© Mark Ollig
At the start of the 1920s, hundreds of commercial and amateur radio stations quickly appeared coast-to-coast.
Names like RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, General Electric, Philmore, and amateur radio enthusiasts were building radio broadcasting equipment, networks, and listening sets.
The country’s population in 1922 was 100 million, with nearly two million homes having a radio.
At the end of 1922, approximately 500 radio station licenses had been issued by the US Department of Commerce.
Minnesota entered this period by establishing radio stations with support from local businesses, colleges, various organizations, newspapers, and individuals.
On May 10, 1922, Minneapolis radio station WBAH began operating on a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles (kilo meaning one thousand), abbreviated as kc.
There are 1,000 cycles per second in a kilocycle, so a radio frequency of 833 kilocycles would be 833,000 cycles per second.
Jumping ahead to 1960, the International System of Units replaced “cycles” per second with “Hertz” to represent a unit of radio frequency equivalent to one event (cycle) per second.
By 1970, kilocycles (kc) were called kilohertz (kHz).
Amateur radio resonant frequency bands primarily reference their radio wavelength in meters.
But that’s another subject, and I now digress back to 1922.
WBAH, owned by The Dayton Company, was mainly used to broadcast radio advertisements for its department stores.
On Sept. 4, 1922, WLAG became Minneapolis’s first licensed commercial radio station. Its broadcast originated from the sixth floor of the Oak Grove Hotel in Minneapolis.
Companies underwriting WLAG’s operations with $30,000 of support included L. S. Donaldson Company, Northwestern National Bank, Sterling Electric company, and others.
A 500-watt transmitter powered the radio station’s broadcasts over carrier wave frequencies which many listeners received in surrounding states.
In 1923, Dr. George W. Young began radio station KFMT operating on 1300 kc from his residence in Minneapolis.
KFMT used a World War I era Western Electric CW- 936 5-watt radio transmitter/receiver to broadcast its signal over a 20-mile radius.
In 1924, one of the first battery-powered radios was the Atwater-Kent model 10B receiving set manufactured in Philadelphia, PA. It was called a “breadboard radio” and used five vacuum tubes and three potentiometer dials.
On Sept. 12, 1924, the US War Dept. aired “The National Defense Day Program” over an experimental network of 18 radio stations from coast-to-coast, including WLAG in Minneapolis.
World War I ended six years earlier, and in 1924, the US government regarded nationwide radio broadcasts during a national emergency as the quickest way to notify the most people.
On Oct. 2, 1924, WLAG became the familiar WCCO, broadcasting under the ownership of the Minnesota-based Washburn-Crosby Company and maker of Gold Medal Flour.
WCCO’s callsign means Washburn Crosby Company. It was called “The Gold Medal radio station.”
WCCO’s broadcast studios were located at the Nicollet Hotel in Minneapolis.
On Oct. 5, 1924, the Minneapolis Journal printed “This Week By Radio,” listing daily programming from WCCO, KFMT, WCAL (St. Olaf College), and WCAS (Dunwoody Industrial Institute).
By 1925, 600 commercial radio stations were operating in the US.
On March 4, 1925, the presidential inauguration of Calvin Coolidge was broadcast by over 20 commercial radio stations to an estimated 23 million listeners.
In the mid-1920s, many radio sets used Audion triode vacuum tubes, invented by Lee de Forest while working at AT&T.
Other vacuum tubes, such as the RCA Radiotron and similar, provided higher detection sensitivity to radio transmissions from a broadcaster’s antenna. In addition, they boosted the amplification of audio signals heard by a radio listener.
KFMT changed to WDGY in 1925.
In 1925, the first AC-powered radio receiver, the RCA Radiola 30, Model NS-30-1 console, was sold.
In 1927, radio stations were governed and licensed by the US Federal Radio Commission.
On Nov. 11, 1928, The US Federal Radio Commission upgraded WCCO to a clear-channel station with a frequency of 810 kc.
In September of 1932, WCCO was licensed to transmit its radio signal at a powerful 50,000 watts.
During the day, listeners received WCCO’s clear-channel 50,000-watt signal on radio sets from Duluth to Rochester and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin.
At night, listeners heard WCCO radio throughout the upper Midwest, the central US, and parts of Canada.
WCCO became known as “The station that serves the nation.”
On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation over the radio in his first evening “fireside chat.”
On June 19, 1934, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began regulating radio, telephone, and television companies.
Also in 1934, WTCN (W Twin Cities Newspapers) radio began broadcasting on 1250 kc and was advertised as “The Minneapolis Tribune Station.”
On June 16, 1940, the “Land Of Lakes” radio station WLOL began broadcasting on a frequency of 1300 kc from studios at 1730 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.
In March of 1941, WCCO’s radio frequency changed to 830 kc.
Minnesota’s first FM radio stations, WTCN-FM in Minneapolis and KSTP-FM in St. Paul, began broadcasting in 1947.
In 1947, AT&T Bell Laboratories demonstrated an electronic component called a point-contact transistor that would eventually replace the vacuum tube.
In October of 1954, the Regency TR-1 radio manufactured in Camden, NJ, became the first pocket-sized handheld transistor radio sold in the US.
On Jan. 4, 2022, the FCC reported that 15,389 AM and FM radio stations were operating in the country.
What will radio be like for those listening in 2122?
Stay tuned.
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| WLAG became Minneapolis’s first licensed commercial radio station. (Sept. 5, 1922) |
