WFAN (AM)
WFAN is a commercial AM radio station licensed to New York, New York, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area, while its 50,000-watt clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the eastern United States and Canada. WFAN's studios are located in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan and its transmitter is located on High Island in the Bronx.
The current WFAN, and its sports format, is the second New York City station with that call sign and programming. The original WFAN was launched on July 1, 1987, on WEPN |, as the world's first radio station to adopt the sports radio format around-the-clock.
The WFAN call letters and sports format were moved to the former WNBC at 660 kHz on October 7, 1988. WNBC's history dated to 1922, when it began operation as WEAF, licensed to Western Electric. Purchased by the Radio Corporation of America in 1926, it became the flagship of the NBC Radio Network, the first national radio network in the United States, later becoming WRCA and WNBC.
Founding by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T)
Early AT&T radio development
AT&T had an early interest in radiotelephone development, although initially only as a method for establishing telephone links to locations where it was not possible to string wire lines. Lee de Forest's development of vacuum-tube amplification would prove invaluable for progress in a number of areas. In July 1913 the company spent $50,000 to purchase from the inventor the patent rights for telephone wire amplification, and in 1915 used this innovation to make the first transcontinental telephone calls. In October 1914, the company further purchased the commercial patent rights for radio signalling for $90,000, and in October 1915 conducted test radio transmissions from the Navy's station in Arlington, Virginia, NAA, that were heard as far away as Paris, France and Hawaii.AT&T's main competitor in the radio field would be the Radio Corporation of America, which was formed in 1919 as a subsidiary of General Electric. Because no single company held sufficient patents rights to operate radio systems without infringing on other company's patents, a series of cross-licensing agreements were concluded between companies holding key patents, and on July 1, 1920, AT&T signed a comprehensive agreement with GE. These agreements effectively assigned dominance in specified areas of the radio industry to individual companies, which eventually would meet with anti-trust challenges. In addition, conflicting interpretations of some of the pact's clauses by the signatories would lead to numerous disputes, especially between AT&T and the other participants, known collectively as the "radio group".
On December 1, 1921, the U.S. Department of Commerce, which regulated radio at this time, adopted a regulation formally establishing a broadcasting station category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters for entertainment broadcasts, and 485 meters for market and weather reports. AT&T soon recognized that it had the technical expertise and patent rights needed to play an important, and possibly dominant, role in the broadcasting industry. A December 1921 memo, prepared by AT&T engineers Harley C. Lauderback and John F. Bratney, proposed that the company construct a nationwide radio network, using the company's long lines to connect together individual stations. They also noted that "this service would enable the national and local advertisers, industrial institutions of all kinds, and even individuals if they desire, to send forth information and advertising matter audibly to thousands". AT&T moved quickly to start implementing this plan, and on February 11, 1922, formally announced its intention to develop a "national chain of radio transmitting stations".
A key component was the construction by AT&T of a well equipped New York City station. In early 1922 an experimental station, 2XY, was built atop the AT&T "Long Lines" building at 24 Walker Street. On April 29, 1922, the Walker Street station was issued a broadcasting station license, for operation on 360 meters, with the call sign of WBAY. On May 19 a second New York City broadcasting station, also on 360 meters, was licensed to the Western Electric Company, an AT&T subsidiary located at 463 West Street, with the call letters WDAM. Ten days later, this call sign was changed to WEAF. All of these call signs were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call letters, although at the time it was noted that WEAF matched the entrance artwork at AT&T headquarters at 195 Broadway, which depicted the four classical elements of water, earth, air and fire.
The original plan was that AT&T would not originate any programming of its own, and instead would rent WBAY out for commercial use, $40 for 15 minutes daytime, $50 during evenings, which, using an existing telephone term, was called "toll" broadcasting. However, initially there was very little interest in this idea, and in order to begin service the company had to start broadcasting its own programs. The debut broadcast over WBAY, of recorded music, took place on July 25, 1922, its signal was found to be weaker than expected, so on August 16, 1922, broadcasting operations were transferred to the WEAF transmitter located at West Street. It was later reported that the first WEAF broadcast included the singer Marguerite Dunlap.
