Eighty years ago, on April 23, 1946, the Federal Communications Commission tentatively approved the license for Volusia County’s first FM radio station. The station, operated by The News-Journal, would be called WNDB (the letters stood for “News Daytona Beach”) and would start broadcasting the next year.
“FM broadcasts can’t be heard on the radio sets now in general use,” a newspaper story said, explaining this new technology. “Receivers which can pick up either AM or FM are expected, however, to be on the market soon.”
Daytona Beach already boasted its first radio station, WMFJ, which began broadcasting March 21, 1935. Its call letters stood for “World’s Most Famous.” (The station wanted WMFB but that was taken.) The first transmissions were rough, with News-Journal columnist Sparky Kennon quipping that it was “the first time static ever had call letters.”
The new FM station opened its studios on the third floor of the News-Journal building at 128 Orange Ave. and went on the air on March 26, 1947, with three hours of programming starting with “New-Journal City Desk on the Air,” a show featuring the newspaper’s city editor, Jim Roan, reading local news stories. Its AM sister station went on the air in April 1948.
WNDB studios moved with the News-Journal to 6th Street in 1967. The newspaper sold the radio stations in 1972 to Quality Broadcasting Corporation.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Here’s when FM Radio came to Daytona Beach
Reporting by Mark Lane, Special to The News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
