WJAZ (Chicago)

WJAZ was the call sign used from 1922 to 1931 by a series of four separate, but closely related, broadcasting stations located in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and operated by the Chicago Radio Laboratory/Zenith Radio Corporations.

The original WJAZ was first licensed in the summer of 1922, and the next year began broadcasting from the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. However, it was soon determined that a suburban transmitter location would be preferable, and Zenith began preparations to re-establish WJAZ's operations at a more suitable site. Following operation for a few weeks by the Chicago Tribune as WGN, the station license for the original WJAZ was sold to the hotel management, and the call letters changed to WEBH.

In order to maintain control of the well-known WJAZ call sign until the new facility was ready, in 1924 Zenith briefly renamed a second Chicago station, WSAX, to WJAZ. Later that year, Zenith prepared a portable broadcasting station, mounted on a truck body, in order to evaluate potential new transmitter locations, and this mobile unit inherited the WJAZ call letters. Roving test broadcasts were made from various sites surrounding Chicago, and Mount Prospect, Illinois was ultimately selected for the new transmitter location. In 1925, the replacement facility was completed, and the WJAZ call sign was transferred from the portable unit to the new station.

The next year WJAZ gained national notoriety, when Zenith made an unauthorized change in its transmitting frequency, directly challenging the Department of Commerce's authority under the Radio Act of 1912 to assign frequencies. The courts sided with WJAZ; as a result the Radio Act of 1927 was enacted, which strengthened the government's regulatory powers and established the Federal Radio Commission.

WJAZ was deleted in 1931, after a co-channel station in Kentucky successfully petitioned for full-time use of the shared frequency.

History

Initial authorization (1922–1924)

WJAZ was first licensed on August 17, 1922[2] to the Chicago Radio Laboratory (reorganized in 1924 as the Zenith Radio Corporation), for operation on the standard "entertainment" wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz).[3] Its call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential alphabetical list maintained by the Department of Commerce.

WJAZ initially had a very limited broadcasting schedule. It gained prominence when it began broadcasting from a newly constructed studio located on the ground floor of the Edgewater Beach Hotel on May 12, 1923.[4] For publicity, the general public was invited to watch performances through soundproof three-ply plate glass windows.[5][6]

Recap

Summary of the four Chicago stations which held the WJAZ call sign from 1922 to 1931.

External links

"Portable Stations - The Radio Rovers of the 1920s" by John Schneider, Spectrum Monitor Magazine, December, 2014 (theradiohistorian.org)
"Remembering Mount Prospect's Zenith radio towers" by the Mount Prospect Historical Society, October 11, 2017 (dailyherald.com)

References

"The March of Radio" (WJAZ studio photograph), Radio Broadcast, July 1923, page 277.^
"Thirteen Stations Licensed" (during the week of August 12–19, 1922), New York Evening World, August 23, 1922, page 15.^
"New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, September 1, 1922, page 3.^

Portable station (1924–1925)

Many communities surrounding Chicago expressed interest in becoming the permanent location for the re-established WJAZ. Zenith's president, E. F. McDonald, Jr., was quoted as saying "...the station will be erected where the community desires it. It goes without saying that a lot of advertising benefits will accrue to the place that will get the new WJAZ."[17] However, the communities may not have been fully aware that they would only be hosting the transmitter site, with the station's studios remaining in Chicago.

In order to evaluate the various locations, as well as generate publicity for the parent company, in the fall of 1924 Zenith constructed a 100-watt portable broadcasting station, mounted on the back of a 1-ton Federal-Knight truck. The WJAZ call sign was transferred to this mobile outfit, which also transmitted on 1120 kHz.[18] Befitting a portable, the station was completely self contained: the storage batteries that powered the transmitter were charged by an on-board generator, and it carried its own antenna, with gold-plated antenna wires supported by telescoping masts.[17] (At this time, Zenith's low-powered station which temporarily held the WJAZ call letters reverted to its original call sign of WSAX.)[19]

Zenith reported that it would be evaluating sites within 100 miles (160 km) of Chicago.[20][21] Broadcasts from each community featured entertainment plus speeches by local dignitaries.[17][21] During the solar eclipse of January 24, 1925, the station was transported to Escanaba, Michigan, to document the effects of the dimming sun on radio transmissions.[22]

Following the selection of Mount Prospect as the permanent transmitter site, the portable station began making publicity tours, first through the midwest,[23] followed by the western states, including Pikes Peak, Colorado.[24] During the summer of 1925, in order to free up the call letters for transfer to the new permanent station, the portable's call sign was changed to WSAX.[25]

Re-licensing (1925)

Following completion of the Mount Prospect transmission site, Zenith's revived WJAZ was licensed on October 1, 1925.[26] Its new studio was located on the 23rd floor of the Straus Building in Chicago.[27] The station's quality equipment and high power qualified it for classification as a "Class B" station. However, during the previous year the number of well-financed stations had steadily increased, and regulators at the Department of Commerce initially believed that there were no unused "Class B" assignments available for use by the station.

In response, E. F. McDonald developed a compromise. He noted that KOA, the powerful General Electric station in Denver, Colorado, which had been exclusively assigned to the Class B frequency of 930 kHz, did not broadcast on Thursday nights, when it and other local stations observed "silent night", staying off the air so that local listeners could receive distant stations. Thus, McDonald proposed that, with KOA off the air, WJAZ could be permitted to broadcast on 930 kHz on Thursday evenings for two hours, from 10:00 p.m. to midnight Central time. In addition, McDonald reassured the Department of Commerce that "Our station is concerned with the sole purpose of giving to the public the highest form of entertainment in but a limited time. We have felt that to do this, sufficient high class talent could not be secured continuously throughout the year for more than two hours a week." KOA management, plus two Cincinnati stations operating on an adjacent frequency, consented to this arrangement.[28]

"Wave piracy" legal dispute (1926)

Despite E. F. McDonald's initial expression of satisfaction with a broadcast schedule of just two hours per week, he soon began demanding expanded hours after partnering with the Chicago Herald for additional programming, and Zenith's general counsel, Irving Herriott, later testified that "At no time was it the intention to be satisfied with two hours a week."[30] The United States at this time had an informal agreement with Canada that six designated AM band frequencies would be used exclusively by Canadian stations. In early January 1926, McDonald directed WJAZ to move from its 930 kHz assignment to 910 kHz, one of the restricted Canadian frequencies, and begin expanded hours of operation. The U.S. government accused WJAZ of "pirating" the Canadian frequency and ordered the station to return to 930 kHz, while threatening legal action if it did not comply. However, McDonald was defiant, countering that "...Zenith Radio Corporation intends to litigate in every possible way the questions involved".[31] On February 5, 1926, WJAZ broadcast the operetta "The Pirate", and publicity photographs of engineering staff dressed as "wave pirates" were distributed to newspapers and magazines.[32]

On January 20, the federal suit United States versus Zenith Radio Corporation and E. F. McDonald was filed in Chicago. McDonald expected a narrow ruling in his favor, claiming that only a small number of stations, including WJAZ, held the "Class D Developmental" licenses that were free from normal restrictions.

History

Initial authorization (1922–1924)

Recap

External links

References

Temporary transfer (1924)

Portable station (1924–1925)

Re-licensing (1925)

"Wave piracy" legal dispute (1926)

"Wave piracy" legal dispute (1926)

Station deletion (1931)

Station deletion (1931)