W6XBE

General Electric built the 35 kilowatt W6XBE transmitter in 1939 for the Golden Gate Exhibition. So far as I know, this was a first, as the W6XBE transmitter was situated on a man-made island of logs and fill dirt, and muck dredged from the San Francisco Bay. There have been transmitters on boats anchored off shore, even one recently in Seattle.. but never one on a man-made island. They named it "Treasure Island." It still exists today.
Treasure Island was made for the The Golden Gate Exhibition. It was held at the same time as the World's Fair was going on in New York, kind of a "me-too" event for the west coast. But at the same time as the exhibition was the first major DX convention, the Golden Gate DX festival. It was sponsored by the IDA (International DXers Alliance.) It was they who made special broadcasts over shortwave station 15290 kHz W6XBE. They also had lectures, displays and most importantly BBQ. I wrote about them in relation to AFRN previously. More here. the Bay Area radio museum has a great page here.

What makes this interesting is that in 1938 the FCC terminated the experimental status of international shortwave. A dozen experimental calls got 4 letter calls overnight including the experimental call sign W6XBE which became KGEI during the Fair. It's power was increased to 50 kW. The transmitter shack on Treasure Island was called the "Palace of Electricity." It's actual longwire antenna was strung across two poles located at the harbor entrance. After the Fair GE moved the transmitter to Redwood City, CA. More here.

In 1942, because of the WWII the Navy annexed the island. KGEI was operated by the Office of War Information. Treasure Island was a naval base and housed a radio training school. KGEI became the west coast station for the VOA. In 1953 they began broadcasting in Spanish and Portuguese as "the University of the Air." FEBC (Far East Broadcasting Company) bought KGEI in 1959. It closed in 1995. the navy closed the base in 1997. Strangely the story goes that FEBC donated its transmitter to a radio ministry in in Liberia where it was destroyed by rebels in their civil war.

Pictures here. Today Treasure Island has a population of 1,453 according to the 200 census.

Victory Six Radio Hour

The Victory Six Radio Hour was one of radio's earliest variety shows. It began in January of 1928, pre-dating many better-known programs but this one was not a series. It was an irregular set of radio specials. The second show didn't run until March of the same year. The March program had a similar line up with the Whitman Orchestra again and an appearance by Will Rodgers.

The NBC radio Network premiere of The Dodge Brothers Victory Six Radio Hour featured Al Jolson, Will Rogers, Dorothy Stone, and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. The show was broadcast out of WEAF-AM and this ad was "retransmitted to the world. I don't have a complete list but it includes: KOMO, KGW, KNG, KGO, KPO, KFI, KSL, WSB, KOA, KPRC, WSMB, WJAX, WMC, WFAA, KVOO, WSM, WBT, KSD, WDAF, WOW, WHO, WSAI, WOC, WCCO, WTMJ, WWJ, WTAM, WCAE, WHAM, WLIT, WBAL, WRC, WEEI, WCSH, WJAR, WTAG and certainly others... Great post here and here

The show was named for the Dodge model Victory Six. The line was introduced in January 1928 right alongside the radio program. The car cost $1,095 dollars and was heavily advertised by the Dodge Brothers. The Victory Six had an innovative monopiece body/frame design where the seats attached directly to the frame lowering the center of gravity and improving the handling. it also reduced the overall weight by 175 lbs improving acceleration and performance.

In 1927 George Harrison Phelps had been hired to promote the Victory Six. Dodge was not doing well and needed a PR campaign for the Victory Six. He hired PR man Edward Bernays to help. Bernays thought that they should focus on radio over newspapers. Dodge spend $67,000 on the radio show. The buzz got them free publicity in the newspapers.

The downside was that the car didn't sell. For the Dodge brothers sales had been falling in 1927. As a result their stock price began falling. Owner Clarence Dillon sold the company to Chrysler. The buyout made consumers nervous, but Chrysler confirmed publicly they were not closing Dodge dealerships nor ending the brand. Sales in 1928 grew 11.5%. But was that all the Chrysler talking points... or was some of that very effective radio advertising?

One and a big backlog

I gotta start getting more than one done per week. I'm backed up
Silian Rail - And I You, To Pieces

Delmarva Peninsula

The Delmarva peninsula is an odd piece of geography. to the North it sprouts from Wilmington, via the Philadelphia metro. It borders not only that market, but also Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News. the argument can even be made that stations in the southern part of the Atlantic City-Cape May market have some coverage. The region is hideously cut up into separate markets losing counties to the above but then also containing the Salisbury-Ocean City MSA. RELATED LINK: Why is Delaware so oddly shaped?

