As a part of the ongoing REC Radio History Project, we are happy to announce that we have reached a milestone in our project to transfer FCC History Card data to an electronic format. We have completed development of 30 AM facilities spanning from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz as well as the AM stations heard in the Bay Area.
This data can now be retrieved through REC's fccdata.org by simply bringing up the current station record.
Enhanced information in the History Card project includes all application activity other than renewals that have taken place since the Federal Radio Commission started in 1927. Prior to the FRC, radio was managed by the Department of Commerce. There will be a separate project later that will integrate the limited amount of information we have available (mainly through Radio Service Bulletins).
The enhanced information allows you to take a journey through the many people, organizations and companies that owned and controlled these stations. For many of the mom and pop stations, it is very interesting to see how the stations were passed down to family as the original pioneers passed on and it gives you an early view into the regional companies that would eventually be concentrated into the mega corporations we have today.
The enhanced information also shows a station's evolution over time. In some cases, these stations started with only 50 watts and shared time with other stations. You will be able to see how these stations eventually grew and the interesting requests they made over the years to get to where they are today.
Also for formerly daytime only stations, the History Card data gives an interesting look into types of special programming that some stations ran back in the 30s and 40s as these stations had to obtain special permission from the FCC to remain on the air to carry this programming after dark.
The History Card project is one of several initatives taking place to offer a full history of a broadcast facility. Parallel projects include the recovery of public notice data for applications filed during the BAPS era (1978-1998) and do not have an engineering record. The Public Notice project has been completed for AM records nationwide and application records with enhanced public notice data can be identified by a blue arrow to the left of the application reference number. To read the public notice data, click on the arrow. REC is currently in the process of recovering full-power FM radio public notice data.
The REC Radio History Project also includes the restoral of full engineering records from the BAPS era through the use of old FCC database files that were available to the general public between 1985 and 1998. REC is still actively seeking copies of these old downloads. A single 1995 vintage download that was obtained by REC has restored engineering data to 1,100 applications that would have otherwise been lost. If you still have any of the old pre-1999 FCC database downloads, please contact REC to see if we can use it for the project.
The History Card project will take a break and then will return to take on 32 broadcast facilities in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We will continue in market rank order (meaning Houston will be after Dallas).
