[78-L] Michael Forman-WAAT, Newark NJ - anyone connected to this station in the 1940's ?

[Donna Halper]

>Steven wrote--
> >
>The way AM calls were originally assigned, WAAT would have been one of
>the VERY first! They started with WAAA-Z, then WBAA-Z,  and so on...
>this is why WBBM is also a VERY old call!

And while I can't locate all of my files, I don't think the WBBM call 
was assigned till early 1923.  SO yeah, it's old but not by broadcast 
history standards, given that the first call letters were assigned in 
1920 and 1921.  As you may know, many of the first call letters were 
from ships that had sunk -- after the Titanic went down, ships were 
mandated to have a radio station on board to send and receive 
messages (a wireless telegraph); if the ship sank, the sailors on the 
next ship that needed call letters didn't want any that were 
associated with bad luck, so the Department of Commerce (what there 
was before the FRC and FCC came along) began stockpiling them and 
then handed them out to the new commercial radio stations.  WBZ here 
in Boston, which has been on the air with those same calls since 
September 1921, is using call letters that originally belonged to a 
ship station call.