Route 13 South cuts straight through it giving me a fair sampling of the radio landscape. as you start in Wilmington, most of the radio stations are either Philly stations, pretending to be Philly stations or are at least audible in Philly. They're less than 30 miles apart so this stands to reason. Key differences are WVUD which today was playing Reggae, and high school station WMPH. WMPH was running an all 80s program I couldn't bear.

Route 13 South cuts straight down Delaware through Smyrna, Dover, Harrington, Seaford, Laurel and then on the border Delmar. Smyrna has a local station, WRDX. It's branding claims it's the only station serving the entire state of Delaware. That's pretty clever actually. But Tom-FM is just another AC station; the programming is not at all novel.

Dover it's capital has no more the makings of a market than Smyrna. They have WRTX (a WRTI simulcast) WDSD, WDOV-AM and WDPZ-AM. on 96.1 is a LP-FM station WIHW but they run religious sat-cast programming from FBN the fundamentalist Broadcasting Network. WDOV-AM carries a few shows of note such as Susan Hite, it can at least be said she's only on 7 stations total. Keep in mind that at this point you can still hear WXPN on 88.5 and if you go any farther south you get WAMU. We are wedged between major markets.
In Seaford is a standards station WJWK-AM, and the Salisbury University station, all-classical 89.5 WSCL. but after Laurel the dial opens up as you are entering a real market Salisbury-Ocean City, MD. 98.1 WOCM is a legit AAA station, and WLBW is an acceptable oldies outlet. It's not all Jones Radio Network, they do still have air staff. On the south side of Salisbury you start to hear the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore station 91.3 WESM a fine all-jazz outlet. You can also catch 540 WGOP-AM former home of radio legend "Choppy" Layton. It's conservative talk now but I didn't' recognize the host.

After Pocomoke City options are scarce. There are literally fewer stations than you can count on your fingers; mostly country, gospel and Religious talk. By the time you get to Exmore your local stations can book in Norfolk such as WROX. I was definitely in the south long before the bridge.. I saw a Stuckeys.

hold mail

Traveling

I'm on the road.. I'll have something to say it about that later.

Edison's Lab

This is a photograph taken by Lloyd Grimstead on October 15th 1911 of Thomas Edison's laboratory. On the left is the lab, on the right is an office building. In 1928 Henry Ford moved the complex to Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan where it was reconstructed as an exhibit.
You can read about Mr. Grimstead here. Grimstead supported himself in the great depression selling photo post cards door-to-door. The Metuchen-Edison Historical Society currently possesses these negatives who reprinted the above picture as a post card which is how I am able to share it today. Their site is here.

Thomas Edison was 64 when this picture was taken. It was also the year of his now famous Columbian Magazine Interview.

ONE and 3 coming

Three might be optimistic...
Ladyfinger (ne) - Dusk

Earl Mitton on CFNB

I rarely write aboot Canada... but I really like this band, and in the whole of the Internet there are less than 400 words on them. So today I try to contribute to the cannon.

Earl Mitton was born in Mocton, New Brunswick in 1926 For much of North East Canada Earl defines old time country music. He started his first band, The Valley Rhythm Boys in 1950. The band got their name from announcer Jack Fenety of CFNB. Earl had a show on that station for another 10 years. But he also moonlighted on CHOV. In the late 50s he also filled in for Don Messer at CFCY. NSARM even had that last bit on transcription disc. [Note to researchers it's often misspelled as Mitten]

CFNB played a lot of early country music, bluegrass and western swing. Mitton regularly appeared on the program Capital Co-Op Saturday Night Jamboree. After that e moved onto a regular gig with the CBC Maritime Farmers Show.. and others. The gig did right by his career as it landed him a 3-record deal with Quality Records. The first of those is “Down East Fiddling.” That was followed by "Fiddlin' for fun." Which I proudly own.

At times his band includes: James Swazey, Maxime Richard, Bob Barry on Piano, Al Goguen on guitar, Roy Malanson on bass, Ron Goodine on banjo, and his own brother Gary Mitton on drums. Vocalists on various records included Bill Ritchie, Emma Mersereau, and William Spencer.

