➦In 1922... WEAF NYC (now WFAN) signed-on. The station went on the air from an antenna atop the eleven-story Western Electric Building at 463 West Street.
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| WEAF Broadcast August 1922 |
The origins of WEAF go way back to 1919 when original owners, AT&T, inaugurated an experimental radio-phone station, 2XB, at 463 West St. in Manhattan. Then, on May 18, 1922, the Commerce Department granted a license to AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary to upgrade 2XB.
Original calls, taken from an alphabetical list, were WDAM, however they were deemed too profane. On May 29, 1922, the next available calls were assigned: WEAF.
WEAF stood for "Water, Earth, Air, Fire", the four elements of matter.
On August 16, 1922, WEAF hit the air on 360 meters (or 833 AM on our present AM band.)
WEAF was the first station to offer commercials, with the Queensboro Corp, a real estate company, being its first sponsor on August 28, 1922.
In July 1926, RCA took over WEAF as the flagship for the Broadcasting Company Of America, a name soon changed to the National Broadcasting Company. The purchase price was $1 million.
On November 11, 1928, WEAF moved to 660 AM.
The move that solidified WEAF's position as the most pretigious of all broadcasters took place in the autumn of 1933, when NBC moved to 30 Rockefeller Plaza and became the "radio" that gave Radio City its name.
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| WEAF Transmitter 1932 |
In October 1943, sister station, WJZ, dropped out of the NBC Blue Network and established the American Broadcasting Company and eventually became WABC.
In August 1946, "Buffalo" Bob Smith began hosting WEAF's morning show, then left in 1951 to concentrate on "Howdy Doody."
Later in 1946, NBC came to an agreement with a small station in New Britain CT to relinquish that city's initials from its call letters and on November 2, 1946 at 5:30p, WEAF presented its last broadcast, entitled "Hail And Farewell," and at 6p turned into WNBC
Then on October 18, 1954, WNBC switched calls to WRCA, as a tie-in to their parent company, RCA.
On June 1, 1960, WRCA became WNBC once again.
Today, 660 AM is home to America's first all-sports station WFAN.
➦In 1937....The American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was organized.
Emboldened by the National Labor Relations Act passed by Congress in 1935, radio artists from Los Angeles banded together to form the Radio Actors Guild. About the same time, Broadway actor George Heller began lobbying Actors’ Equity Association in New York for a contract protecting radio artists. This led to the creation of Radio Equity, existing under the umbrella of Actors’ Equity.
On July 12, 1938, with the support of radio stars Eddie Cantor, Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, and others, AFRA members negotiated the first collectively bargained agreement on a national scale—with NBC and CBS—resulting in a wage increase of 125%. In 1939, after only two years in existence, AFRA covered 70% of live radio broadcasting through collective bargaining agreements.
In 1941, AFRA members negotiated the Transcription Code, providing for programs recorded for later broadcast, and building cost-of-living increases into contracts.
On September 17, 1952, the Television Authority and AFRA merged to create a new union, the present-day American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
➦In 1939...“Lights Out,” radio’s “ultimate horror show,” was heard for the last time on NBC Radio.
It returned to the air on CBS in 1942-43. The show’s most familiar trademark, guaranteed to put you under the covers on a dark night was “Lights out everybody!” followed by 12 eerie chimes of a clock.
The success of Lights Out revival was part of a trend in 1940s American radio toward more horror. Genre series like Inner Sanctum, Suspense and others drew increasingly large ratings.
➦In 1977…Elvis Aaron Presley died at age 42. (Born January 8, 1935). Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
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