After 95 years, 990 WCAZ Carthage IL is deleted

The 990 spot will be a lot quieter in the tri-states after the FCC's recent deletion of WCAZ as reported by Barry Mishkind's TheBDR.net http://www.thebdr.net/articles/fcc/insp/EW.html

WCAZ was one of the stations I discovered on a tabletop transistor radio in the late 60s as a kid in southeast Iowa, which was one of the regular daytime signals we'd hear. WCAZ had a long history as a farm oriented station and while its programming didn't hold a lot of interest to me as a kid, it seemed like a fairly active station at the time. Back then, I didn't realize that a daytimer in a town of some 3000 population was one of the oldest stations in Illinois.

The early records of WCAZ are rather fuzzy...literally. The FCC History cards on file for WCAZ date back to the twenties and the entries for that decade were rather hard to read. I cross-referenced early listings at AmericanRadioHistory.com to fill in some of the details.

WCAZ began its run as a 50 watt station on 1220 kHz in May of 1922, owned by Carthage College, which today is located in Kenosha, WI but prior to 1964 was located in Carthage. In 1928 the FRC frequency realignments placed WCAZ on 1070 and apparently began sharing time with another pioneer Illinois station, WDZ. The college owned WCAZ until 1930, when it was sold to Superior Broadcast Service, Inc., controlled by Robert Compton and Walter Tanner.

By the mid 30's WDZ had de-camped to 1020, leaving WCAZ alone on 1070 during the day. (1070's primary occupant in those days was 50 kW WTAM Cleveland) The 1941 NARBA reassignments found WCAZ bumped up one notch to 1080 and with that came a power boost from 100 watts to 250 watts. In 1947, WCAZ moved to 990 kHz and boosted power to 1000 watts.

1978 saw the addition of a WCAZ-FM, a class A on 92.1. With the advent of Docket 80-90, in 1993 WCAZ-FM was able to upgrade to class B1 operation with 25 kW.

So what happened? In the early 80s the heirs of Mr. Compton sold WCAZ AM-FM to Bryan Broadcasting. In the mid 90s Bryan Broadcasting sold off WCAZ AM and FM to separate buyers, making WCAZ 990 a standalone AM in a town that's lost nearly 25% of its population over the last fifty years, from 3400 people to just over 2500 at last estimate. Add to the equation that nine commercial FMs and three AMs cover Carthage with strong signals, and it probably isn't a surprise that a standalone 1 kW AM daytimer (9 watts night) ran into trouble.

Such is the fate of many former dominant AM stations. The struggle became too much.

Not wanting to sound cocky, but I have to wonder if the sales expertise was part of the reason and if programming decisions might also be included. So many stations finding the need to trim their expenses seem to be their worst enemy.

Sure the competition is fierce but stations like WCAZ have somewhat of an advantage to local businesses: typically lower rates to reach local people. The larger FM stations reaching larger groups of people means more expense to reach locals and many more people that will never visit the local business.

Too many times, the station lays off staff and hooks up to a satellite driven format relying on network feeds versus local information. Too many times listeners hear national commercials for businesses that are not anywhere near them and local spots hastily written and produced by the same voice in a long string of spots to fill that specific length fill break on the satellite feed.

I cannot say that is what happened here but in my travels that seems to be a common problem.

Even so, the standalone AM with micro nighttime power is a struggle any way you slice it. Once can only wonder how much they will be missed and if their downtown storefront will be boarded up.

The station's website is still up, though it appears frozen in time from a month ago or later. Here's their weekday schedule: http://www.wcazam990.com/weekdays/

Looking through it, seems like WCAZ was fairly active with local information, even though a lot of the filler was satellite delivered talk. I think had WCAZ been in a more isolated market, it would have made it. Still, no matter the market, it needed its FM to have remained viable.

Was curious to see if any media outlets in the IA-IL-MO TriStates might have done a story on WCAZ's demise. Internet search didn't turn up anything of that topic, but did see Barry Mishkind's entry from oldradio.com listing The Oldest One Hundred Stations in The United States.

WCAZ was on this list tied for number 72, along with WCAY, now WTMJ Milwaukee and WDAE Tampa, with licenses issued May 15, 1922. The next day saw licenses issued for WDAF Kansas City and WDAG, now KGNC Amarillo.

Looking through this list, Carthage is by far the smallest city of license among these venerable stations. WDZ in Decatur IL started out in Tuscola IL, a similar sized town to Carthage. Even Tuscola today is larger than Carthage.

