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- This article refers to the radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa. For the Real-time strategy computer game World in Conflict, see World in Conflict.
| First air date | February 1922 |
| Frequency | 1420 kHz |
| Broadcast area | Davenport, Iowa; Quad Cities |
| Style | News; talk radio |
| Group | Clear Channel |
WOC is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, and has a news and talk radio format. The station's frequency is 1420 kHz, and broadcasts at a power of 5 kW.
WOC is owned by Clear Channel Communications. Studios are located in Davenport, Iowa. Other stations located in the same complex are KMXG, KUUL-FM, WLLR-FM, KCQQ-FM, WFXN and WKBF.
History of 1420 kHz
WOC is widely known as the radio station where future U.S. President Ronald Reagan got his start re-creating Chicago Cubs baseball games. But that would be telling only part of the story.
WOC (which stands for "Wonders Of Chiropractic") traces its roots to 1907, when Robert Karlowa began an experimental station in Rock Island, Illinois. The station was known under several callsigns, including 9-BC, 9-XR and 9-BY.
On February 18, 1922, the government assigned the fledgling station the WOC call letters, and full-time broadcasting commenced. Historians believe WOC to have been the first commercial radio station west of the Mississippi River, and certainly the first in Iowa.
Karlowa continued to operate the station, but the costs quickly became too great. In March, he sold the station to Col. B. J. Palmer, who operated the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport. The equipment was moved to a small studio on Palmer's Brady Street campus, and a family connection was started that lasted almost 75 years.
WOC was known for many first in the radio industry. A short list might include:
- Broadcasting from the Iowa Legislature.
- On-air and studio personnel being required to keep logs of such things as electrical consumption and on-air programming (to the second). The programming log also helped the station begin programs on an absolute "minute-and-second" schedule.
- Use of a fader panel, allowing use of several microphones in the studio at one time.
On January 26, 1925, WOC formed a network and joined forces with radio station WEAF. In September 1927, WOC became a charter member of the new NBC radio network.
In 1932, a young 21-year-old native of Tampico, Illinois got his first broadcasting job at WOC as a sportscaster. He was none other than Ronald Reagan, who went on to become President of the United States. Reagan returned to WOC in 1988, when WOC and FM-affiliate KIIK 104 dedicated its new studios on East Kimberly Road.
When the FRC's General Order 40 reallocated frequencies in 1928, Des Moines radio station WHO was forced to share time on WOC's frequency. This continued for several years, even after B.J. Palmer purchased WHO. For about four years, the two stations operated together as WOC-WHO. In November 1933, a 50kW transmitter near Mitchellville went into service. WOC ceased broadcasting, but in November 1934, the station separated from WHO and returned to a new frequency - 1370 kHz. The station's power was boosted to 5 kW in 1942, the same time WOC moved to its current 1420 kHz home.
WOC's FM affiliate, WOC-FM, signed on the air in October 1948 at 103.7 MHz. The FM station has changed formats three times, and currently has a country music format as WLLR-FM and is the highest-rated station in the Quad Cities market. WOC-TV, the first television station in Iowa, began broadcasting on October 31, 1949; after the Palmer family split its radio and television holdings in 1986, the TV station became KWQC-TV.
The AM frequency, meanwhile, has undergone several format changes since the end of the Golden Age of Radio. Its current news/talk oriented format started in 1979.
WOC and its FM affiliate continued to be owned by Palmer family (in later years as Signal Hill Communications) until 1996, when it was sold. The station was purchased by Clear Channel Communications in 2000.
Local programming
WOC currently boasts a five-person news staff, and shares its services with its sister stations.
Local personalities who host talk shows include Jim Albracht, who hosts a morning show called "Albracht in the AM"; Jim Fisher, who fronts an afternoon call-in show; and a number of advice-type programs. The station also carries Mississippi Athletic Conference high school football and basketball games (with announcer Pete Ivanic), University of Iowa sports and National Football League games.
Syndicated talk shows include those hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and Michael Reagan.
Sources
- Stein, Jeff. "Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting." WDG Communications Inc., Cedar Rapids, 2004. ISBN 0-9718323-1-5
- "Scott County Heritage," Scott County Heritage Book Committee, Taylor Publishing, Dallas, 1991.
External link
"WOC"