improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations . statements consisting only of original research should be removed . june 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message wtaw city college station texas broadcast area brazos valley branding newstalk 1620 slogan news and information for the brazos valley frequency 1620 khz first air date october 1922 format news talk information power 10 000 watts day 1 000 watts night class b facility id 87145 transmitter coordinates 30 37 15.00 n 96 15 16.00 w 30.6208333 n 96.2544444 w 30.6208333 ; 96.2544444 coordinates 30 37 15.00 n 96 15 16.00 w 30.6208333 n 96.2544444 w 30.6208333 ; 96.2544444 callsign meaning watch the aggies win former callsigns 5ya kazw 1998 2000 kzne 2000 2000 affiliations cbs radio premiere radio networks westwood one owner bryan broadcasting company bryan broadcasting license corporation sister stations knde kzne kwbc kagc webcast listen live website official website wtaw 1620 am newstalk 1620 is an am radio station licensed in the city of college station texas . the station is currently owned by bryan broadcasting company through its licensee bryan broadcasting license corporation and features programing from premiere radio networks and fox news . 1 it received its license to operate in october 1922 as one of the united states first high powered stations . currently it operates as a talk radio station airing a mixture of syndicated and locally originated news and talk programming . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 5ya and 5xb 1.2 equipment at 5xb texas a & m 2 programming 3 references 4 external links history edit wtaw is credited with being one of the first stations in the nation to cover a live football game in real time . prior to the current news talk radio format wtaw then 1150 am was a country and western radio station which was housed in bryan texas close to the triangle bowling alley in the old college area of the city . the station was assigned the call letters kazw on january 9 1998 . on march 1 2000 the station changed its call sign to kzne on may 3 2000 to the current wtaw 3 on december 4 2003 the station was sold to bryan broadcasting . 4 the corporate offices are now located in the crystal park plaza just off of the general james earl rudder highway texas state highway 6 in college station texas . wtaw is the home of the longest running radio show in the brazos valley ; the infomaniacs morning show was known as the muck and mire show dating to at least the 1960s . current host k. scott delucia a well known local personality started his association with wtaw and the muck and mire show in the late 1960s after doing color for local a & m consolidated sports . he is the longest serving media personality in the city and surrounding area having not only been involved with wtaw but also serving as the sports director for kbtx the cbs affiliate in bryan college station as well as being an on the air sports anchor in addition to also contributing to the bryan college station eagle the daily newspaper which serves the twin cities and brazos county . 5ya and 5xb edit w.a. tolson . photo by john west the broadcast was unusual it was accomplished by licensed radio amateurs using telegraphic code operating on amateur radio frequencies . the names of participants with licensed station call signs and hometowns were as follows harry m. saunders 5ni greenville texas george e. endress 5ja 5zag austin texas w. eugene gray 5qy austin texas j. gordon gray 5qy austin texas charles c. clark 5qa austin texas franklin k. matejka 5rs caldwell texas shortly after the hostilities of world war i ended amateur radio activities began anew ; and the students who had radio operating licenses were permitted to operate school stations . it was only natural that these operators would get together on more or less regular schedules ; and it was during one of these exchanges between w. a. tolson now deceased chief operator at texas a & m experimental station 5xb and operators at university of texas experimental station 5xu that a decision was reached to undertake the transmission of the play by play activities of the forthcoming thanksgiving football game from college station . at the time of the broadcast the state of radio communications had not yet reached the point where vacuum tubes would be used in universal voice transmission ; and instead intelligence was commonly conveyed by dots and dashes using the international morse radiotelegraph code . transmissions by code are inherently much slower than by voice and its normal rate of speed is in the vicinity of 20 words or 100 characters per minute . this is too slow to keep up with gridiron activities and therefore a system of abbreviations had to be devised . it so happened that harry saunders now deceased had previously worked as an operator with western union and was familiar with methods used by commercial telegraph companies in furnishing the play by play accounts of football and baseball games to newspapers private sporting clubs etc. when it was mentioned on the air to the operators at the university of texas that such a list of abbreviations was being prepared numerous requests for a copy of the list were received by radio and by mail from some of the 275 then licensed amateur radio operators in the state . thus what had started out to be a point to point broadcast turned out to be one with many listeners . for transmission wires were run from the press box at kyle field to the station in the electrical engineering building a half mile or so away . for reception other wires were run to the home of a radio amateur who lived near the playing field . this arrangement enabled the operator to hear his own