In the early sixties, the TV tube beckoned, and the Earl Mitton Show began to be seen by viewers of CHSJ-TV in Saint John. This led to guest shots the last few seasons on the Don Messer Jubilee over CBC-TV, and national recognition for this talented old-time fiddler. Mitton died in 1991.

Count Basie on W9XBY

First of all you need to understand that Count Basie was the man. In the 1920s he was living in Harlem playing hot jazz at shows and vaudeville gigs. He moved around he toured, he started to build a career. But his first recordings happened in 1936. Radio is how he got there.

In 1929 he became a pianist for Bennie Moten. Moten was great, the former leader of 'Bennie Moten's Radio Orchestra" but during a 1935 tonsillectomy Moten died of a freak heart attack. Basie took over as bandleader. The band was the Barons of Rhythm. Moten's nephew was a pseudo bandleader and led the band to a gig doing radio broadcasts in a tiny jazz joint called Club Reno in Kansas City. That radio station was 1550 W9XBY.W9XBY was one of four experimental high fidelity licensed by the FRC in 1933. These stations were were permitted to be 20 KHz wide instead of the standard 10 kHz. they occupied 1530, 1570, and 1550. These stations were:
W1XBS - Waterbury, CT
W2XR - Long Island City, NY
W9XBY - Kansas City, MO
W6XAI - Bakersfield, CA

W9XBY went on air for the first time in December if 1934. In 1937 W9XBY got the calls KXBY-AM. But long before that happened, the high power, high fidelity signals were booming across the plains. It allowed none other than John Hammond to hear nightly broadcasts from Count Basie's nightly shows all they in New York City. (I know this isn't apocryphal as Mezz Mezzerow makes the same claim in his own bio) This is crucial because at the time not only was Hammond a writer for Downbeat but also an A&R man for Columbia Records. Basie got a booking agent and a deal with Decca.

In one article Basie attributed his nickname to these broadcasts "One night the announcer called me over to the microphone for those usual few words of introduction. He commented that Bill Basie was a rather ordinary name and that there were a couple of well known band leaders named Earl and Duke. Then he said, 'Bill, I think I'll call you Count Basie from now on." The band became Count Basie and the Cherry Blossoms and they became the the house band at Club Reno in the summer of 1935. But this was the era of hot jazz, and Basie was at his creative peak as a man of le jazz hot, and swing.

Basie outlasted KXBY-AM. After Basie blew town Jesse Prices Big band played the gig, then George E. Lee. The station began carrying Mutual Network programming at night and dropped the Club Reno sponsored program. In 1942 due to ownership tumult the FCC revoked their license. They held a hearing and nobody even showed up. The Club Reno was later re-named the House of Swing. Today it's location at 602 E. 12th Street is now occupied by a parking lot.
*image from qcwa.org

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Harry Abraham hasn't had a radio show since 1978 and that is a travesty. In 1978 WHAM-AM flipped to country music and Harry hit the road, his jazz show ended abruptly. He died May 7th 2009 and that too was a goddamn shame. Even in 1982, just 4 years after the show was nixed Larry King at Billboard was reminiscing about the program in print.

1180 WHAM was a clear channel station.. it could be heard from Rochester south to Dallas, west to Denver East into the Atlantic, and North deep into Canada. That mean that from midnight to 5 AM Harry owned the night. His show "The Best of All Possible Worlds" was one of the greatest jazz programs that ever was. In a time of jazz greatness when classic sides were born, Harry was there to play them. More here.

He signed off the show the same way every time '...wishing you the best of all possible worlds..." After radio he tried his hand at a number of gigs, computer networking, photography, and one not-so-successful bank robbery. While in prison he studied up and went straight, but never went back to radio.

DTV as I say, not as I do

In its final DTV update, Nielsen reported that 2.8 million American households are totally unprepared digital transition. That's not so bad, that's less than 3%. Before the original February deadline it was more like 10%. So in my estimation it was worth waiting. Yet for all the hubbub there are 3 types of stations still broadcasting in analog.1. Border Stations.
The FCC gave special dispensation to UHF and VHF TV stations on the U.S./Mexico border. This is to allow them to compete with the Mexican stations that cannot be legally compelled to switch to DTV. I do note this same courtesy was not extended to the Canadian border. Whoops, that order never materialized. The analog Mexican TV stations continue to broadcast, those in the US do not.

