WNYW (shortwave)

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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