WCRW (Chicago)
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WCRW was a Chicago, Illinois AM
radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...
, which operated on a "shared time" basis until 1996 with two other stations,
WEDC WEDC was an AM radio station that operated on 1240 kHz in the Chicago market. It shared this frequency with WCRW and WSBC. The three stations operated as "shared-time stations" for most of their existence, a not uncommon arrangement ...
and
WSBC WSBC (1240 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois. It broadcasts brokered programming, mostly ethnic and religious. It is owned by Heartland Signal LLC. WSBC transmits with 1,000 wa ...
, each broadcasting a part of the day.


History

WCRW was first licensed on July 30, 1926 to Clinton R. White, a radio engineer, at 650 Waveland Avenue in Chicago's north side. The station was started during a period when the government had temporarily lost the authority to assign transmitting frequencies, and at the end of 1926, WCRW was reported to be operating on a self-assigned frequency of 720 kHz, located at 817 Grace Street. White and his wife, Josephine, worked at their station as a team, sharing the on-air duties. Josephine claimed to be the first female disc jockey. While the Whites entertained friends and neighbors with their radio station, this programming was not able to pay the station's operating expenses. They were able to stay afloat by selling segments of the station's air time to others.
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, and Swedish language programs paid the bills. In order to restore regulatory authority, the U.S. Congress passed the
Radio Act of 1927 The Radio Act of 1927 (United States Public Law 632, 69th Congress) was signed into law on February 23, 1927. It replaced the Radio Act of 1912, increasing the federal government's regulatory powers over radio communication, with oversight vested ...
, which created the
Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...
(FRC). Stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations, starting on May 3, 1927. The Chicago area was one of the most congested regions, and many stations, including WCRW, were relocated to frequency sharing assignments. On June 1, 1927, WCRW's frequency was changed to 1340 kHz, with time-sharing partners WPCC and WFKB. Stations were also informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard. On May 25, 1928, the FRC issued
General Order 32 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 32, dated May 25, 1928, notified 164 of the over 600 existing U.S. radio stations that their applications for continued operation would be denied unless they showed that they met the FRC's "public ...
, which notified 164 stations, including WCRW, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it.""Appendix F (2): Letter to and list of stations included in General Order No. 32, issued May 25, 1928"
''Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1928, Together With Supplemental Report for the Period From July 1, 1928 to September 30, 1928'', pages 146-149.
The station's foreign language programming was helpful in this process, convincing the commission that it should remain licensed, although the station made an unsuccessful attempt in federal court to reverse an ordered reduction in power. The Whites moved the station into the Embassy Hotel at Pine Grove and Diversey, on Chicago's Gold Coast, and WCRW began identifying itself as "The Gold Coast Station". On November 11, 1928, the FRC implemented a major reallocation, as part of a reorganization resulting from its
General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
. WCRW was assigned to 1210 kHz, along with
WSBC WSBC (1240 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois. It broadcasts brokered programming, mostly ethnic and religious. It is owned by Heartland Signal LLC. WSBC transmits with 1,000 wa ...
and
WEDC WEDC was an AM radio station that operated on 1240 kHz in the Chicago market. It shared this frequency with WCRW and WSBC. The three stations operated as "shared-time stations" for most of their existence, a not uncommon arrangement ...
, stations which also broadcast ethnic programming. These stations continued to timeshare for the next 70 years. From the 1920s through the 1960s, the three station managers met annually to allocate broadcasting hours. The agreement limited WCRW broadcasts to five hours daily, with the remaining hours divided between the other two stations. Each station operated from different locations, with three separate transmitter sites. In 1957, WCRW's daily schedule was reported to be 11 a.m-2 p.m., plus 5 p.m-7 p.m. In 1941, the three stations were moved to 1240 kHz, as part of the implementation of the
NARBA The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...
frequency plan. Clinton White died of a heart attack in 1963, after which Josephine brought in Ed Jacker as manager, chief engineer and ownership partner. Under Jacker's management, WCRW's power was increased, first to 250 watts and then finally to 1,000. The ethnic groups served by the station's programming changed over time, eventually most of its five hours on the air became Spanish language programming. After Josephine White's death, total ownership of WCRW went to Jacker, and eventually to his daughter. In 1989, the station left the Embassy Hotel for studios near Milwaukee and Bryn Mawr, on Chicago's northwest side. Daniel Lee, who was now the owner of WSBC, purchased WCRW in June 1995 for $500,000. On June 17, 1996, WCRW signed off for the last time, almost 70 years after Clinton and Josephine White began broadcasting. However, WCRW was not formally deleted by the Federal Communications Commission until June 2006."In re: WCRW (AM), Chicago, IL"
correspondence from James D. Bradshaw, FCC Deputy Chief, Audio Division, Media Bureau, June 21, 2006.


References


External links



in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WCRW
(covering 1927-1979) {{Chicago Radio Defunct radio stations in the United States CRW Radio stations established in 1926 Radio stations disestablished in 1996 1926 establishments in Illinois 1996 disestablishments in Illinois CRW