2. LPTV
The Low Power TV stations in the U.S. do not yet have a head deadline for DTV conversion. The FCC could issue a deadline at any time. I assume that the reactions to the Friday switch will largely dictate how far out this is. Some of these stations emulate FM station on 87.7 WNYZ-LP in New York and WLFM-LP in Chicago will likely drag this out as long as possible.

3. "Nightlight" stations
To help sweep up that 2.5% about 100 stations will continue running their analog signal but only to carry DTV conversion information for consumers. I don't have a complete list but it includes: KWQC-TV, KNBC-TV, KTLA-TV, WKMG-TV, KNSD-TV, KWHY-TV, WITI-TV, and about 95 others. They are scheduled to sign off on June 26th.

To commemorate the occasion I snagged the sign offs of four Analog stations. The cut offs range from dead mid-sentence stops to 6 minute extravaganzas. Downloads below:

WBRC-TV 08:54 AM
WLNS-TV 11:56 PM
WRTV-TV 08:05 AM
WTVR-TV 08:58 PM

One and one coming

Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another
Stranded in Stereo Vol 14 Download HERE
...coming soon: Navvy, Ladyfinger etc.

KKK Radio

I've found a couple cases in the past where the KKK actually owned a broadcasting facility. It's rare today that they have any voice on the commercial FM or even AM band. That's not to say there's no voice for bigotry or racism in broadcasting, there's always FOX. Regardless, it makes these historical instances even more arcane.In the image above you see a Klansman sitting atop a defeated Catholic. It comes from the text "Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty" printed by the Pillar of Fire Church in 1926. Church founder, Bishop Alma Birdwell White went on to print dozens of books supporting the KKK and white supremacy. These works include "the Good Citizen," "The Ku Klux Klan Prophesy", "Guardians of Liberty," "Heroes of the Fiery Cross"etc. You may be thinking man.. that's a long time ago. But just wait. She reprinted them in 1943, shortly before her death in 1946. The 1992 Book "Women of the Klan" details Alma's role as a spokesperson for the Klan. (She even penned Klan poetry)

Bishop white had left the Methodist Church in 1917 because it was "hopelessly apostate." Really it just refused to recognize female preachers as equals. She'd been holding revivals and wanted some recognition. So she started a Pentecostal sect, the Pillar of Fire Church. They built a compound in Franklin country New Jersey that got so nutty that her husband divorced her and repudiated the sect. Strangely at this time in her life her politics took two major changes. She became an advocate for the ERA and also big time supporter of the KKK. She wanted women to be treated equally unless they were Jewish, black or (gasp) Catholic.

In 1925 when WBNY-AM signed on at 1430 MHz. The first owner was Shirley Katz, who sold to engineer Sydney Norton Baruch that same year. In 1926 the station moved to 930 AM then inexplicably moved to 1370 to share time with both WKBO, WKBQ and WFRL. It seems odd but really they'd only been running a little PM programming anyway. They moved again in 1928 to 1350 becoming a share time with WCDA, WKBQ and WMSG. Sick of the endless merry-go-round Baruch sold to The Pillar of Fire Church and one Bishop White.

In 1928 Pillar of Fire branched out and bought a stick in Westminster Colorado. 1490 KPOF-AM was initially licensed as KGEY-AM at a mere 15 watts. Pillar of Fire refers to this as their oldest station forgetting that Katz started WBNY years earlier. Their ownership initiated was only months apart. They also own 93.3 WAKW in Cincinnati which they actually founded themselves rather than purchased. In 1961 the FCC grated them the calls WAKW standing for Arthur Kent White, the initials of the Bishops son.
WMSG was shortly thereafter absorbed into WBNY making WAWZ a much more valuable property. It was a share-time with new York station WBNX-AM. WAWZ-AM still only broadcast about 4 hours a day. In 1954 in a very-forward-thinking move they bought 99.1 FM from the New Brunswick Home News. In 1984, after the last descendant of Ms. White left the helm, P.O.F. sold off the AM stick allowing WKDM-AM to go to 24 hour service. Just to reiterate their bigoted roots, they ran a special day of programming before handing off. It was a full-day of recordings of Bishop Alma Birdwell White preaching her nutty head off.

Despite being dead for decades WAWZ didn't repudiate the KKK until 1997. They described their dalliance with the KKK as "brief" an adjective that vastly understates the connection.

