April 28 In Radio History

In 1922...WOI-AM, Ames, Iowa, became the country's first licensed education Radio station.

The history of WOI can be traced back to 1911 when Physics Professor "Dad" Hoffman set a transmission line between the Campus Water Tower and the Engineering Building and set up a wireless telegraph station. By 1913 this was known as experimental station 9YI and it was sending and receiving weather reports by morse code on a regular basis. The first sound broadcast was an hour of concert music on November 21, 1921.

The Commerce Department issued a full radio license for station WOI in April 1922 and the first regular broadcast took place on April 28, 1922. It is the oldest fully licensed noncommercial station west of the Mississippi River. The original callsign 9YI is now W0YI and is retained by the ISU Campus Radio Club, with the amateur radio station located in the Electrical Engineering building.  The first regular programming on WOI was farm market reports gathered by ticker tape and morse code and broadcast throughout the state.


In 1932..."One Man's Family" was first broadcast on the NBC Radio Network.


In 1958...Herb Oscar Anderson starts at WMCA.  HOA can still be heard on WOSN - 97.1 FM - Vero Beach, FL.


 

In 1972...Arthur Godfrey does last CBS Radio Network show



In 1975…Influential radio disc jockey/programmer/manager (KSAN-San Fracisco, KMET-Los Angeles, KPPC-Los Angeles, KMPX-San Francisco, KYA-San Francisco, WIBG-Philadelphia)/record label owner (Autumn)/concert promoter (Beatles at Candlestick Park)/Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Donahue, inventor of "free form,""deep cuts" and "classic rock" radio, died following a heart attack at age 46.


In 1987…For the first time, a compact disc of an album was released before its vinyl version. The album was "The Art of Excellence" by Tony Bennett.


In 2006…After radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was accused by Florida prosecutors of "doctor shopping" for painkillers, his attorneys announced a deal under which a single prescription fraud charge would be dismissed after 18 months, provided Limbaugh remained drug-free and did not violate any laws.