Monday, September 09, 2024

DJ Powel Crosley Jr. and the mystery of 8CR

 

How or when Crosley wrote the above pamphlet I do not know. It's obscure ephemera. But powell has always been involved writing his own history. Wikipedia clearly states that Powel Crosley Jr.'s company "operated" WLW. The Cincinnati Enquirer states that he founded WLW. These are two very different things. So let's get specific. In 1921 the Crosley Manufacturing Company was issued two radio station licenses: one for a standard amateur station, 8CR, located at 5723 Davey Avenue, Cincinnati, OH.  The other for an Experimental station, 8XAA, located at the company's Blue Rock Street factory building in Cincinnati. Neither of these stations is WLW. More here.  The definitive book on the topic is Not Just a Sound; the story of WLW by Dick Perry. He noticed a problem in the official history

WLW became WLW in March,1922, if that helps. Some say the original call letters were 8CR, and those of you who are fond of old call letters, as I am, are probably wondering where 8CR vanished. Well, the only record of 8CR's existence seems to be in the news releases that Crosley, Jr., himself wrote. He said 8CR was the forerunner of WLW. The Department of Commerce, then licensing stations, has no record of it; the department says his first station was the aforementioned 8XAA. Shall we leave that discussion to the ages?
Crosley, Jr., is the source on the connection to 8CR. He was making the claim at least as early as 1938. Every version I read is slightly different. But for it to be true the  8CR facility would have to be located in Crosley's College Hill home. The location today is a car park. Precision Equipment Co made his transmitter. But at the time Crosley was primarily a maker of auto parts. He didn't make his first retail radios until 1921. The radio band in Ohio was a really happening place in the early 1920s.

Most biographies start in 1921 when Crosley moved his 8CR transmitter to his factory. It implies that it was also licensed in 1921 which is not the case. From the Bulletins below we can see that it was issued in February of 1920. So before proceeding I took a look at the Special Land Station in the Department of Commerce radio Service Bulletins [LINK] for 2020 and 2021, paying special attention to find all of the relevant call signs. *Note: I'm skipping the issues with no Ohio-relevant entries. There were no Ohio stations of this type in the 1919 bulletins, and no bulletins at all in 1918 due to WWI. You will see some incongruities I cannot account for such as 8YR being licensed to Oxford, OH twice. I also cross-referenced the listings with the canonical source: earlyradiohistory.us.


Bulletin Date Calls
Owner
Location
Mar. 1915 8ZX
Harry S. Weber
Canal Dover, OH
Mar. 1915 8ZF
Henry M. Rubel, Jr.
Cincinnati, OH
Mar. 1915 8YO
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Mar. 1915 8ZU
Doron Bros. Electric Co.
Hamilton, OH
Mar. 1915
8ZM
Ross McGregor
Springfield, OH
May 1915
 8XW
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Warren, OH
Aug. 1915
8YP
Ohio University
Athens, OH
Sept. 1915 8ZH
 Clayton M. Howe (Hughes H.S.)
Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 1915
8YL
 J. E. Collins (Board of Education)
Lima, OH
Oct. 1915 8ZT
John J. Grossman
Tiffin, OH
Dec. 1915
8ZD
Keith Henny
Marion, OH
Jan. 1916
8ZI
Roy C. Burr
Norwalk, OH
Jan. 1916 8ZG
Henry W. Campbell
Ironton, OH
Jan. 1916 9ZO
Ross Gunn
Oberlin, OH
May 1, 1916
8YR
Miami University
Oxford, OH
Nov. 1, 1916
8ZL
Willis K. Wing (Scott H.S.)
Toldeo, OH
Mar. 1, 1917
8ZQ
Charles K. Brain
Springfield, OH
 Feb. 2, 1920 8ZV
 Henry L. Ley
 Canton, OH
 Feb. 2, 1920 8XB
 Precision Equipment Co.
 Cincinnati, OH
 Feb. 2, 1920 8XF
Emil J. Simon
Cleveland, OH
 Feb. 2, 1920 8ZY
K. A. Duerk
Defiance, OH
April 1, 1920
8XI
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
April 1, 1920 8ZI
Adelbert J. Gogel
Toldeo, OH
May 1, 1920
8ZX
Harry S. Weber
Dover, OH
July 1, 1920
8ZJ
Hughes High School
Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 1, 1920
8XC Glen L. Martin Co.
Cleveland, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZH East High School
Cincinnati, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZE  Norman A. Thomas & Edward Manley
Marietta, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZT George M. Withington, Jr.
Marietta, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZA
Charles J. Murray
 New Philadelphia, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZG
A. J. Manning
Salem, OH
Oct. 1, 1920
8ZB
 Earl S. Ensign & William P. Van Behren
Toldeo, OH
Nov. 1, 1920
8ZP
Edward I. Deighen
Cleveland, OH
Dec. 1, 1920
8YR
Miami University
Oxford, OH
Dec. 1, 1920 8ZL
Charles Candler
St. Mary's, OH
Jan, 3, 1921
8YK
Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, OH
April 1, 1921
8ZN
J. W. Kauffman
Ashland, oh
April 1, 1921 8XY
Cino Radio Mfg. Co.
Cincinnati, OH
April 1, 1921 8YS
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH
April 1, 1921 8YM
Richard H. Howe
Granville, OH
May 2, 1921
8YT
Mount Union College
Alliance, OH
May 2, 1921 8YX
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH
May 2, 1921 8XV Frederick S. McCullough
Cleveland, OH
May 2, 1921 8YU
Young Men's Christian Assoc.
Dayton, OH
May 2, 1921 8ZAA
J. Warren Wright
Springfield, OH
Aug 1, 1921
8XAA
Crosley Manufacturing Co.
Cincinnati, OH
Nov. 1, 1921
8YO Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Dec. 1, 1921
8ZAC Clifford, OH
Barnesville, OH

