Re: [IRCA] Union Oil Road Map with 1940 Radio Guide listings (OT)
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [IRCA] Union Oil Road Map with 1940 Radio Guide listings (OT)



vroomski@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello,

A few months ago I purchased a 1940 Union Oil Road of Washington-Oregon from a estate sale
in Vancouver, WA.  The map has a Pacific Coast Radio Guide section.  Below are some interesting
channel changes since then.

 790    San Francisco, CA  KGO
 880    Vancouver, BC      KVAN  typo should have been Vancouver, WA
 920    Seattle, WA        KOMO
1010    Vancouver, BC      CKWX
1010    San Jose, CA       KQW
1130    Salt Lake City, UT KSL
1160    Portland, OR       KEX
1230    San Francisco, CA  KYA
1310    Santa Rosa, CA     KSRO
1370    Berkeley, CA       KRE
1380    Reno, NV           KOH


Dennis, your map dates from just one year before all of these stations changed frequency. The NARBA treaty that took effect March 29, 1941 shifted most of these stations to the frequencies on which we're used to finding them, largely 30 kHz up from where they're listed here.

There were a few exceptions: stations below 880 on the dial moved up only 20 kHz, so KGO went to 810. (Stations from 740-780 on the dial moved up only 10 kHz, so KGHL Billings went from 780 to 790, for instance.) KOMO went from 920 to 950, but just for a few years: in 1944 it swapped facilities with KJR, which had moved from 970 to 1000.

The 1010 channel on which CKWX and KQW both operated was split up; KQW landed on 740 (a Canadian clear channel), while CKWX moved around before landing on 1130. The Canadian and Mexican stations didn't move in as regular a fashion as the US signals; XEMO on 860 in Tijuana, for instance, didn't move at all.

KSRO moved first to 1340 before getting an upgrade from class IV to class III and shifting to 1350. There were a bunch of stations like that: KERN in Bakersfield was a graveyarder on 1370 and then 1400 before becoming a class III on 1410; KRKO in Everett was likewise on 1370/1400 before moving to 1380.

KOH moved to 1410 before getting an upgrade as well and moving down the dial to 630. (And it was the ONLY station in all of Nevada at the time; little tiny Las Vegas didn't get its first station until 1941 or 1942!)

Your scan includes a bunch of local (class IV) stations that were operating on 1500 - KVOE Santa Ana, KDB Santa Barbara, etc. Those stations moved to 1490, for the most part. And the top of the dial, which had been 1500, expanded to 1600. The 1940 list includes one station above 1500, KPMC Bakersfield at 1550. It was one of several experimental stations authorized in the "expanded band" of the 1930s; it moved to 1560 and became today's KNZR.

A few more interesting ones from your list: KXL was just a shared-time graveyarder back then, splitting time on 1420 (later 1450) with KBPS. It didn't move to 750 until later in the 1940s, and as a daytimer.

There was a 780 (later 790) in Longview, WA, KWLK. Not sure what became of that one.

KGB in San Diego appears on 1300. I think that's a typo, and should have been 1330; it moved to 1360 with NARBA.

A lot of regional channels hadn't been fully occupied yet: KWAL in Wallace ID was still on 1420 (later 1450), not yet on 620. KPQ in Wenatchee was a graveyarder, too, on 1500 (later 1490). KID in Idaho Falls was on 1320 (later 1350), not yet on 590. KFXD in Nampa was on 1200 (later 1230), not yet on 580, and KIDO in Boise was on 1350 (later 1380), not yet on 630. KOY in Phoenix was on 1390 (later 1420), not 550.

And there are some funny ironies: there was a "KEEN" on 1370 then, but it wasn't in San Jose, it was in Seattle, the station that I think would later become KTNT Tacoma on 1400.







_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx