February 20 In Radio History

In 1900...Radio pionner, Graham Spry, was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.

In 1922...WGY-AM, Schenectady, NY went on the air. As early as 1912, General Electric company in Schenectady began experimenting with radio transmissions, being granted a class 2-Experimental license for 2XI on August 13, 1912 by the Commerce Department.

WGY signed on on February 20, 1922 at 7:47pm at 360 meters wavelength (about 833 kHz), with Kolin Hager at the mike, or as he was known on the air, as KH. Hager signed on with the stations call letters, explaining the W is for wireless, G for General Electric, and Y, the last letter in Schenectady.

The first broadcast lasted for about one hour and consisted of live music and announcements of song titles and other information. The early broadcasts originated from building 36 at the General Electric Plant in Schenectady. The original transmitter produced an antenna power of 1,500 watts into a T top wire antenna, located about 1/2 mile away, also at the GE plant.

WGY led the way in radio drama. In 1922 Edward H. Smith, director of a community-theater group called the Masque in nearby Troy, suggested weekly forty-minute adaptations of plays to WGY station manager Kolin Hager. Hager took him up on it and the troupe performed on the weekly WGY Players, radio’s first dramatic series.

Kolin Hagar

During their initial broadcast—of Eugene Walter’s The Wolf on August 3, 1922—Smith became the electronic media’s first Foley artist when he slapped a couple of two-by-fours together to simulate the slamming of a door, and radio sound effects were born. While the invisible audience could not see that the actors wore costumes and makeup—which were expected to enhance performance but didn’t and were soon discarded—they could hear the WGY Orchestra providing music between acts.

By May 15, 1923 the station was operating on 790 kHz with a frequency/time share agreement with RPI's WHAZ. Later, WHAZ moved to 1300 kHz allowing WGY to operate full-time on 790 kHz.

In 1924, the transmitter site was moved to its current location in the Town of Rotterdam known as South Schenectady. From this site, the station's power levels were increased first to 5,000 watts, then 10,000 watts and finally to 50,000 watts on July 18, 1925. Temporary broadcasts were carried out at the 100 KW (August 4, 1926) and 200 KW (March 9, 1930) power levels. From those broadcasts, the station received reception letters and telegrams from as far away as New Zealand. Plans were to make those power increases permanent, but were never carried out.

WGY also used the first Condenser microphone, developed by General Electric for radio studio applications, on February 7, 1923.

Amelia Earhart

In 1923, WGY formed the first radio network with WJZ and WRC, however the station also broadcast programs from rival station WEAF. Later in 1925, the New York State radio network was formed with WMAK, WHAM, WFBL, and WGY. In 1926, WGY affiliated with the WEAF-based NBC Red Network, and after the split of the sister NBC Blue network into today's ABC Radio, WGY remained with NBC Radio until it folded in 1989.

To add to their laurels, six years later the Players performed an old spy melodrama titled The Queen’s Messenger in the world’s first dramatic program to be broadcast simultaneously over both radio and the new medium called television.

“Radio station WGY had cornered the market on talk and music by 1928,” the Daily Gazette recalled. “Scientists from the General Electric Co. could have winked to their audience and said, ‘You ain't seen nothing yet.’ The smart guys who developed amplifiers, transmitters and bright lights were working on that next step—sound and pictures. On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 1928, they succeeded. WGY became the first radio station in the world to televise a drama on separate radio channels.”

In 1941, WGY changed frequency from 790 kHz to 810 kHz to comply with the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement also known as NARBA. In 1942, during World War II, a concrete wall was built around the base of the tower to prevent saboteurs from shooting out the base insulator on the tower and taking the station off the air.

WGY was the flagship station of General Electric's broadcasting group until 1983 when it was sold to Empire Radio Partners, Inc. General Electric also owned pioneering sister stations in television (WRGB-TV, signed on as WGY-TV in 1928) and FM radio (W2XOY, later WGFM, then WGY-FM, and today WRVE, signed on 1940).

As the golden age of radio ended, WGY evolved into a full service middle of the road format, slowly evolving as programming tastes changed. The station changed from full service to news/talk on Memorial Day Weekend, 1994.

Dame Media, Inc acquired WGY and WGY-FM the during proceedings in the Philadelphia bankruptcy court, late 1993. Dame moved the studios to One Washington Square at the end of Washington Avenue Extension, in the west end of Albany, New York late 1994, where they remained until 2005.

In 1999, Dame Media sold its entire radio group to Clear Channel, whose ownership remains to this day. Clear Channel combined all of its radio station studio operations into the former CHP (Community Health Plan) building on Route 7 (Troy-Schenectady Road) in Latham August, 2005.

On September 20, 2010, WGY began simulcasting its programming on 103.1 FM (the former WHRL, which took the calls WGY-FM, previously on 99.5 FM). WGY 103.1 FM broadcasts at 5,600 watts power.

In 1949...future teen singing idol, Ricky Nelson, began performing on his parents' Radio show. (Ozzie and Harriet Nelson).

In 1950...WOL-AM in Washington DC swaps calls with WWDC


In 1971...Natl Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air. Mistake wasn't resolved for 30 minutes



In 2006...Sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who spent 15 years with the Boston Red Sox, 13 years at NBC, had brief stays at CBS and ABC, and is enshrined in 22 sports Halls of Fame, died of leukemia at age 86.

In 2012...Longtime Seattle radio personality (KOL, KBSG) Danny Holiday died at the age of 68. Always filled with tenacity, vim and vigor, Dan began his career sweeping floors at KRKO at 8 and the rest is history. Dan's career was marked with lasting friendships and encounters with the greats of R&R. He knew the history first hand. Dan was an inductee into the NW Music Hall of Fame in 1990, creator of the Danny Holiday Rock and Roll Time Machine