Talk:WPAX

Early station history

WPAX has had a complicated history, and there have been inconsistencies in how this has been accounted. In addition, some of the station's publicity claims have been exaggerations.

To recap, there have been two different Thomasville stations with the call letters WPAX. The first was licensed from December 1922 to April 1923 to the S-W Radio Company, and is the one that was located in Hoyt Wimpy's Garage. In 1930 the second station, originally WQDX, was licensed to Stevens Luke. In December 1934 Hoyt Wimpy returned to the airwaves after he purchased WQDX and renamed it to WPAX. Thus, over the years station histories have differed over whether the current WPAX station dates back to 1922, 1930 or 1934.

According to Federal Communications Commission records, the current WPAX is unrelated to the 1922-1923 WPAX, and dates back to the licensing of WQDX in 1930 (FCC History Cards for WPAX (covering WQDX / WPAX from 1930-1979)).

In 1939, the station celebrated its 5th anniversary, therefore omitting both the 1922-1923 WPAX and the 1930-1934 years as WQDX. ("WPAX Celebrates Fifth Birthday With Luncheon", Thomasville Times-Enterprise, November 30, 1939, page 4.) At the same time, an advertisement for the station stated that "Seventeen years ago Radio Station WPAX made its first appearance on the air. The station broadcast programs thru the year 1923 and was off the air until December 8, 1934." ("WPAX Wimpy --- Radio --- Thomasville" (advertisement), Thomasville Times-Enterprise, November 29, 1939, page 36.) thus linking the original WPAX and its 1934 incarnation, but omitting the four years that the second station was WQDX.

In 1972 WPAX celebrated what it said was its 50th birthday, thus now linking its history to the original WPAX of 1922. However, this review and others like it tend to imply that WPAX had been in continuous operation from 1922 to 1972, omitting the fact that there was no station at all from 1923 to 1930, and the WPAX call letters didn't reappear until 1934, as the second station's call sign was WQDX from 1930-1934. ("WPAX To Celebrate 50th Anniversary", Thomasville Times-Enterprise, December 26, 1972, page 8.)

Station publicity has commonly made the claim that the original WPAX was the third station licensed in Georgia, however this does not appear to be correct. A contemporary magazine report stated that as of September 21, 1922 there were already 7 Georgia stations ("Number of Broadcasting Stations by States on September 21, 1922" Radio News, December 1922, page 1140). Two more Georgia stations were added before WPAX was licensed, so according to my research the original WPAX was actually Georgia's 10th broadcasting station:

1. 3/15/22 WSB Atlanta (Atlanta Journal)
2. 3/17/22 WGM Atlanta (Atlanta Constitution)
3. 4/17/22 WAAS Decatur (Georgia Radio Company)
4. 5/18/22 WDAJ College Park (Atlanta & West Point Railroad)
5. 6/24/22 WGAK Macon (Macon Electric Company)
6. 6/30/22 WGAV Savannah (B-H Radio Company)
7. 7/--/22 WHAO Savannah (Frederic A. Hill)
8. 8/31/22 WKAY Gainesville (Brenau College)
9. 10/30/22 WMAZ Macon (Mercer University)
10. 12/27/22 WPAX Thomasville (S-W Radio Company)

Station publicity has also commonly made the claim that the original WPAX was the 20th station overall to be licensed in the U.S., which is even more removed from being accurate. As of October 5, 1922 there were a reported 546 broadcasting stations in the country ("Broadcasting Increases Five-Hundred Fold in Year, Radio News, December 1922, page 1156) and approximately 100 more were added in the three subsequent months before WPAX was granted a license, so instead of 20th the original WPAX was around the 650th broadcasting station licensed in the U.S.--Thomas H. White (talk) 14:56, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Good research! It would be good to include that in the article. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:14, 12 February 2020 (UTC)