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Philco 41-255
#6

Hi Rich,
I figured that I would give you a little history regarding the station tags on your radio.  (Edit- This turned out to be a little bit more than a "little history", and I may end up transferring this to a new Thread. This will explain the frequencies that they are tuned to: (Edited again 7/18/25 to correct mistakes)

New York City was home to the flagship stations of several networks and several radio manufacturers, including Greebe, Emerson, FAD Andrea (FADA), Federal, Freed Eastman, etc. Lee DeForest had labs and manufactured Audions in Bronx. RCA's headquarters was originally in the Wanamaker Building in lower Manhattan. AT&T's Bell Laboratories and Western Electric were also in NYC. Rockefeller Center, built in the 1930s, became home to RCA's National Broadcasting Company. The NBC Studios were known as "Radio City". This likely influenced the naming of the theater in Rockefeller as Radio City Music Hall.  The stations that I can make out on your picture are WEAF, WOR, WJZ, WABC, WHN and WNEW
  • WEAF (Later WNBC, now WFAN, 660 KHz) was first founded by Western Electric and AT&T, became part of an AT&T "Chain" (Network), and was transferred to RCA in 1926.  It was assigned a frequency of 660 KHz by the FCC when the broadcast band was established from about 550KHz to about 1500 KHz.  This became WNBC, at 660 KHz, the flagship station of the NBC (National Broadcasting Company) "Red" network, and a "clear channel" 50 KW station.  (There was also a Blue Network, centered around WJZ until regulations forced NBC to divest itself of the Blue Network.  In the early 1980s, WNBC changed its format from music to Talk and featured both Don Imus and Howard Stern.  In 1989, after the GE takeover of RCA, GE divested the National Broadcasting Company of all AM radio stations. Eventually, WNBCwas sold to Emmis Broadcasting where it became WFAN, which was previously operating at 1050 KHz.
  • WOR (710 KHz) holds the distinction of having the longest record for using the same call letters and the longest use of the same frequency.  In addition, they are one of the very few stations that have only 3 letters in their call sign. Originally started by Bamberger's Department Stores, in 1927, it became the flagship New York City outlet for CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) and was assigned 710 KHz as a clear channel, which it has occupied since.  In 1934, after CBS took over the Atlantic Broadcasting Corporation station that eventually became WCBS, WOR allied with several other stations and became part of the Mutual Brodcasting Network, the 4th of the Big 4 Networks that also included NBC Red, NBC Blue which became ABC), and CBS.  WOR left Mutual in 1957 and became an independent.  WOR played Adult Standards and MOR (Middle of the Road) music, news and variety talk programs, eventually moving to all talk, including such famous personalities as Bernard Melzer, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband Dick Kollmar, and Rush Limbaugh (who moved from WABC).  From 1925 to 2000, WOR hosted a talk show "Rambling with Gambling" Hosted by John B. Gambling, then his son John A. Gambling and finally grandson John R. Gambling.  IMHO, the Gamblings were unique as "gentlemen" of the talk show genre as opposed to the various angry pundits and shock jocks.
  • WJZ (Now WABC, 770 KHz) was founded by Westinghouse shortly after they established KDKA, arguably the first commercial broadcast station in Radio History.  In 1926, this station and its affiliated network stations fell under the control of RCA where it eventually became the NBC "Blue" network, broadcasting at 760 KHz untill1941 when it was assigned the 770 KHz clear channel frequency.  Regulations regarding ownership of more than one AM radio station in the same service area forced RCA and NBC to divest itself of the Blue Network in 1942.  The Blue Network became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1945.  WJZ became WABC in 1953 when the call sign WABC was made available when the station holding those call letters was renamed WCBS.  WABC became the #1 Rock and Roll Top 40 AM Station in the New York area with DJs such as "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, "Dandy Dan" Ingram, Ron Lunday and others.  When listeners moved to FM and WNBC, WABC went to the news / talk format that they hold to now.
  • The American Broadcasting Company was bought by Walt Disney, INC who divested ABC of all stations not carrying Disney or ESPN programming.  Currently, WABC is owned by Red Apple Media, where it retains its News / Talk format.
  • WABC (Now WCBS, 880 KHz) started out as WAHG, founded by Alfred H Greebe, founder of the Greebe Radio company, in 1924.  Greebe founded another radio station, WBOQ (Borough of Queens), and caused the Atlantic Broadcasting Company to be formed.  These stations were eventually consolidated and later named WABC.  WABC was eventually purchased by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), was assigned a clear channel frequency of 880 KHz and renamed WCBS.  CBS played "American Standards" and had news and variety programs until gradually changing its format to "all news" in 1967 and completing the changeover in 1970.  WCBS ran an all news format until 2024 where it became the outlet for ESPN.
  • WHN (1050 KHZ) was founded in 1922 by the Ridgewood Times newspaper, was assigned the frequency 1050KHz in 1941.  WHN eventually was owned by Loewes who owned the MGM (Metro-Goldwin Meyer) movie studios, changing the call sign to WMGM in 1948.  The call sign was changed back to WHN in 1962.  WHN had a broad spectrum of programming over the years, including popular American standards, drama, comedy, news, variety, quiz shows, sports, including hosting the Brooklyn Dodgers and later the New York Mets as well as other sports teams.  The format eventually changed to Top 40, Country, Talk, and eventually ESPN, then Spanish Language, and now English again.

"Do Justly, love Mercy and walk humbly with your God"- Micah 6:8
"Let us begin to do good"- St. Francis

Best Regards, 

MrFixr55


Messages In This Thread
Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-01-2025, 07:19 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-01-2025, 07:26 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 07-01-2025, 09:03 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-02-2025, 12:06 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-05-2025, 04:24 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 07-05-2025, 08:56 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-06-2025, 06:11 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 07-07-2025, 08:32 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-13-2025, 12:19 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-18-2025, 07:08 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 07-18-2025, 10:29 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-19-2025, 06:19 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by GarySP - 07-19-2025, 07:12 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-19-2025, 08:01 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-25-2025, 07:47 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 07-26-2025, 09:30 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 07-26-2025, 01:57 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 08-02-2025, 05:01 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 08-03-2025, 07:58 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 08-03-2025, 05:37 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 08-03-2025, 09:57 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 08-03-2025, 11:24 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by Vlad95 - 08-03-2025, 11:49 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by MrFixr55 - 08-04-2025, 10:04 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by Vlad95 - 08-04-2025, 11:03 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RodB - 08-04-2025, 02:55 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by Arran - 08-04-2025, 09:35 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 08-04-2025, 11:33 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by bridkarl - 08-04-2025, 11:48 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RodB - 08-05-2025, 09:53 AM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by RichG - 08-05-2025, 12:10 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by bridkarl - 08-05-2025, 12:27 PM
RE: Philco 41-255 - by Arran - 08-07-2025, 07:41 PM



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