APPENDIX A - WEBC Timeline

1907 Marconi Company constructs a wireless telegraph station with a 400-foot tower on the Duluth skyline (near today's antenna farm) for communication with Great Lakes shipping.

1917 U.S. Navy takes over the Marconi station, now called NUX, and moves it to Park Point for World War I. W. C. Bridges arrives in Duluth as a wireless operator.

1922 Hagen and Bridges Company operates a wireless broadcasting station at 2326 John Avenue, Superior.

1922 Permit applied for AM radio station by Walter C. Bridges, John T. Murphy, and Leslie Ross. There were 28 stations already broadcasting as the year started. 570 were on by year's end.

1924 June 19. WEBC's first battery-powered broadcast from the Evening Telegram Building, 13th and Tower Avenue, Superior. 50 watts at 1240 kc, using wires between two masts on the roof.

1925 Power increased to 100 watts.

1926 WEBC opens a studio/office in the Spaulding Hotel, 5th Avenue West and Superior Street, Duluth.

1926 Two steel towers from the Duplex Company of South Superior are added to the Telegram Building roof.

1927 WEBC increases power to 250 watts.

1928 Improved power supplies allow plug-in radios and transmitters. WEBC increases to 500 watts, changes from 1240 to 1280 kc.

1928 WEBC joins fledgling NBC Red network, as President Coolidge spends the summer in the area. Later in the same year, the NBC Blue network is added.

1929 WEBC receives permission from the Federal Radio Commission to operate full-time.

1930 WEBC power is increased to 1000 watts from a penthouse transmitter shack on the Telegram Building roof. Frequency shifts slightly to 1290.

1932 WEBC transmitter building is built at 40th and Tower, Superior. WEBC increases to 5000 watts, day, and 1000 watts, night. A wood-and-steel 364-foot tower is sited west of the building.

1939 10-meter short wave station W9XJL begins broadcasting WEBC programming at 26.1 mc. Also, W9XYH begins FM experiments at 43.0 mc, using a locally-built 100-watt transmitter. The dipole antenna was atop an 80-foot utility pole behind the WEBC transmitter site.

1939 Opening of the WEBC Building at 4th Avenue West and Superior Street, Duluth. There are 4 studios and a master control room. There is room for a grand piano and studio orchestra in Studio A. The "Radio Grille" cafe opens on Superior Street.

1940 Short wave W9XJL ceases operation.

1941 W9XYH becomes WDUL(FM), still at 43.0 mc FM and now with 250 watts, using a G-E FM transmitter, serial number 1.

1941 A second all-steel, 340-foot tower is added at 40th and Tower, south of the original tower. WEBC now uses a directional signal of 5000 watts day and night. WEBC frequency is changed to 1320.

1942 WEBC and WDUL(FM) reduce power by 10 percent for the war effort until 1945.

1944 WDUL(FM) changes to 44.5 mc.

1945 WDUL(FM) moves to the new FM band at 92.3 mc.

1947 WDUL(FM) becomes WEBC-FM at 65,000 watts broadcasting from a 550-foot tower on the Duluth skyline.

1948 WEBC-FM begins transit broadcasting.

1949 WEBC-FM transit broadcasting ceases.

1950 WEBC-FM leaves the air.

1954 To allow expansion of the Superior Airport, WEBC transmitting facilities move to Parkland WI and WEBC changes frequency to 560 kc, directional, with 5000 watts. Three towers are now used.

1955 WEBC dumps NBC soap operas, etc. and goes all music, Top 40.

1958 Walter Bridges and Morgan Murphy sell WEBC to George Clinton (and others) of West Virginia for $250,000.

1961 Clinton et. al. sell WEBC for $500,000 to William Quarton of WMT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

1964 WEBC affiliates with ABC, including Paul Harvey.

1966 WMT sells WEBC to Red Owl Stores.

1967 Fire destroys WEBC Building. The station relocates to 10th Avenue East and 9th Street, Duluth, in a former grocery store.

1968 WEBC is sold to Roy H. Park of Ithaca, NY.

1969 FCC allows combo operators (announcer-engineers) and remote transmitter control. WEBC transmitter engineers are fired.

1976 WEBC is sold by Park to Midwest Radio of Fargo, owned by Larry and James Lakoduk.

1979 WEBC is no longer rated number one, beaten by WAKX AM/FM. Failing as a music station, WEBC makes a major format change; more talk than music. WEBC Radio Auction begins.

1983 Parent company buys WGGR(FM), changes format to country and call letters to WAVC(FM), which runs semi-automated, using reel-to-reel tapes fired by a primitive digital switcher.

1984 Midwest Radio (Lakoduk) sells WEBC/WAVC(FM) to Brill Media of Evansville, Indiana.

1990 WEBC programming goes all-talk, including Rush Limbaugh. Most programs are received from satellites, and run by the old WAVC(FM) automation equipment.

1991 After a roof leak destroys the old gear, WEBC installs Audisk, the area's first automation controller that digitally stores commercials and jingles on the hard-drive.

1995 WEBC removes analog tape, installs a digital recorder and a Scott Studios touchscreen system. Satellite channel/transponder switching, all commercial breaks, and some shows are all controlled by computers with 9 gigabytes of memory. KLXK(FM) is added to the group.