WNEW Jingles

After contacting me about WNEW-AM, a mysterious figure named tallboyyy was kind enough to post a series of WNEW-AM jingles on Youtube. His sampling runs for almost nine minutes! I share it here

ONE THOUSAND POSTS

POST # 1000
(taking the night off)

Senator and DJ

I wrote a post about disgraced politicians moving into broadcasting. There have also been those who have made that transition in the other direction. There a good number that have tried and failed. Syndicated host Jerry Doyle lost a run for the House of representatives, and more notably in 1994 when Howard Stern ran for Governor of New York. Of course with any on-air talent the question remains if it's a run for office or a publicity stunt. Just to prove it's possible. Here are three radio people that became senators with success and without disgrace.

1. Senator Nancy Kassebaum [R] Kansas was VP of KFH Co in Wichita. In 1978 she beat out 8 candidates and took the Republican senatorial nomination and won the election over Bill Roy [D]. Her husband J. Phillip Kassebaum owns KFH-AM and KBRA-FM. Her father Alf Landon owned at the time KEDD-AM, KSCB-AM, amd KIIX-AM, KTCL-FM, and WREN-AM. After serving 19 years in the Senate she opted not to seek reelection in 1996.

2. Senator Walter D. Huddleston [D] was once the manager of WIEL-AM in Elizabethtown KY, and co-owner of WLBN-AM. In 1964 he ran for a seat on the Kentucky State senate and won. In 1972 he made a move for a vacated seat in the U.S. Senate defeating Republican Louie B. Nunn. He lost the seat in 1984 by less then 1 percentage point.

3. Senator Al Franken [D] In 2004 Al Franken because a genuine radio show host. His program on Air America ran 3 hours a day, Monday thru Friday for 3 years. When he left the network in 2007, he anounced his intent to run for Senate on his final show. He won that election by a small margin of about 215 votes but has yet to be seated due to Republican stalling tactics. I wont let that exclude him here.

*Senator Jesse Helms [R] was formerly executive VP of WRAL-TV but that's TV. That doesn't count on this blog.
* Image from Scecon

Two now, two later

These Are Powers - All Aboard Future
The Sway Machinery - Hidden Melodies Revealed

Z-Codes

That issue of The Amplifier had a few words that caught my eye. Notably ZCF, ZSF, ZWA, and ZZA. They looked familiar but I couldn't place them in my world of shortwave. I consulted a couple other geeks and one recognized them as military but was unsure. Turned out he was right.

Sending data by wireless was difficult. Abbreviation made things faster, so early on there were both formal and informal competing systems. In 1912 the International Radio Telegraph Convention standardized the Q-codes. This was a big step but the European military was already using X-codes, and Cable & Wireless Ltd. was already using Z-codes on their land lines. Cable & wireless is the British Communications company that manufactured the sea cables that interconnect the British empire. In 1942 the U.S. military asked the allies to drop X-codes infavor of Q codes. In the midst of WWII they were willing to standardize.

But strangely the U.S. millitary after WWI moved onto use Z-codes as did NATO. Because of that dual commercial/military heritage some Z-codes have more than one meaning. I'll start with the four above translated to plan English
ZCF - Please check your center frequency
ZSF - Send faster
ZWA - ?
ZZA - ?

Notice those last two are unknown. Let me explain that a little bit. They're used multiple times in the CCC shortwave notes but are not standardized Z-codes. Codes from ZAA to ZXZ are standardized in the military code book. Z-codes from ZYA to ZZZ are reserved for temporary assignments so we can assume these had special meanings unique to the CCC. Perhaps some living radioman of that era will fill us in. More here.

The Z-codes (like the Q-Codes) are standardized today by NATO through the publishing of ACP-131. Howver, it's important to note that the first edition of ACP-131 was published by the U.S. military. Because it was classified at the time I dont have a copy of that edition, btu I do have a pdf of a 1964 edition that was probably close: Here

Wawa Radio Spots

Why? Because it's Hoagiefest that's why!

Today Wawa exemplifies regional advertising. Even though Forbes lists them as one of the 100 largest privately held companies they've deftly targets their growth in concentric rings around Eastern Pennsylvania. The chain reaches south to Norfolk and north to New Jersey. They have no stores outside NJ, PA, DE, VA, and MD.

