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.