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The correct date for KFKA's first license is June 4, 1923, not May 21, 1921

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Summary: The overwhelming evidence is that KFKA was first licensed on June 4, 1923. Any earlier broadcasts were as an unlicensed station that had not yet been assigned the KFKA call letters. The small number of later (erroneous) statements that KFKA was initially licensed in May 1921 are due to confusion between the station's origin as an unlicensed station with its actual first license date.

  • The granting of KFKA's first license was reported in the July 2, 1923 issue of the Department of Commerce's Radio Service Bulletin, which was a monthly publication used to report actions that had occurred during the previous month, in this case June 1923: ("New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, July 2, 1923, page 3.) Also, this was not a report of a change in ownership, because KFKA is included in the "New Stations" section, while ownership changes were reported in the Bulletin's "Alterations and Corrections" section.
  • In 1937 S. E. Frost, Jr. published Education's Own Stations, which is a comprehensive review of radio stations which had been operated by educational institutions. For KFKA he reported: "Broadcasting from the campus of the Colorado State College of Education began in 1921. During this early period the College presented a variety of informative programs describing the curriculum offerings of the institution. Success of this venture was so marked that application was made for a broadcast license. The federal government granted this license on June 4, 1923, permitting the College to operate its transmitter on 1,210 kc, with 50 watts power for 'unlimited' time. The call letters assigned were KFKA." ("Colorado State College of Education" section of Education's Own Stations by S. E. Frost, Jr., 1937, page 63.)
  • A 1973 obituary for Gorden G. Moss stated: "He opened the first radio station in Greeley in 1921, which later became KFKA..." ("Gordon Moss" (obituary), Greeley Tribune, October 9, 1973, page 6)

KFKA has traditionally traced its pre-history to May 21, 1921, when Gordon G. Moss reportedly transferred a station with the self-assigned call letters "GGM" from his family ranch to the Colorado State Teachers College campus. ("Local Radio Station Now Celebrates", Greeley Daily Tribune, June 6, 1940, page 5.) There is no evidence that from May 1921 until June 4, 1923 the station operating at the college was licensed. From 1912 until the 1927 formation of the Federal Radio Commission, radio communication in the United States was regulated by the Department of Commerce. Licensed U.S. stations at this time were issued call letters starting with "K", "N" and "W" or, if Moss' station had been formally licensed as an amateur or experimental station, it would have been issued a call sign starting with the digit "9", which was the regional "Radio Inspection" district in which Colorado was located. Moss' station "GGM" was clearly just using his initials as a self-assigned identifier, perhaps under the impression that it was so isolated that it didn't need a formal government license.

There are no reports during 1921 and 1922 of any licensed radio stations in Greeley in the monthly issues of the Commerce Department's Radio Service Bulletin. Moreover, there are no Greeley stations listed in its comprehensive June 30th annual station lists for those two years:

  • "Commercial Land Stations", Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States, Edition June 30, 1921, pages 9-11.
  • "Ninth District", Amateur Radio Stations of the United States, Edition June 30, 1921, pages 172-203.
  • "Commercial Land Stations", Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States, Edition June 30, 1922, pages 9-12.
  • "Ninth District", Amateur Radio Stations of the United States, Edition June 30, 1922, pages 236-299.

(In the late 1920s Gordon G. Moss did eventually get around to obtaining an amateur license, and is listed as W9CKN beginning in the June 30, 1929 edition of Amateur Radio Stations of the United States: ("Ninth District", Amateur Radio Stations of the United States, June 30, 1929 edition, page 264))

Effective December 1, 1921 the Commerce Department adopted regulations that formally established a "broadcast service" category ("Amendments to Regulations", Radio Service Bulletin, January 3, 1922, page 10.) After this the department periodically issued lists of active broadcasting stations. None of the lists issued through March 1, 1923 list KFKA, or any broadcasting station at all in Greeley:

The first official station list to include KFKA was one dated June 30, 1923, which conforms with the station's first license being issued on the 4th of the same month:

Official call letters issued to broadcasting stations in the western U.S. all started with "K". Many of the earliest were three letters, after which they were generally four letters. The four-letter call signs were issued in alphabetical order. If KFKA's first license had actually been issued in May 1921, it would have received either a three-letter call sign, or a four-letter one starting with KDR-, which was the section of the alphabetical roster being issued at that time. (In the May 1921 Radio Service Bulletin, the four new western "land stations" grants were assigned the call letters KDRF, KDRH, KDRO and KDRY: ("New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, May 1, 1921, page 2.))

The alphabetical pattern of call letters issued to the earliest Colorado stations in the following chronological list makes it obvious that KFKA's assignment matched the call signs being issued in mid-1923, and not those of mid-1921:

  1. KLZ 03/10/1922 Denver (Reynolds Radio Company: now KLZ Denver)
  2. KOA 03/20/1922 Denver (Young Men's Christian Association: deleted 06/23/1923)
  3. KHD 04/05/1922 Colorado Springs (C. F. Aldrich Marble & Granite: deleted 03/20/1923)
  4. KDYY 05/18/1922 Denver (Rocky Mountain Radio Corp: deleted 03/--/1923)
  5. KDZQ 05/31/1922 Denver (Motor Generator Company: deleted 05/29/1924)
  6. KDZU 06/03/1922 Denver (Western Radio Corporation: deleted 09/01/1925 (as KFAF))
  7. KFAJ 06/30/1922 Boulder (University of Colorado: deleted 01/28/1926)
  8. KFBS 09/--/1922 Trinidad (Trinidad Electric & Supply Co.: deleted 12/--/1924)
  9. KFBV 10/--/1922 Colorado Springs (Clarence O. Ford: deleted 03/--/1923)
  10. KFCK 11/--/1922 Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs Radio Co.: deleted 01/--/1924)
  11. KFDL 12/--/1922 Denver (Knight-Campbell Music Co.: deleted 03/--/1924)
  12. KFEP 12/--/1922 Denver (Radio Equipment Co.: deleted 12/--/1923)
  13. KFEL 01/03/1923 Denver (Winner Radio Company: now KKSE Parker)
  14. KFFQ 01/--/1923 Colorado Springs (Marksheffel Motor Co.: deleted 06/--/1924)
  15. KFGB 01/--/1923 Pueblo (Lowenthal Bros.: deleted 06/--/1923)
  16. KFHA 03/08/1923 Gunnison (Colorado State Normal School: deleted 01/--/1931)
  17. KFIC 04/--/1923 Denver (Philip Laskowitz: deleted 07/--/1923)
  18. KFJD 05/--/1923 Greeley (Weld County Printing & Publishing: deleted 01/--/1924)
  19. KFKH 05/--/1923 Lakeside (Denver Park & Amusement Co.: deleted 01/--/1924)
  20. KFHY 06/--/1923 Trinidad (R. S. McEwan: deleted 10/--/1923)
  21. KFKA 06/04/1923 Greeley (Colorado State Teachers College: now KFKA Greeley)
  22. KFLE 06/--/1923 Denver (National Education Service: deleted 03/--/1925)

So, in conclusion:

  • There is pretty good evidence that as early as May 1921 the college, working with Moss, operated some sort of radio station.
  • There is no evidence that this station was licensed until June 4, 1923, when it received its initial authorization as broadcasting station KFKA.--Thomas H. White (talk) 13:38, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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