* Theme - 00:00
“Birthday
Serenade” -
Willi Glahe
* Opening Announcement
- 00:16
Welcome to “Wavescan”,
international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched and written in
Indianapolis, produced in studios of shortwave WRMI
Program
outline
1. Tribute to Shortwave
WYFR - 11: The Mystery of the Missing Callsign WRUR
2. NASB Report: Dr. Kim
Elliott VOA
3. Australian
DX Report
* Tribute to Shortwave WYFR - 11: The Mystery of the
Missing Callsign WRUR - 01:01
A very interesting find that has
come to light as a result of intensive research into the long and illustrious
history of shortwave WYFR/WRMI is the fact that an illusive callsign was in use
for a few years, but very little detail is given regarding its usage. This intriguing callsign WRUR was associated
in some way with the historic shortwave station WRUL at Hatherly Beach,
Scituate as it was known back towards the middle of last century.
* What are the known facts about
the mystery callsign WRUR?
According to the available
information, it is stated that station WRUR was a powerful shortwave station at
Boston and it was owned by the World Wide Broadcasting Foundation. It was always linked in tandem with the known
transmitter WRUL, though it was never listed with the other well known
transmitter WRUW, both of which were owned by the same World Wide Broadcasting
Foundation, WWBF.
The only known frequency usage by
WRUR was 9700 kHz, which was used exclusively by WRUW, and the earlier W2XAL
when the transmitter was located at Coytesville in New Jersey. This WRUR callsign is known to have been in
use when WWBF carried programming in European languages, beamed to Italy,
Poland and Yugoslavia.
The callsign WRUR was in use
apparently for around half a dozen years, running from approximately 1941 -
1947. However, there are no known
monitoring reports of programming from a shortwave transmitter under the
callsign WRUR; not in the United States, not
in New Zealand and not in Australia. No
known QSL card issued by WWBF lists the curious callsign WRUR.
*
Known modifications at Hatherly Beach not associated with callsign WRUR
In
researching all of the available information about WRUR, in print and via the
internet, it becomes obvious that certain conjectured possibilities can be
ruled out. For example:
1. Was
WRUR in Boston a new call for the shortwave transmitter W4XB-WDJM from Florida
that was absorbed into WRUL? No, not
so. This double 5 kW transmitter from
Florida was taken over by WRUL in 1941 and it was activated at Hatherly Beach
under the consecutive callsigns WRUS & WRUX.
2. Was WRUR in Boston the combination
callsign for the two new 50 kW transmitters WRUA & WRUS
when they were on the air as a single unit with a combined output at 100
kW? No, not so. It is true,
this combination unit was inaugurated around the same time as the WRUR
callsign was in use,
1943, but it is known that the double unit at 100 kW usually identified
on air as WRUA.
3. Was WRUR in Boston a callsign in
association with the new 100 kW amplifier that was installed at
Hatherly Beach for use on shortwave?
No, not so. This 100 kW amplifier
was installed in 1948, after
the usage of the WRUR callsign had ended.
4. Was WRUR in Boston the shortwave
transmitter WPIT-WBOS from Hull that was absorbed into
WRUL? No, not so. This double 10 kW transmitter from Hull was
taken over by WRUL in 1953, half
a dozen years after the Boston callsign WRUR was no longer in use.
* Attested usage of
callsign WRUR
Of course, it is always possible
that callsign WRUR as listed in various sources is simply a mistaken
identification, a typo. However, this
does not seem to be the case, due to the fact that several otherwise reliable sources do list the
callsign WRUR as a genuine callsign in use by the World Wide Broadcasting
Foundation WWBF in Boston. These sources
are not quoting previous sources wherein the callsign WRUR was stated, but
rather they are quoting contemporary sources that use the callsign WRUR.
Among the reliable sources for the usage of
the WRUR callsign are the following:-
1. In his 1969 Master’s
Thesis, at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah, Andre Mostert states that
the FCC gave approval on October 28, 1941, for station WRUR to use 9700
kHz, provided no
interference was caused to existing services.
