WJY (New York City)

WJY was an AM radio station located in New York City, licensed to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) from May 1923 to early 1927. It was operated jointly with RCA's primary New York City station, WJZ (now WABC). After RCA took over operation of a third New York City station, WEAF (now WFAN), WJY was discontinued as being no longer needed.

The Radio Corporation of America was an early broadcasting pioneer, and would dominate the American radio industry for a half a century. Its entry into the broadcasting field occurred on July 2, 1921, when a temporary longwave station located in Hoboken, New Jersey, also assigned the call letters WJY, was used for a ringside broadcast of the Dempsey-Carpentier heavyweight boxing match. In December 1921, RCA began regular operation of AM station WDY in Roselle Park, New Jersey, although WDY was shut down just two months later, when RCA began sharing half the cost of a Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing station, WJZ (now WABC), located in Newark, New Jersey. On May 15, 1923, RCA took over full responsibility for WJZ, and moved the station from Newark to New York City.

This same day marked the debut of WJY, also located in New York City. WJY and WJZ shared facilities, known as "Radio Broadcast Central", which had been constructed on the sixth floor of Aeolian Hall at 29 West Forty-second Street. RCA explained that it was operating two stations so that WJZ could provide "classical or serious entertainment" programming, while WJY would feature less formal "popular airs, dance music and lectures".

Although introductory reviews emphasized that the studios and transmitting equipment provided to WJY and WJZ were equally advanced, it was soon clear that the senior WJZ was the dominant station. WJZ was assigned exclusive use of its 660 kHz frequency, while WJY had to share its frequency, 740 kHz, with two other stations: WOR, operated by the Bamberger Department Store in Newark, New Jersey, and WDT, operated by the Ship Owners' Radio Service in Stapleton, New York. (WDT was deleted by the end of the year). In addition, when RCA started development of a radio network, which eventually evolved into the NBC-Blue network (later the American Broadcasting Company), it normally featured programs originating from WJZ. WJY's program offerings appear to have been very limited. Two months after its debut, its schedule was listed as consisting of a single weekly transmission from 2:30 to 6:30 on Sunday afternoons.

...
Wikipedia