WNYW (
Radio New York Worldwide) was a
shortwave radio station that broadcasted from
Scituate, Massachusetts, in the
United States. On October 20, 1973, Family Stations, Inc., acquired the station to be part of its
Family Radio network and changed the
call letters to
WYFR. Family Stations eventually progressively moved the transmitters to their current site in
Okeechobee, Florida. The
transmitter site in Scituate continued to operate until November 16, 1979 when it was switched off for the last time.
History
In 1931,
Walter Lemmon, a radio inventor, began experimental shortwave station
W1XAL in
Boston, Massachusetts. In 1935, the station began transmitting non-commercial, educational, and cultural programs.
Four days after Britain and France declared war on Germany, on September 7, 1939, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assigned call letters
WRUL (for
World
Radio
University
Listeners)to the station.
British Security Coordination, a covert organization that by the
British Secret Intelligence Service established in
New York City, operated the broadcast service. From 1939 to 1942, WRUL broadcasted radio lectures to Europe and South America in eight languages, and also in the United States over an informal network of over 300 stations, including
WNYC in New York City. Like all United States shortwave stations, in November 1942 the U.S. government leased WRUL for further wartime propaganda broadcasts. WRUL was allowed to resume partial independent programming in 1947,...
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