You will notice that 8CR is not on that list anywhere. The numeral 8 matches the radio Inspection District. But only certain call letters were granted in that period and the middle character is always a Y, Z or X.  8XB is a plausible first call sign for WLW. It matches the time period, location and Dept of Commerce records. But it actually became WMH.  

In August 1923 8CR belonged to Wilbur E. Cook of 552 Ferdinand Ave., Detroit, MI. In July of 1914, 8CR was licensed to Allen W. Coven located at 446 Earl Court, Elyria, OH and operating at 35 watts, not 20 or 30 as most often cited. It is not a "special land station" but an "amateur station" not that the technical difference was as clear cut as it is today. Later he took the call sign with him to 1122 West Ave., Elyria, NY. Then in July 1916 the calls are reassigned to Johnson J.H.E. of 319 Glenn Ave, Springfield, OH. In 1919 and into 1920 8CR belonged to Ralph R. Chartener of 47 Allen Ave. Pittsburgh, PA.

If you look at the Amateur Radio Station list of 2021 [SOURCE] or the Citizens Radio Call book [SOURCE] of 1922 there are finally entries for 8CR that match the Crosley story.  On page 87 it lists 8CR as being owned by Crosley Mg. Co and located at 5723 Davey Ave.. Cincinnati, OH. But that's after the 1921 date. A 1924 issue of the Crosley Broadcaster makes no mention of 8CR. [SOURCE] It's quite clear that Crosley was misremembering, or possibly lying, though it's unclear why.

Precision Equipment was founded in Cincinnati in late 1918 by Thomas E. New. Actually it was first founded as the Precision Engineering Association, and the name changed to the Precision Equipment Company before 1920.   They operated a store at 2437 Gilbert Avenue, in the Walnut Hills section of Cincinnati. In February of 1920 the Commerce department issued a license for 8XB. According to an anecdote from Harry F. Breckel they operated without a license prior to that with the fake call sign PC. In 1919 they mostly made test broadcasts. In February they began airing photograph records. In December of 1921 they were assigned the WMH call sign which when they were all assigned to 260 meters they had to share with WLW. Crosley bought our Precision in early 1923 and merged the companies and shut down WMH.

Shortly before buying Precision and WMH, Crosley was assigned the license 8XAA in August of 1921. In the book Golden Throats and Silver Tongues, Ray Poindexter specifically wrote "In the summer of 1921, he bought a 20-watt transmitter and began broadcasting recorded music over 8XAA, the forerunner of WLW."  But in the July 1928 issue of the Crosley Broadcaster, he claimed that 8XAA was licensed for an aircraft. [SOURCE] The Commerce guides routinely routinely mobile radio stations with the note "mobile" and this one did not, not in 1921 anyway. Maybe he confused 8CR and 8XAA or just preferred the 3 letter call sign. They were already no longer issuing them.

Perhaps the calls were re-used in 1928? But that seems very unlikely as he didn't have the call sign very long.  In 1924 the Dept. of Commerce moved to Morgantown, WV at the West Virginia University, Dept. of Physics. This matched an entry in the the Citizen's Call Book of 1926 [SOURCE]. This differs slightly from the Dept of Commerce radio guide for 1925, which assigns the calls to Mason, OH at the United States Playing Card Co. I credit that to the lag in printing the Citizen's call book. More here and here.

WLW applied for and was granted several power increases over the next six years. By 1927, WLW was transmitting with 50,000 watts.  You probably know him better as a manufacturer of radios, whose brand name continues to live on. More here.

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