I recently found a list of Police band stations from 1931. There are of course much earlier published lists. But what makes this one interesting is that it's exactly 10 years after the Detroit police commissioner William Rutledge first used radio equipped vehicles in 1921. That makes this an early picture of the technology adoption curve. It's in an instant in which the word television was still uncommon. Radio magazines still listed those experiments stations as "visual broadcasters."
A decade after that innovation, the whole of America had just over 60 police radios. Today any US city with a population of over 30,000 would have more police radios than that. America now easily has over 794,300 police officers, and with numerous devices per person one can easily estimate a total number in the low millions.
When Rutledge flipped the switch there were under 70 licensed broadcasters in the nation [Source]. By 1931 the total number of radio stations in the US at the time was just over 640. The 66 Police stations below indicate a ratio change of 1.5% to 10%. That's a really meaningful jump. Some larger metro areas already had multiple stations including New York, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco. More here.
| CALLS | KILOCYCLES | CITY | STATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| WPDO | 2458 | Akron | OH |
| WPDN | 1712 | Auburn | NY |
| KGPJ | 1712 | Beaumont | TX |
| KSW | 2410 | Berkley | CA |
| WRDU | 1596 | Brooklyn | NY |
| WMJ | 2422 | Buffalo | NJ |
| WBR | 257 | Butler | PA |
| KGOZ | 2470 | Cedar Rapids | IA |
| WPDV | 2458 | Charlotte | NC |
| WPDB | 1712 | Chicago | IL |
| WPDC | 1712 | Chicago | IL |
| WPDD | 1712 | Chicago | IL |
| WKDU | 1712 | Cincinnati | OH |
| WRBH | 2452 | Cleveland | OH |
| KVP | 1712 | Dallas | TX |
| KGPN | 2470 | Davenport | IA |
| WKDT | 1596 | Detroit | MI |
| WCK | 2410 | Detroit | MI |
| WPDX | 2410 | Detroit | MI |
| KGPF | 2416 | El Paso | TX |
| WPDF | 2440 | Flint | MI |
| WPDZ | 2470 | Ft. Wayne | IN |
| WPEB | 2440 | Grand Rapids | MI |
| WJL | 257 | Greensburg | PA |
| WRDR | 2410 | Grosse Point | MI |
| WBA | 257 | Harrisburg | PA |
| WMO | 2410 | Highland Park | MI |
| WMDZ | 2440 | Indianapolis | IN |
| WRDS | 1662 | Ingham | MI |
| KGPE | 2422 | Kansas City | MO |
| WPDT | 2470 | Kokomo | IN |
| WPDL | 2440 | Lansing | MI |
| KGPL | 1712 | Los Angeles | CA |
| WPDE | 2440 | Louisville | KY |
| WPEC | 2470 | Memphis | TN |
| WNDA | 2440 | Miami | FL |
| WPDK | 2452 | Milwaukee | WI |
| KGPB | 2416 | Minneapolis | MN |
| WPY | 448 | New York | NY |
| WPY | 500 | New York | NY |
| KGPH | 2452 | Oklahoma City | OK |
| KGPI | 2470 | Omaha | NE |
| KHJX | 1712 | Pasadena | CA |
| WPDJ | 2416 | Passaic | NJ |
| WPDP | 2440 | Philadelphia | PA |
| WPDU | 1712 | Pittsburgh | PA |
| KGPP | 2452 | Portland | OR |
| WPDH | 2416 | Richmond | VA |
| WPDR | 1712 | Rochester | NY |
| KGPC | 1712 | St Louis | MO |
| WPDS | 2416 | St. Paul | MN |
| WPDM | 2440 | St. Petersburg | FL |
| KGOY | 1712 | San Antonio | TX |
| KGPD | 1596 | San Francisco | CA |
| KGPD | 2410 | San Francisco | CA |
| KGPM | 2410 | San Jose | CA |
| KGPA | 1596 | Seattle | WA |
| KGPK | 2470 | Sioux City | IA |
| WPEA | 1712 | Syracuse | NY |
| WRDQ | 2470 | Toledo | OH |
| WPDA | 2416 | Tulare | CA |
| KGPO | 2452 | Tulsa | OK |
| KGPG | 2410 | Vallejo | CA |
| WPGW | 2410 | Washington | DC |
| WDX | 257 | Wyoming | PA |
| WPDG | 2458 | Youngstown | OH |
Posts
You always come up with the most interesting stuff. I did a paper on WOBU in Charleston, WV; and for a short time, the station provided police calls in the 1920s to city police.
ReplyDeleteHave you done anything regarding shared frequencies. One of the last two stations to continue shared frequencies were WFAA & WBAP. I did a report on this back in my college days for a broadcast law and regulations class.
NICE!
ReplyDeleteWould you consider letting me post those?