KYY (San Francisco)

KYY was a short-lived San Francisco, California broadcasting station, licensed to The Radio Telephone Shop. It was issued its first license in December 1921, and deleted just over a year later.

In early 1920 A. F. Pendleton, owner of The Radio Telephone Shop, held a standard amateur station license, 6UV,^[2] which was used to broadcast concerts beginning around March or April of 1920. This may have been the first station after World War One to make entertainment broadcasts in the San Francisco area.^[3]

The April 1921 issue of Pacific Radio News reported that "The radio telephone station at 175 Steuart St., San Francisco, operated by Mr. A. F. Pendleton of the Radio Telephone Shop, transmits press by voice and CW on Tuesday and Friday evenings from 8 P. M. to 9 P. M. Several musical numbers are also provided on both nights. Signals from Mr. Pendleton's station (6UV) have recently been heard with good audibility in Portland, Oregon".^[4] Later that year The Radio Telephone Shop was issued a license for an Experimental station, 6XAE.^[5] A contemporary review noted that 6XAE was continuing the 8:00-9:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday programs, transmitted on a wavelength of 425 meters (706 kHz).^[6]

Beginning in late 1912, radio communication in the United States was regulated by the Department of Commerce. Initially there were no formal standards for which stations could make broadcasts intended for the general public, and after World War One stations under a variety of license classes, most commonly Amateur and Experimental, began making regularly scheduled programs on a limited basis. In order to provide common standards for the service, the Commerce Department issued a regulation effective December 1, 1921 that stated that broadcasting stations would now have to hold a Limited Commercial license that authorized operation on two designated broadcasting wavelengths: 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment", and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather reports".^[7] On December 20, 1921 a broadcasting station license with the randomly assigned call letters KYY was issued to The Radio Telephone Shop, for operation on 360 meters.^[8]

ラジオ電話ショップが放送業界で早くから目立っていたのとは対照的に、KYY の歴史は浅かった。当初は 360 メートルの波長が唯一の「娯楽」周波数であったため、さまざまな地域の放送局は個別の運用スロットを割り当てるためにタイムシェアリング契約を結ぶ必要があった。しかし、1922 年 8 月のスケジュールには KYY の放送時間はまったく記載されていなかった。^[9]さらに、1922 年 11 月 1 日までに 360 メートルで時間を共有する「サンフランシスコ湾地区」の放送局が 12 局あったが、その日に発効した地域割り当てにはこの放送局は含まれていなかった。^[10] KYY は 1923 年 1 月 24 日に正式に廃止された。 ^[11]