WDZ

9JR[edit]

Although WDZ was first licensed as a broadcasting station in early 1922, this was actually a relicensing and continuation of operations begun under an amateur station license, 9JR,^[4] issued to James L. Bush a year earlier. Some WDZ publicity calls itself the oldest radio station in Illinois, starting as an experimental agricultural station in 1917 (although WBBM in Chicago traces its history to 1911). However evidence is lacking for a pre-1921 establishment date. Clyde E. Wiley later claimed that, assuming a 1921 start, WDZ was "the second broadcasting station in the country, (some say third, but what difference does it make now?)".^[5]


James Bush was a commodity broker who operated the James Bush Grain Company in Tuscola, Illinois. At the start of the 1920s the company received price quotations by private telegraph wire from the Chicago Board of Trade. Clyde E. Wiley was hired as a telegraph operator to receive the reports, which were then individually telephoned to various local grain elevators that might be interested in selling their holding. Wiley also had extensive experience as a radio operator,^[5] and was aware of recent advances in vacuum-tube radio technology that made audio transmissions practical. He proposed that the company establish a station to simultaneously distribute grain price information to all interested parties, and thus avoid the complexity and cost of individual telephone calls. Bush agreed with this idea, and a new organization, The Tuscola Radio Supply Station, was formed to conduct the broadcasts as well as sell and install radio receivers.^[6] The first transmitter, installed by Wiley, had a power rating of 10 watts.^[7]


The new service debuted on March 17, 1921,^[8][1] and it is thought that this was the first radio station to provide this kind of service. Initially there were only two customers: elevators at Dorans, near Mattoon, and on the Illinois Central Railroad branch line in Decatur.^[7] Curtis Marsh, then a 14-year-old office boy, later reported that he was drafted to make the announcements. The first organized programming consisted of five- to ten-minute blocks every half-hour, each consisting of a phonograph record that was played to aid tuning the receivers, followed by a gong sounded as an alert signal, then the market reports. After this the station remained silent until the start of the next report.^[8]


A review by Clyde E. Wiley in The Grain Dealers Journal that appeared at the end of 1921 explained the new service as: "Mr. Bush, in furnishing the conditions to us, has in mind only the reduction of telephone tolls, labor and so forth. He has no means of knowing when a person receives the market through us and gives his grain business to another firm. Our service is like newspaper service in that respect. Naturally, however, he expects that most of the people receiving markets through us will at least give him the benefit of some of their trade, and regards the system as an up-to-date advertising feature. The Tuscola Radio Supply Station will be glad at any time to take up the matter of installing similar systems at other points."^[6]


In late 1921 there were an estimated six county elevators and banks that had installed radios to receive the quote broadcasts. One participant calculated that there was a one-time cost of approximately $258 to install a high quality receiver, which then could pick up the half-hourly reports at no additional cost. This compared favorably to the $18 per month that Western Union charged for its more limited telegraphed grain and live-stock report services. In addition, the radio broadcasts were used by the Bush company to confirm executed sales for its clients, using a code number to insure confidentiality.^[9] After the service gained popularity, Western Union and Postal Telegraph tried to have James Bush expelled from the Chicago Board of Trade, on the grounds that he was infringing on what they claimed were their exclusive rights to distribute prices. But, after a review, the Board sided with Bush.^[7]


The station soon added some general entertainment programming. A September 10, 1921 letter from Clyde E. Wiley to an electrical supplier reported that "Twice each week we broadcast phonograph music, and in each case the big unit is run for one hour without stop."^[10] In November, the station's market report schedule was reported to start at 9:30 a.m., running subsequent half hours after that until the final report at 1:00 p.m.^[11]