WHA (AM) - History

History

Experiments with spark gap transmitters stretch back to 1900. Professor Edward Bennett started using the call sign 9XM in 1914. A year later, the call sign was transferred to the University of Wisconsin and used for many experiments in the physics department. Professor Earle M. Terry managed many of these tests, and he eventually decided that the station should start making regular weather broadcasts. From December 4, 1916 onward, the station transmitted regular reports in Morse code.

While most early radio stations in the United States were shut down when the country entered World War I, 9XM's early transmissions were considered important enough to continue, spending much of the war broadcasting weather information to ships sailing on the Great Lakes.

Voice broadcasts took some time to work out, as there were some significant fidelity problems. Terry hosted a party at his home in 1917 to listen to the first scheduled audio broadcast, although few of the guests understood the implications of being able to listen to a piece of music that could just as easily be placed in a nearby record player. The fidelity issues were worked out by February 1919 when a transmission was made for the U.S. Navy.

Regularly scheduled audio broadcasts began a year later in February 1920. A six day per week schedule began on January 3, 1921, notable for the introduction of the first radio broadcast of a weather forecast. The station received its WHA call sign on January 13, 1922. Wisconsin Public Radio still uses the former 9XM calls in a marketing sense, enshrining network donors who give more than $500 in a year into the 9XM Leadership Circle.

The popular Canadian television series The Friendly Giant was created in 1953 on WHA. The show starring Bob Homme later moved to local sister station WHA-TV before making its way to Canadian television on the CBC Television network.