Listings are from the 1948 edition of the “Radio Annual” I once had a number of these & photocopied them – sorry about the book binding problem
retired broadcaster: on-air, MD, PD, asst PD, Prod Mgr, IT, station technician/engineer, pioneer Internet webcaster, station installation/maintenance; 12 years in commercial radio, 17 years volunteer in campus/community radio in B.C., Alberta & Wash. Amateur radio operator & “DXer” specializing in AM night-time DX, short-wave DX/listening & remote SDR DXing/listening
From the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) we reclaim some of our Lost Comments:
pugetsound says:
August 12, 2018 11:38 pm at
The debate, which station is the oldest, continues when you see the dates the stations were established. Many prior to KJR. Is it cheating to use the radio experiments of KJR’s founder, Vincent Kraft, to put the date for KJR much earlier than listed here?
mikec says:
August 13, 2018 3:01 pm at
AAGGHH! Don’t open that can of worms! I’m not sure what criteria “Radio Annual” used for determining year of commencement. I browsed through a few of these on David Gleason’s site to see if there was a ‘legend’ or other definitions of listings & their abbreviations, but saw none. This reporter is of the opinion that “whose on first” should be determined by the day the government issued a broadcasting license. Our excellent collection of FCC History Cards should provide most of the REAL answers to this burning question. Vincent Kraft, Louis Wasmer, Carl Haymond, Paul Hackett, the Leese Bros. etc were all amateur “ham” operators & experimenters first. Once the government determined that separate licenses would be issued for broadcasting stations, these ham operators all had to apply for a commercial license & wait for issuance of call letters. Vincent Kraft’s 7XC is NOT KJR! 7XC was his amateur call sign. Amateur licenses are not broadcasting licenses, never have been & never will be, regardless of what country one lives in. I’ll try & dig out the very early databases I have & post these in future
mikec says:
August 13, 2018 4:29 pm at
I tried & failed several times to scan from a book the earliest database I could find. It’s a 1921 Dept. Of Commerce list of the first broadcasting licenses issued. There is only ONE station listed for our region: Dec 8, 1921: KFC 832.8 kHz max. 1000 watts, Northern Radio & Electric Co., 413 Union St. Seattle. (I wonder if the Colonel approved of this?) I do not see KTW or KJR listed. These first appear on a 1923 list as I do not have one for 1922. I’ll cull the info from the 1923 list at some point as it’s a full US listing by call letters, not by location. It will therefore take a little time to assemble.
Steven Smith says:
August 14, 2018 8:04 pm at
Back in the 60s I used to hear Konp in Port Angeles….when Charle Harring owned it. I may have the last name wrong, but a former Seattle Tv guy. The main thing I remember is they did a weekend countdown of the top 50 hits, and in PA the Ballad of Irving by Frank Gallop was number one for 5 weeks straight which seemed a bit much. That is a record that if you played it now I think you would get lynched or at least get fired amidst a swirling controversy. Think of all those 50 year old novelty hits that were in poor taste…one of the biggest being by the artist called Napoleon xiv.
pugetsound says:
August 15, 2018 12:24 am at
I worked for KONP, which had been owned by George Buck since 1948. Charles Herring owned KAPY, which no longer broadcasts in Port Angeles. The station was bought by KOL and shut down, as I recall.
Steven Smith says:
August 15, 2018 7:17 am at
Thanks for the clarification. I heard both in Bellingham. Now I am not sure which one was so sold on Irving.