February 13 In Radio History

In 1914...The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was formed in New York City. The Society was founded to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members and collect licensing fees from users of music created by ASCAP members, then distribute them to its members as royalties. Its eventual rival performing rights organization, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), was formed in 1939 as radio was coming to prominence as a source of musical entertainment.



In 1934...WNEW 1130 AM NYC Signed on



In 1935...The “Make Believe Ballroom” debuts on WNEW

In 1947...the Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Family Theatre" for the first time.

In 1949..."Pat Novak For Hire," Jack Webb's first radio crime drama, began a one-year stay on the ABC Radio Network.



In 1956...Disc jockey/concert promoter Alan Freed signed a deal with Coral Records to compile and front four rock 'n' roll dance and party albums over the course of the next year.


In 1956...KYW 1060 AM in Philadelphia Penn gives calls to WTAM (now WWWE) Cleveland. Philadelphia’s KYW has a long (and mobile) history.

According to Faded Signals, Westinghouse Electric and Commonwealth Edison started KYW in 1921 in Chicago.  Westinghouse later bought out ComEd’s share.  In 1927, Westinghouse aligned its stable of radio stations with the NBC Blue Network.

The Federal Radio Commission assigned clear channel frequencies in 1934, taking one of the prized frequencies away from Illinois and giving it to Pennsylvania.  This prompted Westinghouse to move KYW to Philadelphia.  In 1941, KYW settled on its current dial position at 1060 kHz.

The FCC ordered RCA to break up its NBC Red and NBC Blue networks in 1942.  The Westinghouse stations remained affiliates of NBC.

In 1953, Westinghouse purchased WPTZ-TV, Channel 3.

NBC badly wanted to own a TV station in Philadelphia, the nation’s fourth-largest market.  Westinghouse agreed in 1955 to trade WPTZ-TV and KYW-AM to NBC in exchange for NBC’s stations in Cleveland, WNBK-TV and WTAM-AM-FM.  The FCC approved the deal.  In 1956, Westinghouse moved the KYW call letters to Cleveland.  NBC took over the Philadelphia stations, rechristening the old Westinghouse stations as WRCV.

In 1995...The Howard Stern Radio Show begain airing on KIOZ-FM in San Diego, California.