Back in the mid 1920s when shortwave
broadcasting began to emerge in the United States, the Department of Commerce
issued callsigns that looked like what we would call today amateur callsigns,
though with a mandatory X included, meaning experimental. Thus, the early forerunner to shortwave WYFR
in New York City was issued the callsign 2XAL on June 1, 1925.
Then,
on October 1, 1928, the subsequent Federal Radio Commission FRC required that
all amateur and experimental stations should insert the letter W into these
callsigns, and thus 2XAL now at Coytesville New Jersey became W2XAL. Three years later, when the station was moved
into an existing radio TV building in Boston, this call was adjusted to
W1XAL.
Interestingly,
in mid 1936, magazine columnist Charles Morrison in the United States issued a
call, stating that the time had come for all American experimental callsigns in
use on shortwave to be regularized. However,
another two or three years went by before any significant move in this
direction began to take place.
In
many other countries, similar procedures were taking place. For example, the callsign for the
experimental government shortwave station in Australia, VK3LR at Lyndhurst in
Victoria, was modified to the more familiar VLR on December 1, 1937.
We
come now to the pivotal year 1939. Angry
political clouds were forming over continental Europe and the shortwave
broadcasting scene in many countries around the world was changing to
accommodate these events.
On
May 23, 1939, the radio broadcasting scene in the United States was now
supervised by the Federal Communications Commission FCC and they issued a
mandate requiring that the usage of all experimental shortwave callsigns in the
United States should be terminated, and that new four letter callsigns should
be adopted. The mandatory date for the
adoption of the new callsigns was September 1 of that same year, 1939.
Now
at this stage, the Boston shortwave station was on the air with two shortwave
transmitters, both rated at 20 kW. These
two units were licensed as W1XAL and W1XAR.
The callsign W1XAL identified the original transmitter that was upgraded
and moved into Boston some eight years earlier, and the new call W1XAR
identified a new transmitter still under installation. The final letter R would seem to indicate,
shall we say, the W1XAL call modified to W1XAR with the letter R standing for
Radio.
The
owner of this international radio broadcasting station in Boston was Walter S.
Lemmon, and he decided that the callsigns for his two transmitters should honor
his name. Hence, W1XAL became WSLA,
standing for Walter S Lemmon, the 1st
transmitter as transmitter A; and W1XAR became WSLR, standing for Walter
S. Lemmon, the 2nd transmitter with R for
Radio. The official date for the
introduction of these two new callsigns was August 1, 1939.
However,
the Board Members associated with this shortwave radio station considered that
the adoption of the two callsigns that identified the owner of the station
would be detrimental to its future operation, and they recommended that new
callsigns should be adopted that identified its university connection rather
than the personal connection.
Hence
it was that two new callsigns were chosen, and these were the more familiar
WRUL and WRUW, indicating World Radio University Listeners
and World Radio University Worldwide. Thus:-
W1XAL WSLA became WRUL
W1XAR WSLR WRUW
The
date for the change from WSLA/WSLR to WRUL/WRUW was set as September 7, 1939,
though one radio listener in the United States heard the new WRUW callsign over
transmitter WSLR at Hatherly Beach during the evening of the previous day,
September 6. Thus the temporary interim
callsigns WSLA & WSLR were in use officially for a period of 37 days,
stretching from August 1 to September 6, 1939.
However,
it should be remembered that the two transmitters were off the air during the
transfer from Boston to Hatherly Beach, Scituate from July 21 to August
25. Thus the temporary interim callsigns
WSLA & WSLR were in use on air for a period of only 13 days, stretching
from August 25 to September 6.
It
can be remembered that all of the other experimental shortwave callsigns in use
in the United States were modified around the same era. For example, the General Electric shortwave
station W6XBE in San Francisco California became KGEI; the Westinghouse
shortwave station W8XK in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania became WPIT; and the Crosley
shortwave station W8XAL in Cincinnati Ohio became WLWO.
And
so the story continues. When we take the
next look at the early fore-runners of the mighty shortwave station WYFR, it
will be under the title, “Tribute to Shortwave WYFR: The Early Years at
Hatherly Beach”.
(AWR/Wavescan/NWS242 via Adrian Peterson)
photo/QRZ)