Shortwave broadcasting in the United States includes privately owned stations as well as federal government broadcasters. Many privately owned shortwave stations are religious and some stations also carry relay programming from foreign broadcasters. Under Federal Communications Commission rules, an international broadcast station uses frequencies between 5950 and 26100 kHz and is intended to be received directly by the general public in foreign countries rather than to serve only a domestic audience in the continental United States. Such stations may carry commercial or sponsored programs and may also transmit the programming of an AM station or network system under FCC rules, but they may not operate solely for an audience in the continental United States. International broadcast stations in the United States are also subject to minimum power and directional-antenna requirements. Supporters of shortwave broadcasting have argued that it remains useful for reaching audiences in places where governments restrict access to independent media.
History The use of shortwave transmission by US broadcasters began in the 1920s by early broadcast networks as a way to transmit programming between stations, as an alternative to leasing expensive long-distance lines. Westinghouse simulcast the programs of KDKA in Pittsburgh on shortwave in order to relay them more cheaply to sister stations KDPM in Cleveland and WBZ in East Springfield, Massachusetts.
Westinghouse soon decided to move its relay target to the geographical center of the United States, and switched to a newly constructed station, KFKX in Hastings, Nebraska, beginning on November 22, 1923, which ended the relay transmissions to KDPM. Ultimately shortwave relays for network programming was determined to be inferior to dedicated telephone line connections, and the transmissions to KFKX ended, with the Hastings operation closing on June 1, 1927. In 1922, a 1 kW shortwave transmitter was installed at Westinghouse's factory in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with call sign 8XS. This was joined by 8XAU in 1924, which, after the original 8XK was deleted later that year, changed its call sign to the historically significant 8XK, and then W8XK in 1929, with its transmitter power increasing to 40 kW by 1937. The transmissions by W8XK were eventually expanded into an international service conducted independently of KDKA. From 1923 to 1940, KDKA produced The Northern Messenger, airing it over its shortwave radio sister station 8XS (later known as W8XK and WPIT). The program was broadcast over shortwave to the Far North during the winter months, when mail service was impossible, and consisted of personal messages to RCMP officers, missionaries, trappers, and others from family and friends, music, and news. RCA was also a pioneer in shortwave broadcasting in the US. RCA began to transmit transatlantic radio messages over longwave from its Radio Central facility at Rocky Point, New York after its opening on November 5, 1921. In 1923, Radio Central began experimenting with shortwave with regular use beginning in 1924. By 1928, RCA had scrapped plans for more longwave transmitters and instead built six shortwave transmitters, 2XT and WTT at 40 kw and WBU, WIK, WQO and WLL at 20 kw. The Radio Central complex was used to relay international broadcast programming received by, or sent from, RCA's broadcast stations in the United States. The facility remained in use until the 1970s when it was superseded by satellite transmission. In 1924, General Electric began relaying WGY over shortwave transmitters W2XAF and W2XAD (later called WGEO and WGEA) at their Schenectady, New York plant and Crosley Broadcasting Corporation obtained a license to relay the programming of WLW over shortwave transmitter, W8XAL (later WLWO). RCA and NBC began relaying WJZ over a shortwave transmitter in Bound Brook, New Jersey in 1925 and in 1928 CBS relayed WABC programming over shortwave station W2XE in Wayne, New Jersey. Commercial broadcasting was not allowed on shortwave until 1939. The "NBC White Network", NBC's chain of shortwave stations, aggressively sought broadcasting for the White Network which served as NBC's international network broadcast in six languages, with a focus on transmissions to Central and South America in Spanish. CBS used shortwave to support its Latin American international network, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries and GE's KGEI opened in San Francisco in 1939, transmitting to Asia. On November 1, 1942, all 14 private U.S. shortwave stations ended commercial operations and were leased to the Voice of America. All the takeovers were friendly except for WRUL which was seized by the government. The stations continued to be owned privately and after the war all owners were given the option to resume control of their stations but only the owners of WRUL exercised that option, though they were not given full control until 1954. NBC and CBS provided programming to the government under contract until 1948 when they left shortwave broadcasting. During World War II, the facilities of San Francisco radio station KSFO were also used for international shortwave broadcasting. At the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, KSFO owner Wesley I. Dumm established shortwave stations KWID and KWIX to transmit programming overseas, including broadcasts intended for American troops. The stations began broadcasting within five weeks of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and were among the early U.S. international broadcasting operations that preceded the Voice of America and Armed Forces Radio.
Non-religious private broadcasters
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