WSAJ (defunct)

DWSAJ

City of license	Grove City, Pennsylvania
Frequency	1340 kHz
First air date	November 29, 1922 (as WSAJ)
Last air date	On or before January 30, 2006
Format	College radio
Language(s)	English
Power	100 watts
Class	C
Facility ID	25462
Callsign meaning	Sequentially issued
Former callsigns	8CO WSAJ (1922-January 30, 2006)
Former frequencies	360 meters 1180 kHz (Fall 1924) 1310 kHz (-March 29, 1941)
Owner	Grove City College
Sister stations	WSAJ-FM/91.1

WSAJ was an AM educational radio station, licensed to Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, which broadcast from Rockwell Science Hall on the college campus. The station was one of the last to use a horizontal longwire antenna, which in WSAJ's case was strung between 2 wooden poles, instead of more modern vertical tower radiators.

History

Beginnings

File:1920 Herbert W. Harmon.JPG

WSAJ's founder, Dr. Herbert W. Harmon, from page 616 of the May, 1920 Radio Amateur News

Radio research at Grove City College, primarily under the oversight of physics professor Dr. Herbert W. Harmon, dated to at least 1914, when Harmon and the school were jointly issued a license for a standard amateur station with the callsign 8CO. In early 1917 the college received a Technical and Training School license, with the callsign 8YV. Like most radio stations at this time, the College's stations used spark transmitters, so they could only be used for Morse code communication. In addition, on April 6, 1917 all civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, due to the start of World War One.

Effective October 1, 1919, the ban on civilian radio stations was lifted, and 8YV was reactivated. During the war advances in vacuum-tube technology had made audio transmissions practical, but in the immediate post-war period tubes were scarce and difficult to find. However, Dr. Harmon had worked for the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. during the war, and was able to borrow VT-2 tubes from the Army Signal Corps. He used these to construct a transmitter that was awarded first place in the "$100 Radiophone Prize Contest" run by Radio Amateur News, and the equipment was reviewed in depth in a three page article in that magazine's May, 1920 issue.

In addition to using his station for individual communication with amateur radio operators, in late March, 1920 Harmon began making nightly concert broadcasts. A particularly celebrated broadcast followed on April 26, when the president of the college, Dr. Weir C. Ketler, addressed a noonday Rotary Club luncheon which was being held 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in New Castle. Rex Patch, a club member and radio amateur (8HA), handled the receiving equipment for this event. (This broadcast was traditionally considered as WSAJ's founding, although it actually took place two and one-half years before the station received its first broadcasting license.)

WSAJ

On November 29, 1922, the College was issued a license for a new AM broadcasting station, with the sequentially assigned call letters of WSAJ. Initially operating on the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kilohertz), the station shifted its operating frequency a number of times over the years, before settling on a "local" frequency, 1310 kilohertz, on November 11, 1928, with a power of 100 watts, the maximum allowed at that time for local frequencies.

In early 1932, WSAJ was assigned a "Specified Hours" schedule of just two nights per week, starting at 7:15 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Later that fall, the station's studio and transmitter moved from the older lower campus to the new upper campus, and as part of a new radio laboratory in the Rockwell Science Hall, a "T-type" longwire antenna with counterpoise was strung between two poles on the building's roof. In 1941, as part of the reshuffling necessitated by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), the stations on 1310 kilohertz moved to 1340 kilohertz, which remained WSAJ's assignment the remainder of its time on the air. Although the power limit for "Class IV" local stations would eventually be raised to 1000 watts, WSAJ would be one of a very few broadcasters to remain at 100 watts.

In 1946, WOYL in Oil City, Pennsylvania began operating, using same frequency as WSAJ and separated by only 65 kilometers (40 miles). In order for the two stations to co-exist, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that WOYL sign off for approximately 90 minutes twice a week in order to protect WSAJ's limited on-air schedule. In later years, the FCC determined that this "shared-time" restriction was no longer necessary because the stations did not create significant co-channel interference.

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his April, 1920 Rotary broadcast, on April 27, 1970 Dr. Ketler again addressed the New Castle Rotary Club's Monday meeting by radio, although he admitted that he was unable to fully re-enact the original speech, since he had not saved a copy of its text.

WSAJ-FM

An FM station at 89.5 MHz was added under the same call sign in 1968 before moving to 91.1 MHz during the 1990s. Student programming was a mainstay on WSAJ from its inception, with off-site satellite-delivered programming during non-student programs, until a power increase in 1995 resulted in the FM station's coverage area being significantly enlarged. At that time, student broadcasting on the FM station ceased and was moved to a current-carrier AM station on 530 kHz, which could only be heard in the immediate vicinity of the college campus.

WSAJ signs off

Over the next few years, the AM broadcasting equipment deteriorated until it was no longer functional. Student programming subsequently moved to a carrier-current station and later to an intranet streaming format, calling itself "WGCC", even though this was not a legitimately-issued call sign. Because of WSAJ's limited signal and its short (three-hour-per-week) FCC authorized broadcast schedule, it was determined that the cost to replace the equipment was too great for the benefit to the college or listening community.

In 2004, newly installed college president Richard G. Jewell and chairman of the board David Rathburn, himself a WSAJ alumnus, instituted policy changes which allowed student broadcasting to return to the more powerful FM station. At that time the student programming rebranded itself as 91.1 The One and adopted a primarily indie rock format. In early 2006 the operating license for WSAJ was allowed to expire while WSAJ-FM remained on the air. The original poles and longwire antenna for WSAJ, though no longer functional, remained atop Rockwell Science Hall for a year before being removed.