WOL (1450 AM) is an urban talk radio station in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

This is the flagship radio station of Radio One. It is co-owned with WKYS, WMMJ, WPRS, and WYCB and has studios located in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...

. The transmitter site is in Fort Totten in Washington.

History

The original name of

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

WOL was WRHF, which went on the air on December 22, 1924. It was owned by an insurance agent named Leroy Mark operating as the American Broadcasting Company, unrelated to the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which ...

begun in the 1940s. Its broadcasting equipment was said to have been rebuilt from a transmitter formerly located at the Y.M.C.A. building at 17th and G Streets NW. Its studios were on the third floor of the Radio Parlor building at 525 11th St. NW. Power was 150 watts and its

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

stood for Washington Radio Hospital Fund. The station changed call letters to WOL on November 11, 1928, under a reallocation by the Federal Radio Commission, moving to 940 "kilocycles" ( kHz). At the start of 1930, it was broadcasting at 1310 kHz. and at the start of 1940 at 1230 kHz. WWDC was granted a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission on October 29, 1940, to broadcast with 250 watts on 1420 kHz. It signed on at 1450 kHz. at 8 p.m. on May 3, 1941, airing programming from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., and promising newscasts five minutes before every hour. Studios were at 1000 Connecticut Avenue. On January 26, 1950, the F.C.C. approved the transfer of WWDC by Capital Broadcasting to People's Broadcasting Corp., having bought WOL, and announced the two stations would be swapping call letters. The change took place February 20, 1950. WOL morning man Art Brown moved to the new station while WWDC morning man Milton Q. Ford, who co-hosted with a talking parrot, was shunted to a 10 a.m. shift. The old WOL lost its affiliation with the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

in the process to a station in Arlington, Virginia.''The Washington Post'', February 19, 1950, pg. L1 In 1965, the Sonderling Broadcasting Corporation bought WOL and changed the format from

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

. That year, WOL also became the first rhythm and blues station in Washington to have public affairs programming. "No other medium in the city had WOL's influence and credibility among black Washingtonians from 1965 to about 1975...With finger-popping, hand-clapping and foot-stomping, they were the broadcasters of gospel-influenced, inner city culture," ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' observed. WOL helped popularize "Chocolate City" as a nickname for Washington, according to the ''Post''. Originally simulcast on its FM sister station WMOD for more extensive coverage, they later changed the FM station to an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

format. The station slowly deemphasized its music programming and evolved into an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

based talk station. For many years the pair was owned by Sonderling Broadcasting, who later sold its assets to Viacom Broadcasting. (After Viacom took over, WMOD-FM became country station

WMZQ-FM WMZQ-FM (98.7 FM) is a commercial radio station in Washington, D.C. owned by iHeartMedia. It has had a country music radio format since 1977. The studios and offices are located on Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. The transmitter is on T ...

) Competition from FM stations that had stronger signals and stereo sound reduced WOL's ratings in the late 1970s. By 1976, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

concluded an investigation of allegations of

payola Payola, in the music industry, is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under US law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to play on the air as spons ...

against WOL and other black stations around the U.S. In late 1979, the Almic Corporation, headed by Dewey and

Cathy Hughes Catherine Liggins Hughes (born Catherine Elizabeth Woods; April 22, 1947) is an American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. She has been listed as the second-richest Black woman in the United States. She found ...

, purchased the station. Dewey Hughes told ''

'': "The day of the rapping jock is over. Radio is generally toning down because of a new concern about contemporary adult music." During the 1960s and 1970s, WOL was home to Petey Greene, a former convict turned popular talk show host, comedian, and activist, who began his professional broadcasting career at WOL. His story was portrayed in the 2007 film '' Talk To Me''. A Baltimore version of this station was created in the early 1990s; it is known as WOLB, and shares some of the same programming as WOL.

References

External links

WOL Website
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FCC History Cards for WOL
{{Authority control African-American history of Washington, D.C. Fort Totten (Washington, D.C.) Urban One stations OL Radio stations established in 1941 1941 establishments in Washington, D.C. News and talk radio stations in the United States