WQOF

Early years as WRHF and WOL[edit]

The station was first licensed on December 10, 1924, and made its debut broadcast twelve days later, as WRHF^[4] at 525 Eleventh Street, with 50 watts on 1170 kHz.^[5] The call sign stood for "Washington Radio Hospital Fund". Its initial daily broadcasts, lasting one hour, were "composed entirely of current events and short stories", "intended primarily for the 'shut-ins' of Washington and vicinity who are unable to read newspapers and magazines". Broadcasting equipment was a rebuilt transmitter originally intended for the YMCA building at 17th and G Streets NW. Studios were on the third floor of the Radio Parlor building at 525 11th Street NW.^[4]


The station was briefly deleted on November 28, 1925,^[6] but then reauthorized the following January 26th, still as WRHF on 1170 kHz.^[7] The next year, ownership was transferred to an insurance agent named Leroy Mark, operating as the American Broadcasting Company,^[8] unrelated to the later network. On November 11, 1928, as part of a major reallocation due to the implementation of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, the station was assigned to 1310 kHz, and at the same time changed its call sign to WOL.^[9]


WOL became the Washington network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System during radio's "golden age" and fed the Fulton Lewis Jr. nightly newscast to the network. On September 22, 1938, the station increased power in conjunction with a move to 1230 kHz.^[10] In March 1941, stations on 1230 kHz, including WOL, were moved to 1260 kHz as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.