DX Audio Service Historical Moments February 1997 A Taste of 1926 Historical Moments in Radio .. a collection of stories of the rich and exciting past on the a.m. radio dial .. and today a look at the origins of radio broadcasting back 71 years ago .. to 1926. I must tell you that this edition of Historical Moments traces its roots to the research of Shirley Rathbun in Boston. Shirley is married to Bob Rathbun, one of our more prolific contributors to the Audio Service from the Bay State. Shirley was working her way through a microfilm records of the Lowell Courier Citizen newspaper and ran across this 1926 listing of radio programs being offered. So thanks to the Rathbuns for forwarding this data to us. The column listing all the stations and their programs is headlined, "IN THE AIR TODAY" .. and it first lists three Boston stations .. and only three! I'm not sure why they selected these, unless they were the only ones that most listeners up in Lowell near the New Hampshire border could hear! The three stations are WEEI, WBZ and WNAC. The newspaper also shows where to tune for each .. WEEI is at 248.6, WNAC is at 280.2 and, happily, WBZ is the easiest to find because it comes in the air at 333.1 .. and at 242. Now, of course, those numbers indicated meters of wavelength and all radio dials were calibrated in those numbers .. and by 1927 the radios were beginning to show both the frequency and the wave-length numbers. But in 1926, the Lowell Courier Citizen was steadfastly sticking with wavelength the way they'd been taught. I see that WEEI signed on at 6:45 a.m. and signed off after their 10 p.m. show featuring the Silvertown Cord orchestra. Silvertown Cord .. that was either a window drapery company, or an automobile manufacturer .. I guess. At other times during the day their programs included the Tower Health Exercise program first thing in the morning, and Morning Watch for an hour. They then signed off until noon when they aired the day's radio review followed that day by a report on the Eastern Horse Club races. They then signed off until 6 p.m. when they broadcast another radio review .. don't know what that included .. a 45 minute "Big Brother Club" program, and then a violin recital, a cello recital, and flute and piano recitals until 9 p.m. Over on WBZ, the broadcast day started at 7 o'clock in the evening .. they included baseball results in their plan, but, otherwise, the evening's fare was very similar to that of WEEI. And at WNAC? Just the same sorts of things as the other two .. they started their day at 6 p.m. and ended after the Crescent Gardens Dance band finished their 10 p.m. program. So how on earth did they sell any radios in those days? It's the novelty, stupid .. to quote from the election campaigns of 1990. But not all was lost. The Lowell Courier Citizen was sharp enough to pick up wire-service reports of what some out of town stations were up to hour by hour that day. That's the good news. The bad news is that they all had pretty much the same shows all day long .. mostly music with a few talk and interview shows here and there. The interesting part is to see what stations the Lowell, Massachusetts newspaper chose to list for its readers. Now, for the period of 7 a.m. through 6 o'clock in the evening .. and I can see this was a summer program day .. listeners in Lowell with their super-regenerative radios could reach out for WEAF, WHN, WJZ, WMCA, WNYC, WOR and WRNY in New York .. and there was a listing for WGY to the north, and WJAR and WTIC to the south .. and to the west their attention was drawn to WIP in Philadelphia and WPG in Atlantic City. You think their readers might have had a little trouble pulling them in during the day? Well, the 4 p.m. listing goes on with WRC in Washington and WMAQ in Chicago, WWJ in Detroit and WGR in Buffalo. The nighttime listings include all of the above plus CNRC in Calgary, KDKA, WCAU, WBAL, WLS, WJJD, WLW, WJR and a host of others. Remember now, the program listings for each of these stations were shown in this eastern Massachusetts newspaper. Are we to believe the folks on the Merrimack River tuned in their radios at half past four in the afternoon to hear the Tea Time radio program of music from WGN in Chicago? Or .. hmm .. maybe those program listings made it easier for dx'ers to submit reports for verification of those unique and distant stations. Naw, no one would do that. A couple of side notes of interest here. Apparently there was a lot of "wave hopping" going on in those days .. stations deciding to find a better place on the dial for their programs .. and a committee was just being formed to bring pressure on those wave hoppers to go back to the wavelength where they belonged. This was all due to the successful challenge by a Chicago station of the regulatory authority of the Department of Commerce .. remember that story from our Historical Moment segment of several years ago? And it was this new committee that ultimately pressured not the stations, but the Congress to form a new Radio Commission. Oh, and those wave hoppers? Teeny stations with no future, you ask? Uh-uh. Here is a partial list from a trade magazine of the time .. I count 25 stations on their list including such as WJAR, WEW, KGY .. even the first station ever on the air, KQW. They were assigned 230.6 Meters (that's 1300 on our modern dials) but decided to move to 333.1 Meters .. or 900 on the dial. Happily each of those stations tried out their ill-gotten channel, and promptly moved back to their assigned wavelength. Oh yes .. this story of growth and intrique on the a.m. radio dial goes on and on .. and we'll bring you more on our next installment. For Historical Moments in Radio, this is John Bowker.