WNYW (shortwave)

WNYW, Radio New York Worldwide, was a U.S. shortwave radio station broadcasting from Scituate, Massachusetts, until October 20, 1973, when Family Stations acquired it and changed the call letters to WYFR.

In 1931 Walter Lemmon, a radio inventor began experimental shortwave station W1XAL in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1935, the station began transmitting non-commercial, and educational or cultural programs.

Four days after Britain and France declared war on Germany, on September 7, 1939, the FCC assigned the call letters WRUL to W1XAL. The service was operated by British Security Coordination, based in New York. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,1852221,00.html] WRUL stood for World Radio University Listeners, and from 1939 to 1942, radio lectures were broadcast to Europe and South America in eight languages and in the United States over an informal network of over 300 stations, including WNYC in New York City. Like all United States shortwave stations, WRUL was turned over under a lease agreement to the U.S. government in November 1942 for further wartime propaganda broadcasts. WRUL was allowed to resume partial independent programming in 1947 and full independent programming in 1954. The station was sold to Metromedia in 1960.

In June 1962, WRUL was bought by the Intemational Educational Broadcasting Corporation (today Bonneville International) owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church). The station began using the slogan "Radio New York Worldwide" and dropped its educational/cultural programming in favor of an adult contemporary format with ABC Radio or CBS Radio hourly newscasts and half-hour newscasts from its sister station, WRFM. There were rumors that the station was being partially controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency to broadcast anti-communist propaganda.

On June 1, 1966, WRUL changed its call letters to WNYW, which stood for Radio New York Worldwide.

The callsign has now been assigned to a Fox Broadcasting Company station, WNYW (formerly MetroMedia station WNEW-TV and DuMont Television Network station WABD), in New York City.

External links

* [http://www.northernstar.no/wnyw3.htm A history of WNYW at Northern Star Broadcasters (Norway)]