This focus begets regional advertising which I find requires more cleverness than national advertising. If you're going to break up America into a set of radio campaigns Arbitron has already done the footwork. Nike and Budweiser break it down my major metro. If you are focusing on a smaller area you have to do a little thinking for yourself. If the area is small, your listeners may in fact hear your spots on multiple stations. How varied do you want them to be and so on.

In this set Wawa used different voices for different metro areas with similar scripts. Each one has identity but the theme is constant for optimum recognition. It's simple and clever which is how you know it works.
Jake from Philly
Linda from Dover
Pam from Philly
Travis from Trenton
Doug

Waylon Jennings KLLL

In 1949 12-year old Waylon Jennings marched himself into the studios of 1490 KVOW-AM in Littlefield, TX to audition. GM J.B. McShan liked the kids routine and gave little Waylon a 30-minute weekly program. This was Waylons first band, The Texas longhorns which included Emil Macha on washtub bass and Roscoe Taylor on banjo and according to one source 'a 390 lb mandolin player named 'tiny'. True or not, it's sufficiently mythical to be included here for entertainment value.They recorded a demo at KFYO, and Jennings DJ'd briefly on the "Sunday Party" program on KDAV. When he turned 18 he relocated to Lubbock and got a steady gig behind the mic at KLLL a direct competitor for KDAV. It was there at KLLL that he met Buddy Holly. Buddy recorded a demo at KLLL and if Waylon asn't manning the reels I'll bet he was in the room.

Holly produced two songs for Waylon at Petty Studios in Clovis, NM. Holly played guitar on both, and the record was released on Brunswick in 1959. They became friends and Waylon was hired to be the bassist on Buddy Holly's Winter Dance Party Tour in 1959. That was the fateful tour in which Buddy Holly's plane crash killing him, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. The tour continued without Buddy with Waylon singing lead. More here.

After that fateful tour Waylon returned to DJing at KLLL. He and his family moved stopped over in Coolidge, AZ where they stayed with his wife Maxine's sister. He got another radio gig this time working for Earl Perrin of Gila Broadcasting on his fledgling radio network. Waylon worked out of KYCY right in Coolidge. KYCY had a strange dual heritage as both a Mutual radio network member and a Network of Arizona Station. Earl Perrin owned the latter. Earl Hickman owned the former.

Perrin ended up owing Gila something like 30,000 dollars and went nearly bankrupt. Waylon exited stage left and went to Phoenix. The stage was calling Waylon he became an outlaw country musician and never went back to radio. His album "the Outlaws" was the first country album to be certified platinum. He died in 2002.

The CCC Radio Network

Somewhere out there is the September 1935 issue of Radio News with the article "Radio in the CCC." That one article is the only one I am aware of that directly addresses this topic. Until I read it I remain somewhat in the dark on this arcane topic. (please anyone?)

The CCC was the Civilian Conservation Corps a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942. It was part of President Roosevelt's New Deal program. While much of it is today derided as "liberal" the CCC actually was first suggested by Michigan Senator James Couzens [R]. There are few books on the program leaving us with our grandparents as the best sources of information. Notably here and here.

The men of the CCC planted treed, (about three billion trees) fought soil erosion, fought forest fires, built fish hatcheries, built drainage systems and levys, constructed roads and more. In 1933 they began offering their enrollees vocational training. This training included radio. They had shortwave classes, radio theory, taught Morse code, and operated the CCC radio network including the stations WUGA, WUGN, WUGF, WUGT, WUGH, WUGR, WUMA, WUGP, WUGL, WUGE, WUGG, WUGC, WUGU, WUGB, WUCC and certainly others. The Campt at Ft. Benning actually had their own newsletter The Amplifier. They conducted code drills transcribing timed broadcast from WLM in D.C. There is a great page here.

But we know precious little about these stations. That single issue of The Amplifier tells me that WUGR was in Chipley, GA. WUGP was in Brooksville, FL, WUGN in Woodville FL, was in Tampa, WUGE, WUGF in Starko, FL etc. There were 20 stations in the District "H" Radio Network for the CCC. District H included Florida, and parts of southern Alabama and Georgia. there were at least another dozen equally large networks. The then disappeared. I can only assume with the dissolution of the CCC their funding dried up. I also assume that the stations on some military bases like Ft. Benning may have found some extended life in the war-time effort but alas this is only a guess.

Despite wide popularity the program never became permanent. In 1939 Congress passed it's last funding extension. In December of 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor funding was cut to prepare for war.