Diemazz

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WEDC, and its sister shared-time radio stations, WCRW and WSBC, are an important part of United States radio history. Not only operating as "shared time stations" for their entire existence (WEDC and WCRW), an unusual type of station, but also as "foreign language" broadcasters, catering to "niche markets". The FCC allowed the shared time status. Competition in the market dictated the foreign language status. Neither WEDC and WCRW exist today, so preservation of this history is important for the future.

According to Ed Jacker, who owned WCRW, and helped operate WEDC, foreign language broadcasters were always under suspicion by the fcc, especially during war years, for the threat of broadcasting "un-American" or traitorous or "coded" information.

WEDC was a "shared time" radio station already operating at 1240 on the am dial in 1927[ [Chicago]]. The operation shared the 1240 frequency with WCRW and WSBC.

The Broadcasting Yearbook notes that WEDC operated 11 hours daily. The three stations on 1240 were each authorized 8 hours, but according to Ed Jacker, owner of WCRW, "no one listened overnight" so WCRW sold its 3 overnight hours to WEDC.

The original studio of WEDC was located on Ogden Avenue at the car dealership known as Emil Denemark Cadillac, (hence EDC) which owned the station. The studio was in the showroom in a glass booth.

Photo albums at the studio and conversation with the radio station attorney verified that in the 1970s WEDC was purchased by the Pucinski family. Roman Pucinski was a Congressman and later, a Chicago city councilman. His mother, Annabelle Pucinski, was a long-time program host and did a daily Polish language program that included news, interviews, recipes, and commentary of interest to Chicago's Polish community.

During Pucinski's ownership, WEDC's studios were located in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on Chicago's northwest side.

FCC.gov verifies that it was in May 1996, that WSBC bought out WCRW, for $762,500.In July of that year, WSBC took over WCRW's hours. WSBC was once the owner of WXRT(FM) and WSCR(AM) in Chicago. Those stations were later sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting, and are now a part of CBS.

Dziennik Chicagoski (The Polish Daily News), the Polish language daily newspaper noted that on June 13, 1997 at midnight, WSBC took over WEDC's hours putting an end to the last of the original time-sharing arrangements in the United States.

Note that WSBC and WEDC used separate transmitter sites, located within a mile of each other on the northwest side of Chicago.

In 1988 WCRW, was purchased by WEDC (who sold them both to WSBC).

The format of WEDC had always been foreign language programming, mostly Polish and Spanish. Game Show host Pat Sajak got his start in radio as a control board operator st WEDC.

In the 1980s WEDC (and WCRW) were sold to WSBC, ending the 60+ years of "shared-time" operation.

Sources

The information in this article is first hand knowledge, documented whenever possible. The original author was a full-time employee of the Pucinski family, and maintained the equipment and managed employees at WEDC for a number of years. The author has intimate knowledge of the day to day operation of WEDC.

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