transmissions as well as those from amateur stations should their operators wish to interrupt for clarification or other information . the only radio equipment at the press box was a key for transmitting and a pair of headphones from receiving . although the reporting of play by play action in 1921 was simpler than that of today due to the absence of the two platoon system and the lesser frequency of substitutions it still required the help of spotters from each team to make it possible . the activity on the gridiron had to be put into abbreviations and then into radio signals . actually there was little delay in conveying the information to others and it is estimated that this delay rarely amounted to more than one play behind . only one incident threatened the success of this broadcast . near the end of the first half of the game a fuse blew out on the equipment but this was hurriedly replaced by tolson who went to the electrical engineering building after having been excused temporarily from his duty in the aggie band . it is doubtful that saunders the sole operator in the press box ever envisioned the magnitude of the chore that he had agreed to accept . the situation at the university of texas was relatively simple ; and with the exception of more persons in the room and the addition of an audio amplifier and horn speaker it could well have been the location of another radio amateur listener . the gray brothers now deceased clark and endress manned the transmitter and receiver positions copying the abbreviations sent from kyle field and on occasion communicating with saunders . slips of paper with received abbreviations were passed over a long table to matejka who relayed the decoding over a horn speaker through an open window to the many interested university students who had gathered outside to keep up with the progress of the game . equipment at 5xb texas a & m edit the equipment was constructed for the most part in the electrical engineering laboratory by the radio amateur students interested in the station and with the help and guidance of the head of the electrical engineering department dean f. c. bolton who later became president of the college . the main power transformer had been constructed for oil testing purposes and was capable of providing the power limit of two kilowatts allowable under the special experimental license of 5xb . the transmitting condenser consisted of about 100 clear glass photographic plates interlaced with tinfoil from damaged paper condensers from the laboratory . the entire sandwich of glass plates and tinfoil was immersed in an oil filled copper lined box . its performance was unusually good considering the voltage involved . the oscillation transformer was loaned by the signal corps radio laboratory which had been established on the campus during world war i for training of military personnel . it was a real beauty consisting of heavy aluminum wire wound on separators made from genuine mahogany . a number of rotary spark gaps were tried from time to time and the one used on the date of the broadcast was a modified commercial unit bought by saunders on radio row in new york city in the summer of 1921 while he was attending an r.o.t.c. summer training camp at red bank new jersey . the modification consisted of mounting the motor behind the control panel with its rotating shaft extended through the panel . the electrodes both fixed and rotary were then re mounted on the front of the panel . a circular wooden cover with a glass front inclosed the gap forming an almost airtight unit . after a few characters were transmitted the ... oxygen would be exhausted and the note of the signal neared that of a quenched gap . near the end of each transmission the operator would remove the power from the motor and its flywheel effect as the speed decreased provided a unique and distinctive signature . the antenna was suspended from a steel tower on the electrical engineering building in which the station was located on the third floor to another tower atop the dormitory next door . details of its construction are not available . the main station receiver was an early model coast guard tuner consisting of multi tapped coils with both coarse and fine tuning taps supplemented by a variable air condenser . this tuning unit was connected to a world war i signal corps vt 1 vacuum tube detector unit and a two tube audio amplifier . filament voltage was obtained from signal corps alkaline storage batteries and the high voltage was provided by conventional b batteries . by today s standards such a receiver would be useless with crowded signals but at that time it worked out fairly well . programming edit wtaw is a talk radio station locally owned and operated . the station carries other well known syndicated programs such as the rush limbaugh show and coast to coast am . wtaw s news department is made up of three broadcast journalists . wtaw has nine newscasts that primarily focus on local news with relevant national and international stories included . references edit wtaw facility record . united states federal communications commission audio division . retrieved 2009 09 10 . station information profile . arbitron . summer 2009 . archived from the original on september 23 2009 . retrieved 2009 09 10 . wtaw call sign history . united states federal communications commission audio division . retrieved 2009 09 10 . fcc application . federal communications commission . missing or empty url help ; access date requires url help external links edit official website query the fcc s am station database for wtaw radio locator information on wtaw query nielsen audio s am station database for wtaw basic information about amateur radio from arrl . v t e