March 13 In Radio History

In 1922...WRR-AM, Dallas, Texas began broadcasting.

WRR-AM was Texas’ first broadcast station when it signed on from Dallas.  Owned by the City of Dallas, the original studio and transmitter was located in the Dallas Fire Department central headquarters.

WRR-AM actually dates back to 1921 as the wireless operation of the Dallas Police and Fire Departments.

The station received a formal license as a "land station" from the Bureau of Navigation on August 4, 1921, and was assigned the call letters "WRR".  In later years, the call letters would be said to stand for “Where Radio Radiates”.   According to WRR’s original license, the station operated with a “composite” transmitting system (i.e. “homemade”), and was authorized to operate at a power of up to 100 watts, giving the station an approximate range of 200 nautical miles.

According to DFW Radio Archives, there were often long stretches of time when there were no fire or police calls to broadcast, so to ensure the equipment was indeed working (and perhaps satisfy their own curiosity with the strange new device), the dispatchers started to resort to other means of occupying the airwaves.  They would read articles from the Dallas News or Herald, read letters, and tell jokes.  Soon they had even brought in a phonograph player to place next to the microphone and send music over the airwaves.
A small but growing audience became fascinated by the magically transferred voices and music – these were the very beginnings of radio in north Texas.

WRR soon began to evolve into a “real” radio station.  WRR’s initial license was issued through the Bureau of Navigation and fell into a categorical no-man’s land - while operating as a “broadcast” station, it was licensed as if it were a point-to-point operation.  WRR did not receive a true broadcast license from the Commerce Department's Radio Division until March 13, 1922.

WRR-FM signed on in 1948, playing classical music.  WRR-AM focused on popular music until it switched to all-news in 1975.

Bonneville Broadcasting bought the station in 1978.  It became KAAM.  It became all-sports KTCK in 1994.  Today, Cumulus Media owns “Sports Radio 1310: The Ticket.”

The city kept WRR-FM, which remains on the air as a classical station.  Taxpayers do not sustain WRR.  It operates commercially, depending upon advertising revenue.

In 1938...First “World News Roundup” on CBS Radio.

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In 1956…RCA Victor released "Elvis Presley," his first album.

In 1964…Billboard magazine reported that more than 60 percent of all U.S. singles being sold at that time were Beatles records.

In 1989...WPLJ moved to 2 Penn Plaza, NYC

In 1992…The U.S. Federal Communications Commission ruled that companies could now own as many as 30 AM and 30 FM stations. Previously the total permitted had been 12.