2. In a 1991 report, the IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Global History Network
published a report from Dr. Ivan Getting wherein he states that during
the early part of World War 2,
there were two powerful shortwave stations in Boston, WRUR and WRUL, and
that there were
occasions when they took programming from mediumwave station WCOP with
studios in Copley
Plaza. It can be remembered that
Getting was an early and prominent experimenter on behalf of the
American government in the development of radar.
3. In the February 24, 1942 issue of
the Yugoslav language daily newspaper in Cleveland Ohio there is
a lengthy article about programming from WRUL and WRUR that was beamed
towards Yugoslavia in
the Yugoslav language. This
newspaper article in the Yugoslav language, when translated into
English, tells of the political situation and current events in
Yugoslavia. The names of the two
speakers in the radio program are given and their association with
Yugoslav shipping in New York,
together with the political attitude of Yugoslav seafarers.
4. A document dated December 20, 1946
was presented to the United States Congress regarding
postwar development and the possible usage of international radio
broadcasting to further the needs
of American international relations.
It was stated in this document, that stations WRUL and WRUR
were currently on the air with programming beamed to Italy and Poland,
and that the services of
these two stations could be of value to the American cause in the new
peacetime endeavors.
5. It might also be inferred that VOA,
the Voice of America, was familiar with these broadcasts from
WRUL and WRUR beamed to
Europe.
6. Then, in 1947, Broadcasting
magazine dated for March 17 makes the statement that the World Wide
Broadcasting Foundation, WWBF, owns the stations WRUL and WRUR. This information is
contained in a lengthy article, within the context of VOA usage and
programming.
Thus, from the available
information, it would appear that WRUR was indeed a genuine callsign in use at
Hatherly Beach, Scituate. It would appear then that it was in use for
half a dozen years, running from 1941 - 1947, and that it was a subsidiary
callsign for specialized programming beamed to continental Europe in their
languages.
Maybe perhaps the letters in the
callsign WRUW spell something undesirable in a European language, and thus the
call WRUR was substituted?
Why no monitoring reports in
contemporary DX bulletins of that era for the callsign WRUR? Maybe the international radio monitors in the
United States, New Zealand and Australia did not understand the languages in
use, and simply reported the station by its primary callsign WRUW.
Maybe as time goes by, someone
somewhere will some day come across some additional information regarding
callsign WRUR. Will this new information
confirm our conclusions regarding callsign WRUR? Or will it present a very different story?
And so, the mystery of the missing
callsign lives on!
But if you can help, please let us know.
We would be pleased to hear from you.
* Program Announcement
- 09:37
Allen Graham
* NASB Report - 10:27
On Wavescan today, you're going to hear part of the actual recording of
the 2014 National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters annual meeting, which
took place at the Voice of America relay station in Greenville, North
Carolina. During the coming weeks and
probably months, we'll be presenting some of the lectures from this meeting,
beginning today with a talk by Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, an audience research
officer at the Voice of America in Washington, and a longtime friend of the
shortwave listening community.
I had the pleasure to present Kim at the meeting in Greenville....
Audio Insert
Dr.
Kim
Elliott
That was Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, producer of the VOA Radiogram program
at the Voice of America. You've just
heard a recording of part of the proceedings at the 2014 meeting of the
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters at the VOA relay station in
Greenville, North Carolina in mid-May.
In future editions of Wavescan, we'll present more recordings from the
NASB meeting as time allows.
* Australian DX Report
- 16:32
Bob Padula
* Music of the World
- 27:02
USA: North Carolina folk music, guitar
* Closing Announcement
- 27:21
Thanks for listening to “Wavescan”,
international DX program from Adventist World Radio
Researched and written in
Indianapolis
Next
week:-
1. Longwave
Radio Broadcasting Stations on High Power
2.
NASB Report
3. Indian
DX Report
Several
QSL cards available.
Send your reception reports to AWR, and also to the station your radio
is tuned: WRMI or WWCR or KVOH, or to the AWR relay stations that carry Wavescan
Wavescan address:-
Box
29235
Indianapolis
Indiana 46229 USA
Wavescan @ AWR.org
Jeff White, shortwave WRMI
* Music Outrun
* Program Ends - 28:55