On August 28, 1922, WEAF broadcast its first sponsored program, a roughly 10-minute-long talk anticipating today's radio and television infomercials. This promoted an apartment development in Jackson Heights near a new elevated subway line. Although often credited as the first radio commercial, there are reports that a few other stations had already quietly carried paid programs.
In September 1922 the Department of Commerce set aside a second entertainment wavelength, 400 meters for "Class B" stations that had quality equipment and programming. Both WBAY and WEAF were assigned to this wavelength.
The original issues with the weak WBAY transmissions from 24 Walker Street were eventually solved, and AT&T returned to that site as its primary transmitter location. Because the WEAF call sign was now well-known, the two stations swapped call signs on May 12, 1923, with WBAY becoming WEAF, and WEAF becoming WBAY. Because of this, FCC records list WFAN's "First License" as April 29, 1922, which is when the first license was issued for WBAY at Walker Street..
Effective May 15, 1923, additional "Class B" assignments were made available, with New York City-Newark allocated three frequencies, including 610 kHz, and WBAY and WEAF were reassigned to this new frequency.
Network operations and the "WEAF chain"
WEAF's first network program was transmitted on January 4, 1923, using dedicated telephone lines to link to one additional station, WNAC in Boston, Massachusetts. A more ambitious three-month link began operation on July 1, 1923, when Colonel Edward H. R. Green arranged for AT&T to provide WEAF's programming for rebroadcast by his station, WMAF in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The summer of 1923 also saw the opening of WCAP in Washington, D.C., licensed to the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, an AT&T subsidiary. The resulting New York-to-Washington link was extensively used to gain engineering knowledge in using telephone lines for radio network connections.Initially the WEAF network had few advertisers, so most of its schedule consisted of unsponsored "sustaining" programs which network stations had to pay for, although they were not charged for sponsored programs. An important early sponsored program was The Eveready Hour, which debuted over WEAF in December 1923, and began to be carried over a rapidly growing number of stations in early 1924. The first transcontinental link was made in early 1924, and that fall a coast-to-coast network of 23 stations broadcast a speech by President Coolidge. By the end of 1925 there were 26 affiliates in the standard WEAF chain network, extending westward to Kansas City, Missouri.
Reacting to AT&T's innovations, RCA began efforts to establish its own network, originating from its New York City station, WJZ, but was badly handicapped in competing effectively. AT&T maintained that the cross-licensing agreements gave it the exclusive right to sell airtime. AT&T also normally refused access to its high-quality telephone lines to competitors, so RCA's efforts generally used telegraph lines to connect stations, which would prove to have inadequate fidelity and reliability. RCA also investigated using high-powered or shortwave stations to establish network connections, but none of these alternatives matched the quality of AT&T's telephone links. Thus, while President Coolidge's March 1925 inauguration was sent over a growing AT&T transcontinental network of 23 stations, the WJZ chain's broadcast of the speech was carried by only four stations, all located in the East.
Formation of the Broadcasting Company of America
On May 11, 1926, AT&T announced that "The radio broadcasting activities heretofore carried on by the radio broadcasting department of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, under the general designation of WEAF, will be incorporated under the name Broadcasting Company of America." Unpublicized at the time were ongoing intense negotiations between AT&T and the radio group companies, led by RCA, about the status of the cross-licensing agreements, and the overall future of the broadcasting industry. AT&T's consolidation of its radio activities into the BCA subsidiary allowed for two possible outcomes: if AT&T decided to withdraw, then the transfer of its radio operations would be simplified, otherwise, the new entity could continue to be run semi-independently of the parent corporation.During BCA's short existence, the standard WEAF chain configuration consisted of 17 stations, concentrated in the northeastern United States, but also extending westward to WDAF in Kansas City, Missouri. Individual evening hourly station rates ranged from $170 for three stations located in smaller communities to $480 for flagship WEAF. The standard charge for an hour of evening programming over the entire roster of stations was $4,080, before any applicable discounts.