WOO (Philadelphia)

In 1911 American Marconi began operating two stations located at the Wanamaker stores in Philadelphia (WHE) and New York City (WHI).

The stations were used for Wanamaker's inter-company communication, and were also open to the general public, for sending telegrams between the two cities, in addition to ships along the Atlantic coast.

[8] WOO made its debut broadcast on April 24, 1922, which featured two speeches by Gifford Pinchot, who was conducting an ultimately successful gubernatorial campaign, that were separated by a one hour program of "orchestral selections".

[12] In May 1923 additional "Class B" frequencies were made available, and one of the Philadelphia allocations, 590 kHz,[13] was assigned to WOO and WIP (now WTEL) on a timesharing basis.

[17] A store booklet sent to listeners-in titled Broadcasting the World's Greatest Organ reported that "Wanamaker radio organ parties are given in homes in Porto Rico on broadcasting evenings; the great instrument has been heard in Berkeley, California; it is a delight to “listeners in” in trading posts along Hudson’s Bay...." Wanamaker's eventually determined that the cost of running a radio station exceeded its benefits.

Station manager Charles Dryden released a statement noting that: "Investigations made by special inquiry among radio listeners during the past two years have revealed that broadcasting is not helping the store in general or in an advertising way, hence our decision to discontinue operations indefinitely.