WJAZ (Chicago)
Following operation for a few weeks by the Chicago Tribune as WGN, the station license for the original WJAZ was sold to the hotel management, and the call letters changed to WEBH.
Later that year, Zenith prepared a portable broadcasting station, mounted on a truck body, in order to evaluate potential new transmitter locations, and this mobile unit inherited the WJAZ call letters.
Roving test broadcasts were made from various sites surrounding Chicago, and Mount Prospect, Illinois was ultimately selected for the new transmitter location.
One unusual feature was a series of midnight transmissions, operating under the experimental call sign "9XN", as one of the stations communicating with Dr. Donald B. MacMillan's Arctic expedition aboard the schooner Bowdoin, which became icebound and isolated 11 degrees below the North Pole.
[10] Zenith soon found that operating a high-powered station within Chicago city limits caused extensive "blanketing" interference to nearby receivers, and decided to relocate WJAZ to a suburban transmitter site.
[11][12] The Tribune agreement only lasted a few weeks, and the station was then sold to the Edgewater Beach Hotel management, which changed the call letters to WEBH.
In order to evaluate the various locations, as well as generate publicity for the parent company, in the fall of 1924 Zenith constructed a 100-watt portable broadcasting station, mounted on the back of a 1-ton Federal-Knight truck.
[22] Following the selection of Mount Prospect as the permanent transmitter site, the portable station began making publicity tours, first through the midwest,[23] followed by the western states, including Pikes Peak, Colorado.
Thus, McDonald proposed that, with KOA off the air, WJAZ could be permitted to broadcast on 930 kHz on Thursday evenings for two hours, from 10:00 p.m. to midnight Central time.
In addition, McDonald reassured the Department of Commerce that "Our station is concerned with the sole purpose of giving to the public the highest form of entertainment in but a limited time.
McDonald expected a narrow ruling in his favor, claiming that only a small number of stations, including WJAZ, held the "Class D Developmental" licenses that were free from normal restrictions.
However, some earlier legal challenges had raised doubts about the extent that the Department of Commerce, under the provisions of the Radio Act of 1912, could restrict licenses and designate transmitting frequencies, and the actual outcome was sweeping.
On April 16, 1926, Judge James H. Wilkerson's ruling was announced, which stated that under the 1912 Act the Commerce Department in fact could not limit the number of broadcasting licenses issued, or designate station frequencies.
[33][34] The immediate result of the court case was a large increase in the number of stations, reaching over 730 by the time the Radio Act of 1927 was passed in February 1927 to restore government control.
An FRC examiner recommended that this request be denied, however a review by the full commission ruled on October 30, 1931 in favor of WCKY, and ordered both WJAZ and WCHI deleted.
