Wonderful Isle of Dreams … WIOD!

While I must presume this is a re-print, I’ve had this letter and the documents displayed below in my possession for at least 40 years, with no recollection of who gave them to me — although I have to assume that it was during the time which we, as Bonneville Broadcast Consultants, were providing programming and consulting services to WIOD-FM during the 1970’s.

While the letter is undated, the envelope in which the letter and the brochure below was enclosed, has a postmark of April 6, 1927 — however it obviously was never mailed to the addressee, who was in Buffalo, New York.

In doing research, I discovered this great article about the early days of radio in the Miami area  — which, for many years, had just two station, WIOD and WQAM — that appeared in a 1973 issue of the Historical Association of Southern Florida newsletter.  Scroll down to Page 6.

As you see, the letterhead states that the station is owned by the Carl G. Fisher Company. This was just one of Mr. Fisher’s businesses, as he earned the title of being a true entrepreneur and was widely regarded as a promotional genius. Born in central Indiana in 1874, he dropped out of school following the 6th grade, became involved in auto racing and the building of the Indianapolis Speedway and earned his first millions from the fledgling automotive industry. He also conceived and helped develop the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road to cross the entire nation, running from New York City to San Francisco — along much of the route today known as U. S. Route 30. Then, Carl Fisher’s focus would turn southward!

As another American entrepreneur, Henry Flagler, would do two decades earlier in the founding and developing of the city of Miami … while vacationing in southern Florida, Carl Fisher would discover a largely unpopulated barrier island that lay between the City of Miami and the Atlantic Ocean, and play a major role in developing that land into the famed vacation destination known as Miami Beach. As part of his development of the resort community, he built four hotels … with some having a band playing nightly for entertainment and dancing. As you see on this 1927 schedule, this served also as programming for WIOD, which began broadcasting in 1926.

Today, we think about stations broadcasting around the clock and, as long as most can remember, most broadcast at least from early morning ‘til late evening. However, in 1927, WIOD was operating barely 23 hours a week.

How long Mr. Fisher would own the station is questionable, as his fortunes experienced a downturn in the next couple of years … the south Florida “land boom” was going bust and the 1929 market crash wiped out the remainder of his wealth. None of the biographical articles I’ve found even mention Mr. Fisher’s ownership of the radio station — it’s very possible Jesse Jay was the real person behind the station, with Carl Fisher providing the funds for construction and operation … in return for promoting the Fisher interests. Come the mid-1930’s, Jesse Jay would still be listed as manager, but ownership attributed to the Metropolis newspaper … which was the predecessor of the Miami News, one of the early ventures in what became the Cox Family media empire.

As you’ll note from the letterhead, WIOD began operations at 1210 on the AM dial; however, by the early 1930s it had re-located upwards to 1300. Still, by the later 1930’s, as you see in this 1939 ad, it had been moved to 610 Kilocycles at the lower end of the AM dial … the part of the AM band offering far better coverage for the same amount of transmitter power. And that is where it remains today, although its output power has increased to 5000 watts.

Ownership-wise, it continued as part of the Cox family media empire until the middle 1990s. Following a very brief intermediate ownership, it was acquired in 1997 by the nation’s largest owner of radio stations, Clear Channel Communications, now known as iHeart Media.

Through its newspaper ownership relationship, WIOD has always been known for its emphasis on informational programming and, since the mid-1980s, has been a fulltime news-talk-formatted station.

In a corporate restructuring within the Cox family, the station’s call letters were changed to WCKR in 1956, yet through a further change, they reverted just six years later to WIOD, which are still in place today.

Finally, in the Schedule of Broadcasting shown above, did you notice the line at the bottom stating that the sign-off of each broadcast would include a blast from an ocean liner whistle and taps played on chimes, which may have sounded like this:

For your edification, another saga from the “pioneering days” of radio broadcasting … as it took place in the self-proclaimed “Wonderful Isle of Dreams!”

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