One wonders if the FCC might grant a waiver of its rules and "expunge" the WCAZ deletion if its owners were to get their FCC accounts paid. Perhaps they might, but the realist in me would advise against it.

I went poking around the Carthage area on Google Earth today, which I have equipped with Cavell, Mertz & Associates most helpful FCCInfo.

First, there don't seem to be many original buildings left of WCAZ's original location on the Carthage College campus, which the school vacated in 1964. Heading to the square, I was surprised to see TWO storefronts occupied by radio stations. The new radio additions to Carthage, KMDY 90.9 Keokuk and WGNX 96.7 Colchester IL are probably there because of its strategic location: Carthage is about midway between Keokuk and Colchester, which are about 30 miles apart. Being in Carthage allows Good News Radio, the operator of the two stations, to have one main studio in accordance with current FCC rules.

Good News set up shop on the north side of the square. The WCAZ studios are found near the SW corner of the square. Its storefront looks like too many in small-town America: tired and a bit disheveled. To the right of the WCAZ letters I saw a "21" on top of an "M." Puzzled me for awhile til I realized 92.1 FM was the old FM frequency for WCAZ which as mentioned above was long ago sold off to a separate owner.

One would think it wouldn't have been that hard to remove the 92.1 FM letters and give the sign a fresh coat of paint. One would think that WCAZ would have been a bit more celebratory of its nearly 95 year heritage, but it had nothing of the sort on its website. They could have been "The Tri-State Original" given WCAZ's first status in the 100 mile radius of Carthage. It might not have made that much difference, but maybe...

Tooling just west of town on US 136 one finds the former WCAZ tower site. The ASR Tower finder function shows it registered to WCAZ's owners which isn't much of a surprise but the date constructed is: 1936. Looking at Google Earth StreetView, the tower looks fairly old but who's to know if this is the same tower that's been standing since 1936 or not. Either way, this tower site would have been used for WCAZ's old operation on 1080 before the 1947 move to 990.

Seems to me the WCAZ operation should have been sold or donated before it reached such an ignoble ending.

Great stuff, Joe. Thanks for digging and posting.

Like you, I'd like to see the FCC give WCAZ a break or a waiver for whatever the debt is that they owe. It'd be nice, but it would probably set a bad precedent. And on top of that, The town of Carthage and it's immediate surroundings is probably not viable for a 1kw AM daytimer (okay 9 watts at night) under any plausible scenario.

The only possible exception I can think of might be a religious broadcaster willing to operate at a loss. The (relatively) good signal might be an attraction for one of those.

Actually, that might not be a bad idea. I recall a station that never got on the air more than a few days over several years. The FCC didn't grant another STA and their final CP expired. They asked the FCC not to delete the frequency but allow for up to six months to find a qualified non-profit to gift the station, including all equipment provided the current owners and their families would not be involved with the station in any way or financially benefit in any way. They were the only station serving the community (okay, not serving but assigned to the town). The FCC felt that would be in the best interest of the public to allow this. Maybe they'd make an exception here.

The FCC is pretty clear: follow the rules or face the consequences except when the FCC chooses to make an exception, which means they can do what they choose and just because they made a similar choice in the past doesn't obligate them to repeat it.

I know of a LPFM that was silent for years with the FCC's blessing. It was beyond the LPFM's control and they stayed in touch with the FCC on progress. Another fellow who always followed through and followed FCC rules had a CP expire. He asked the FCC to restore hit. He had been his wife's caretaker during her lengthy illness that took her life. He got his CP back. They're lots more understanding that we think and if there's a good reason to make an exception, they will.

It will be interesting to see what might become of this situation. It does seem like simply deleting a license isn't necessarily in the public interest. But in 2017, a standalone daytimer AM in a town of 2500 people has a tough row to hoe. Non-profit Christian talk may be the way to go.

Let's roll back the calendar to 1947, the year WCAZ moved to their 1000 watt daytime operation on 990. Here are the other local stations that were likely competing for ad dollars in the immediate Tri-State area. I'm leaving out some of the big 50 kW Chicago clears that had good signals into the region. Info taken from 1947 Broadcasting Yearbook courtesy AmericanRadioHistory.com

Burlington IA KBUR 1490 250 watts U
Quincy IL WTAD 930 1000 watts U
Macomb IL ?? CP 1510 250 watts D (this station may have gone on-air in '47 ...could check FCC Query for a start date, but....)

