New York Radio Stations
The major network affiliate stations in New York were:
WEAF, the NBC New York flagship. It became WNBC in November.
WABC, the CBS station, which had these call letters before the the American Broadcasting Company was formed. It became WCBS later that year.
WJZ, the ABC station. The ABC network had officially launched in June 1945 after the government made NBC divest itself of its second-string Blue Network. Most of the stations and programming migrated to the new American Broadcasting Company. The New York station did not become WABC until 1953.
WOR had formed the Mutual Network in 1934. Much of the network's dramatic series programming originated from the station's New York studios. It had several popular morning talk shows, which made the station a serious daytime competitor in New York. Low-budget quiz shows and audience participation shows also were a big part of its lineup, as well as a number of political commentators representing a wide spectrum of opinion. Much of its series programming were the detective and crime shows that educators decried for overstimulating impressionable youth and leading to maladjustment. Psychologists believed then that people should be properly adjusted.
The major independent radio stations were:
WMCA, with arguably the most ambitious programming of the independents. Big names like Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey sometimes served as guest djs. It also had several shows aimed at African Americans and it carried Giants baseball.
WHN carried Dodgers baseball. It was known for its innovative news broadcasting and public affairs programming.
WINS carried the Yankee games. It mostly played recorded music and had a number of quiz shows. The call letters referred to the Hearst owned news wire, the International News Service. In 1946 Hearst sold the station to Crosley Broadcasting Corporation which in October began feeding shows from its Cincinnati station WLS, which proved unpopular with New York listeners and was soon dropped.
WNYC was owned and operated by the city government. It broadcast recorded and live classical music as well as public affairs programming. At this time it also aired mini-concerts from the folk music scene. Announcers were hired through the civil service exams.
WQXR was bought by the Times in 1944. It was known for its live studio concerts of classical music from its own 400-seat auditorium as well as recorded classical music.
WNEW began the radio tradition of zany morning DJ programs in 1946 with a show, 'Scream and Dream with Jack and Gene," hosted by Gene Rayburn and Jack Lescouilie. It also had a number of talk and music shows.
Among the other independents were:
WBNX- A Bronx station that carried mostly foreign language programming.
WEVD- Started by the Socialist Party and named for party leader Eugene V. Debs. Although it carried some commercial programs, it was in part listener supported. The original board of directors included Roger Baldwin, ACLU founder; Abraham Cahan, publisher of the Jewish Daily Forward and Harriot Stanton Blatch, a feminist leader. The ILGWU also provided programming. Efforts by the Federal Radio Commission to shut it down in 1928, along with 162 other small radio stations, provoked an outcry. The station won but its license was repeatedly challenged. It had a number of non-political programs as well as foreign language programs. It was particularly known for its Yiddish-language shows.
WHOM had a mix of English and foreign language programming, including shows in Yiddish, German, Norwegian, Lithuanian and Italian. A lot of air time was sold to outside producers. There were suspicions prior to and during the war that some of the German and Italian language programs included foreign propaganda, despite requirements that English language scripts be submitted to the station owners before broadcast. Joe Franklin had his nostalgia program "Vaudeville Echoes" on the station, which also carried jazz. Even in 1946 Franklin was doing nostalgia. In November 1946 the station was taken over by Fortune and Generoso Pope, the controversial owners of Il Progresso, who emphasized its Italian programming.
WOV was mostly Italian language programs in the daytime and jazz at night. The jazz shows were particularly popular with African Americans. Efforts to convert to an all-English language format proved unsuccessful.
WPAT- A New Jersey station.
WLIB- Originally a Brooklyn station, it was bought by Dorothy Schiff Thackery, owner of the Post, in 1944. She moved it to Manhattan. It broadcast a mix of classical and pop music and foreign language programming.
WWRL- Queens station with mostly ethnic programming.
WBBR - Owned and operated by the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Some of the smaller stations shared frequencies with other stations. Some sold time to programmers through brokers.
More on the history of New York's AM stations can be found at the Radio History website.