➦In 1922...WOAI San Antonio signed on the air. At first, it broadcast on 1190 kilocycles with only 500 watts. Over the next several years WOAI was issued permits by the Federal Radio Commission to move the transmitter site and increase its power from 500 to 1,000 watts; then to 2,000 watts, and then 5,000; and finally to 50,000 watts in 1930.
During The Golden Age of Radio, WOAI was an NBC Red Network affiliate, airing its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows, children's shows and big band broadcasts. For more than four decades, WOAI was owned by Southland Industries, Inc.
Because it went on the air in the earliest days of broadcasting, the station's call sign begins with a "W." Stations in Texas were in the W territory before 1923, when the dividing line became the Mississippi River. From that point, nearly all stations in Texas received "K" call letters. But WOAI has been grandfathered with its unusual call sign.
Today, WOAI is currently the westernmost station to have "W" call signs. There are still about two dozen W stations in states west of the Mississippi River.
In 1941, WOAI was moved to clear channel frequency 1200 kHz.
➦In 1933...Tom Mix was heard for the first time on NBC Radio. His show ran until June,1950.
Here's the Tom Mix tie-in to the call sign of Hubbard Radio's WTMX Chicago.
WKBI AM in St. Marys PA went on in
1950. This was the first of a group of stations that would become
the Allegheny Mountain Radio Network headed up by Cary Simpson. In
1966, WKBI-FM went on the air Licensed to Ridgeway, Elk County PA's
County seat.
In the 70's WKBI-FM changed formats
from Top 40 to Country and at that time changed call letters to WTMX
in honor of one of Hollywoods early famous cowboys of the silver
screen, Tom Mix. Mix was born in Southern Elk county.
WTMX would become WKBI-FM again in
1983.
In Chicago, WCLR changed it's call sign
to WTMX in 1989.
(H/T: Jim Linn Jacksonville.)
➦In 1967...Bob Hall, Host of Music Til Dawn on WCBS 880 AM passed away. "Music Till Dawn" premiered on April 13, 1953. WCBS announcer Bob Hall was the model for hosts on that program around the nation.
➦In 1975...While performing "Lonely Teardrops" onstage at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ during a Dick Clark oldies revue, Jackie Wilson collapses from a heart attack, bashing his head on the stage and lapsing into a come from which he will remain until his death in 1983.
Video features Wilson on the TV Show Shindig with Billy Preston on the keyboards.
The self-titled Fleetwood Mac was now moving back up after 61 weeks of release.
The rest of the Top 10: Wild Cherry, War with their Greatest Hits package, Spirit from John Denver at #7, Spitfire by Jefferson Starship, All Things in Time by Lou Rawls at #9 and Chicago X.
➦In 1978…Radio actor (The Shadow, The First Nighter Program, Heartbeat Theater) Bret Morrison died following a heart attack at the age of 66.
A year earlier, Jacor Broadcasting bought WFLA-FM 93.3 and its sister station, WFLA-AM 970, and switched the FM’s format and calls to oldies WFLZ “Z93.” The format lasted only about a year.
After a weekend of stunting, including an hour of an urban contemporary micro-format, WFLZ would flip to Top 40 on September 25, 1989 at 8:15 AM to compete against local CHR Q105 (the first song under the new format was "Cold Hearted" by Paula Abdul). The station became "Power 93" or "The Power Pig", and aggressively targeted Q105 with promotions such as handing out "Screw The Q" t-shirts at various on the street events.
The station took over first place in 72 days and became one of the most legendary radio stations of all time.
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| Power Pig WFLZ #1 |
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Ratings for “The Power Pig” took off with listeners 12+ and 18-34 who bought specially-designed T-shirts imprinted with “Screw the Q” on them from the station’s pink-colored mobile unit dubbed “The Pig Van.” Lawsuits ensued and, in the end, Q105 took quite a beating and switched to country in 1993. In 1995 WFLZ dropped its aggressive approach and re-imaged itself more mainstream Top 40 as “93.3 FLZ The New Music Revolution” and, in 2000, “The #1 Hit Music Channel”.
➦In 2001…XM Satellite Radio began fulltime operations. It was set to officially launch on September 12, but due to the September 11 attacks, the kickoff was postponed to the 25th.
On that day, XM began signing subscribers in the Dallas and San Diego area, then slowly worked north and east until subscribing was open to all of U. S. as of November 12th, according to Marlin Taylor, one of XM's original Program Directors.
On July 29, 2008, XM and former competitor Sirius Satellite Radio formally completed their merger, following U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, forming Sirius XM Radio, Inc. with XM Satellite Radio, Inc. as its subsidiary. On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups. On January 13, 2011, XM Satellite Radio, Inc. was dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Sirius XM Radio, Inc. Prior to its merger with Sirius, XM was the largest satellite radio company in the United States.
➦In 2003...Bob Murphy broadcast his last MLB NY Mets radio broadcast
➦In 2005…Longtime radio favorite in Seattle (KOL, KJR) and Chicago (WLS, WCFL), Jerry Kay died at the age of 67.
➦In 2010…Radio-TV show announcer (Amos 'n Andy, The Adventures of Frank Race, Dr. Christian, The Sears Radio Theater, Stars over Hollywood, The Golden Days of Radio, The World Tomorrow, The Red Skelton Show, Highway Patrol, The George Gobel Show, Mackenzie's Raiders) Art Gilmore died at age 98.
➦In 2013…News correspondent (CBS, NPR, CNN) Lee Thornton, the first African American woman to cover a regular White House beat for one of the big three broadcast networks, died of pancreatic cancer at 71.
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