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[Towntalk]

There was yet another radio station in Youngstown: WMBW – The Youngstown Broadcasting Company, Inc.  647-9 Market Street Youngstown, Ohio - 1927

[Towntalk]

SOURCES:

Complete list of radio stations on the air in 1922.

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/dial/1922.txt

Main source:

http://hamgallery.com/Tribute/WKBN/

[irishbobcat]

Towntalk, can you reference your source? Just curious.

[Towntalk]

WMC was Youngstown's first radio station going on the air in 1922, and only lasted a year before closing.

WAAY was Youngstown's second station also going on the air in 1922.

WDBF was Youngstown's third station. Went off the air in 1929.

The reason why these stations didn't last was because radio stations at the time didn't have commercials to absorb the costs. As a result, a good half of the stations that went on the air across America only lasted a short time.

As the number of radio stations grew the FCC stepped in and shut down a large number of these early stations and changed their dial location. WKBN was one of the stations that wee on the closure list, but after the intervention of the local YMCA, it was taken off the closure list and relocated the station downtown at the Central YMCA's 3^rd floor.

Since radio networks didn't begin until 1926 when NBC was organized which meant that the local stations had to create their own programs from scratch since they didn't have anything to draw from, and most of their programs were music whether with a live orchestra or phonograph records using a standard home record player.

NBC's first network program aired on about 28 stations across the country at a total cost to the network of $50,000.00, a huge sum for 1926.

Likewise since there were no commercials, the stations operated with a very limited staff and their on air time was limited to a few hours a day.

WKBN was a charter affiliate of CBS an affiliation that would last until the end of the century.

WFMJ went on the air in 1939  and would become an affiliate of NBC-Blue until the FCC forced NBC to sell off one of its networks. NBC sold off NBC-Blue which would be renamed American Broadcasting Company or ABC. WFMJ later switched to NBC, and Youngstown wouldn't have an ABC station until WBBW switched to ABC.

WBBW went on the air in 1949 first as an independent but later joined the Mutual Broadcasting System, and still later joined ABC.

These three stations covered the golden years of radio before television took over causing radio to be limited to news, talk, sports and music formats.

[irishbobcat]

True-1926

[Towntalk]

And now the question.

TRUE OR FALSE - WKBN was Youngstown's very first radio station.

[Towntalk]

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