No WGEM Quincy, KOKX Keokuk, 1360 in Ft. Madison; these will come on air in the next few years. WCAZ had to have been a fairly potent farm radio station back then.

joebtsflk1 said:

Barry Mishkind's entry from oldradio.com listing The Oldest One Hundred Stations in The United States.

WCAZ was on this list tied for number 72, along with WCAY, now WTMJ Milwaukee and WDAE Tampa, with licenses issued May 15, 1922. The next day saw licenses issued for WDAF Kansas City and WDAG, now KGNC Amarillo.

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I believe Barry left out 990 Knoxville Tn. (starting as WNAV 833 KHz Nov.1921) WKOX now WNML

WCAZ has never left the air, apparently broadcasting illegally unless there is something pending at the FCC for reinstating the license.

Looking at the entry for WNML in the FCC records shows its first license was issued 11/3/1922.

We can all agree, I think, that these stations are so old they W-FRT dust In 1922, most stations were issued their calls sequentially. The apparent pattern in W land which back then was those states east of the Rockies instead of the Mississippi, was to keep the third letter, "A", unchanged. With this pattern, the next station was issued WDAA, Nashville TN, which like most stations licensed in 1922, is long gone. ("Three-toe" calls, like WOI, WOC, WHA were likely calls specifically requested by the station, so there's probably no pattern with these)

Trying this pattern with stations that still exist: WHAS Louisville KY, license issued 7/13/1922; WJAG Norfolk NE, license issued 7/27/1922; WNAX Yankton SD 11/9/1922. Pattern breaks down with WOAI San Antonio 9/14/1922 and the former WMAQ (WSCR) Chicago 3/29/1922.

JJSPC said:

WCAZ has never left the air, apparently broadcasting illegally unless there is something pending at the FCC for reinstating the license.

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That seems to be the case. Heard their online stream today...hopefully they do have something pending.

joebtsflk1 said:

Looking at the entry for WNML in the FCC records shows its first license was issued 11/3/1922.

We can all agree, I think, that these stations are so old they W-FRT dust In 1922, most stations were issued their calls sequentially. The apparent pattern in W land which back then was those states east of the Rockies instead of the Mississippi, was to keep the third letter, "A", unchanged. With this pattern, the next station was issued WDAA, Nashville TN, which like most stations licensed in 1922, is long gone. ("Three-toe" calls, like WOI, WOC, WHA were likely calls specifically requested by the station, so there's probably no pattern with these)

Trying this pattern with stations that still exist: WHAS Louisville KY, license issued 7/13/1922; WJAG Norfolk NE, license issued 7/27/1922; WNAX Yankton SD 11/9/1922. Pattern breaks down with WOAI San Antonio 9/14/1922 and the former WMAQ (WSCR) Chicago 3/29/1922.

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I guess WNAV / WNOX went on the air without a license:

http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1526

http://fadedsignals.com/post/139281398923/wnav-signed-on-from-knoxville-in-1921-it-became

That 833 KHz in some of the histories seem weird now days. I can only guess the FCC dropped the WNAV history when the current station went on the air.
You know call letters really had importance in the early days of aviation.

BTW I have a PM to David Edurado who has forgot more radio history than I will ever know. I trying to start an argument but I have heard "one of the ten oldest stations" for decades.

When we starting looking at some of the histories of these stations, it seems easy to find discrepancies. For example one of the earliest radio log books on the AmericanRadioHistory site had WCAZ in Quincy Illinois, operated by one of the newspapers there. Perhaps Carthage College was leasing out WCAZ, who knows? Needless to say, there wasn't much regulation on radio back in the 20s

secondchoice said:

I trying to start an argument but I have heard "one of the ten oldest stations" for decades.

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that should be NOT trying to start an argument. sorry fingers faster than the brain.

I had the "pleasure" of working with one of their former sales guys. Almost every day I was reminded how "non" historical the Nashville market was.

It is amazing that WNOX did not grab a better channel and more power but East Tenn traditionally is Republican, and the big shuffle was on FDR's watch.

WCAZ is still on the air. Heard it yesterday and was surprised.

It's still listed as DWCAZ, but as others have observed, stations have operated sometimes for years without a proper license.

joebtsflk1 said:

It's still listed as DWCAZ, but as others have observed, stations have operated sometimes for years without a proper license.

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Far as I can tell they have never ceased regular broadcasting, and are now being busted by the FCC... https://radioink.com/2017/12/11/fcc...20K+FCC+Fine?&utm_campaign=Tuesday+-+12/12/17