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WCFL (1000 AM) was the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, hence its call letters. The station is now known as WMVP. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove and is still in use by WMVP. The station billed itself as "The Voice of Labor" from its inception until its sale to Mutual in 1978.〔 ==Early years== In 1922, the American Federation of Labor began discussions regarding owning and operating its own radio station. By 1925, the AFL decided not to enter the broadcasting business but to purchase time for organized labor's message on commercially operated radio. The dream stayed alive with the Chicago Federation of Labor, who believed having an owned and operated radio station would be an effective way to spread its message. In 1924, the Federation gave its approval to work toward establishing a radio station. The original plan for WCFL called for it to be a non-commercial station, operating on the support of its listeners; in a sense it was one of the first large-scale efforts at public radio. Spearheading the drive to make WCFL a reality was the Federation's Secretary, Edward Nockels (1869–1937); without his efforts, there would have been no radio station at all.〔 WCFL officially began on December 4, 1925; the Federation's hopes were temporarily dashed when the US Department of Commerce (there was no Federal Communications Commission until 1934 and no Federal Radio Commission which preceded it until 1927) refused to grant WCFL a wavelength on January 13, 1926. Just five days after what could have become an end to the station, the Federation announced it would go ahead with building it anyway.〔 The first WCFL transmitter stood on Chicago's Navy Pier (then called Municipal Pier); the Federation was able to lease the pier's North Tower for 10 years at $1 per year and its willingness to make WCFL available for city broadcasts.〔 Initially the Illinois Manufacturers' Association attempted to keep WCFL off the air by protesting the use of public property for the station's transmitter and broadcasting site.〔 The station purchased the land in Downers Grove where the current transmitter operates in 1928 and broke ground there in 1932. The Federation originally purchased of land in the western suburb; 20 of them were allotted for the WCFL transmitter, while the other 80 were subdivided as lots for 258 homes and 72 businesses in "WCFL Park". Nockels believed having a union-based community spring up around the WCFL transmitter would be beneficial to both those purchasing lots and building homes and to the station itself. The labor union entered the real estate business shortly before the Depression hit. After selling no lots in the early part of the 1930s, the Federation put WCFL Park on hold, reviving it again in 1939 with the building of a model home on one of the lots, all of which would eventually be divested.〔 AM 1000 began operation as WCFL in test broadcasts on June 19, 1926; the Commerce Department granted it call letters on July 10, 1926. It was officially on the air the next day at 610 KC with 1,000 watts of power, one of the last non-profit radio stations to take to the airwaves.〔〔〔 The first broadcast consisted of two hours of music. In November 1926, with an eye toward being self-sustaining, the Federation added a shortwave station to the Navy Pier transmitter site, planning to use WCFL Radio Telegraph to help offset broadcasting costs. The station initially used studios at Navy Pier, but during the winter of 1926–1927 found that the weather often made them inaccessible.〔 By March 1927, WCFL was broadcasting from 623 South Wabash in Chicago (today the home of Columbia College, Chicago,〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Columbia College Chicago South Michigan Campus )〕) producing a quarterly radio magazine, and operating on 620 KC—the frequency being shared with the Lane Tech High School radio station.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】DX Response Letter from Edward Nockels with Municipal Pier, Wabash Avenue WCFL address and 620 KC shown )〕 In 1928, WCFL applied to the Federal Radio Commission for an increase in its transmitter power and hours of operation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WCFL )〕 Several other radio stations were now also operating on the 620 KC frequency along with WCFL and the Lane Tech station.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WLTS History )〕 The commission disagreed with the reasoning that such increases were necessary to serve union members. Further, it cut the operating power of WCFL to only 1,500 watts.〔 General Order 40 brought WCFL to the 970 KC frequency, shared with KJR in Seattle, still at 1,500 watts and now allowed to operate in daylight only. The Federal Radio Commission had labeled the station as a "propaganda" type, not truly worthy of a license; it would take some years of expensive discussions to attain clear-channel, 50,000-watt status.〔 While the original idea of a self-supporting WCFL was based on each Federation member's donation of $1 a year for all station operating expenses, by 1926, 30% of the membership had donated. The donations continued to spiral downward as time passed, especially after 1928, when WCFL's operating power was cut and it was limited to "dawn to dusk" broadcasting—from sunrise to sunset. The dawn-to-dusk operation limitations were lifted in 1929, but there was still no clear channel yet for WCFL.〔(PDF)〕 1929 found the station notifying the Federation that unless members made their dollar donations, WCFL would need to implement some type of commercial broadcasting to stay afloat. This was the reason why the transmitter land had been purchased in 1928, but no construction was able to be done on the Downers Grove transmitter site until 1932. By 1930, commercials had become a reality on WCFL; the station did not show a profit until 1940.〔〔 By 1945, WCFL had moved to the 1,000 KC position on the dial (from previously being at 770 and 970 KC〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WCFL timeline shows WCFL at 970 KC and having only 5,000 watts )〕) and was a 50,000-watt clear-channel station;〔 records of a year earlier show that previously the station had only progressed to having 10,000 watts.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WCFL History )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WCFL-FM )〕 In 1927, WCFL broadcast the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey championship boxing match at Soldier Field, challenging the National Broadcasting Company's exclusive claim to the event.〔 This led to an arrangement whereby WCFL became one of three affiliates in Chicago of the Blue Network of NBC;〔 WCFL broadcast non-sponsored, or sustaining, NBC programs not carried by WENR or WLS, as well as selected major sporting events and any broadcast speeches by union leaders aired by the network. WCFL became a member of the Mutual Broadcasting System in December 1949.〔 When the Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to sell the Blue Network, WCFL's affiliation continued with the network through its new identity as the American Broadcasting Company, ending with the merger of WENR and WLS in 1959. Prior to this, the station offered selected programming from the network.〔 WCFL was also to become an affiliate of the Amalgamated Broadcasting System in 1933, but that network collapsed after only a month of operations, prior to its planned westward expansion from New York.〔 The usual broadcast day included dance and classical music, comedy, as well as radio programs in 11 different languages designed to reach out to Chicago's immigrant population. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WCFL (AM)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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