, to 99.5, and then finally to 98.1. Yes, it was 98.1 WPEN FM, and owned by the Philadelphia Bulletin Newspapers.
The Bulletin Newspapers in the comming years subsequently purchased WCAU AM & FM, (Then owned by The Philadelphia Record newspapers) and sold off the less powerful WPEN AM & FM, but not before flipping the frequencies of WPEN FM 98.1 to WCAU FM which was at 102.9.
WPEN TV:
WCAU Broadcasting Company was owned by the Levy brothers. In November of 1946 the Levys sold the station to J. David Stern and his newspaper, the Philadelphia Record. It sold for six million dollars, the largest station sale in radio history up to that time. The Record announced plans for the construction of a large broadcasting center on the southwest corner of Broad and Spring Garden Streets, encompassing the entire block south to Buttonwood. The plant was never constructed.
By February of 1947, the newspaper ceased operations (because of labor troubles) and its rights to purchase the WCAU stations went to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin newspaper, which at that time owned WPEN AM & FM and the construction permit for WPEN-TV, Channel 10. The Bulletin purchased WCAU AM & FM, sold off the less powerful WPEN AM & FM (WCAU-FM and WPEN-FM flipped frequencies) to Sun Ray Drugs and transferred WPEN-TV's construction permit (January 16, 1948) to WCAU becoming WCAU-TV.
More history Factoids:
In 1946, WPTZ (Philco) was already on the air as a commercial station operating on Channel 3 in Philadelphia. In that year, there were two CP's (construction permits) issued for Philadelphia television. One was to WPEN for a CP to build a television station on Channel 10. The other was a CP for Channel 6 issued to CBS Radio affiliate, WCAU, owned by the Levy Brothers. The Channel 6 CP was a reassignment of the 1940 WCAU allocation of Channel 5.
When WCAU applied for a CP to build a VHF TV station, the FCC assigned them Channel 6. However, the head of CBS Laboratories (Peter Goldmark), convinced someone (at WCAU and other CBS affiliates) that the frequency they wanted was on the UHF band as that was where all the activity was going to be. Hence WCAU turned in their CP for VHF Channel 6.... Needless to say, just like many other predictions by Peter Goldmark, the President of CBS Laboratories, he was wrong. Thus WCAU was left without a VHF TV CP.
The Philadelphia Inquirer publisher Walter Annenberg, owner of the WFIL radio stations, quickly applied for the turned in frequency of Channel 6. He received it and on September 13, 1947 put WFIL-TV on the air as Philadelphia's second commercial television station.You might wonder why WCAU would listen to CBS since the station wasn't owned by the network but by Isaac and Leon Levy. Well, one reason was that William Paley, founder of CBS was a relative. Leon married Bill Paley's sister. Another reason was that the Levy Brothers were big stockholders of the Columbia Broadcasting System. They would, of course, think that their experts would know what they were talking about.
Not only was WCAU convinced to turn in their CP for Television, but ALL of the CBS O & O stations (except New York City) turned back their CPs. CBS-TV was the last network to get started. CBS had to purchase Los Angeles, St. Louis and Chicago TV stations. For some time WCAU-TV was also a Dumont TV network station. I can recall that when I first went there in 1949 we carried almost all of Dumont network on Saturday evenings...
It was recalled on a visit to the PSFS building at 12th & market in Phialdephiand, the call was listed on the building directory as WPEN-TV. I did see paper work which had WCAU on Channel 6 (post war) and they (and other CBS o & o and affiliates) turned back VHF assignments, since CBS experts thought that CBS color would be the operating system (and not being compatible with Black & White TV) would be on UHF.
AM radio assignments in the late 40's:
KYW - 1020
WCAM - 1280
WCAU - 1170
WDAS - 1370
WFIL - 560
WIBG - 970
WIP - 610
WPEN - 920
WTEL - 1310