WHA (AM)

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WHA (970 AM) is the oldest continually-operating radio station in the United States, currently the flagship of Wisconsin Public Radio's talk-based Ideas Network. A historical marker outside the station's studios at the University of Wisconsin-Madison calls it the country's oldest, although some dispute this particularly since it is difficult for historians to agree on what exactly constituted a "broadcast" in the early days of radio. The best competitor against the station for this title is likely Charles Herrold's series of transmitters, which eventually became KCBS. However, WHA, under its experimental license 9XM, was the only station permitted to continue operations continuously during World War I, whereas all other stations had their operations curtailed by the United States Federal Government.

The name is also used for WHA-TV channel 21 (20 digital), flagship of the Wisconsin Public Television network.

Experiments with spark gap transmitters stretch back to 1900. Professor Edward Bennett started using the call sign 9XM in 1914. A year later, the call sign was transferred to the University of Wisconsin and used for many experiments in the physics department. Professor Earle M. Terry managed many of these tests, and he eventually decided that the station should start making regular weather broadcasts. From December 4, 1916 onward, the station transmitted regular reports in Morse code.

While most early radio stations in the United States were shut down when the country entered World War I, 9XM's early transmissions were considered important enough to continue, spending much of the war broadcasting weather information to ships sailing on the Great Lakes.

Voice broadcasts took some time to work out, as there were some significant fidelity problems. Terry hosted a party at his home in 1917 to listen to the first scheduled audio broadcast, although few of the guests understood the implications of being able to listen to a piece of music that could just as easily be placed in a nearby record player. The fidelity issues were worked out by February 1919 when a transmission was made for the U.S. Navy.

Regularly-scheduled audio broadcasts began a year later in February 1920. A six day per week schedule began on January 3, 1921. The station received its WHA call sign on January 13, 1922.

The popular Canadian television series The Friendly Giant was created in 1953 on WHA. The show starring Bob Homme lasted for a while before it moved to local television station WHA-TV before making its way to Canadian television on the CBC.

[edit] References

• Jeff Miller (editor). A Chronology of AM Radio Broadcasting 1900-1960.
• Randall Davidson. 9XM Talking: The Early History of WHA Radio. PortalWisconsin.org