WDRCOBG.COM: Franklin Malcolm Doolittle (3/1/13)

Unique among radio stations, WDRC has had only two owners during its entire history.

Okay--FCC files list more than two corporate entities, but the fact remains that WDRC was founded in 1922 by Franklin Malcolm Doolittle who headed it until August 4, 1959 when the station was sold to Buckley-Jaeger Broadcasting Corporation of Connecticut. John Jaeger later sold his shares to Richard D. Buckley whose son, Richard D. Buckley, Jr., who headed the family corporation until his death on July 31, 2011.

Doolittle's career and influence were remarkable - a true broadcast pioneer, especially in the development of Frequency Modulation (FM). The webmaster gratefully acknowledges the contributions from Mr. Doolittle's son, John.

June 16, 1893 - Franklin Malcolm Doolittle was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Boy Electrician Who Surprises Professors"

1905 - Lee DeForest, "the father of modern radio," built New Haven's first wireless transmitter at City Point. Eleven-year-old Franklin M. Doolittle used to go there to test his homemade receiver and spark-coil transmitter.

click for New York Herald article, October 21, 1906

1909-1915 - During school vacations, Doolittle worked as a shipboard radio operator for the United Wireless Telegraph Company and American Marconi Company.

click for enlargement | click for service record

1912 - He joined the Institute of Radio Engineers.

1915 - Doolittle graduated from Yale University with a degree in electrical engineering and became associated with Bell Telephone System.

click for Doolittle's legend from "History of the Class of 1915, Sheffield Scientific School"

1917 - When World War I erupted, Doolittle attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, and received a temporary commission to serve on the battleship New Mexico. He served as communications officer of the Fourth Squadron, Battleship Force 11 and at the District Communications Office in New York City.

1919 - He started a small radio manufacturing business at 917 Chapel Street in New Haven called Franklin M. Doolittle Company, later incorporated as Doolittle Radio Corporation. He built and sold radio receivers for $250-$300 (see photo below).

Doolittle six-tube radio

click for Amplifone enlargement | for 1922-23 tuner | for Audimax | for Decremeter

1919-25 - He taught at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, assisting in undergraduate instruction and postgraduate instruction of officers assigned to the Signal Corps.

February 13, 1920 - The Department of Commerce Bureau of Navigation issued Doolittle a license for General Amateur radio station 1GAI. He was authorized to broadcast from 167 Willard Street in New Haven with 1kw of power on 200 meters.

June 14, 1921 - Doolittle sold his federal patent application for "Sound Recording and Sound Reproducing and Locating Apparatus" to Radio Corporation of America (Serial #477,360).

click for enlargement

November 12, 1921 - Doolittle broadcast the first football game -Yale vs. Princeton - over his amateur radio station, 1GAI. New Haven Register sports editor Dan Mulvey attended the game and described the play over a telephone to Doolittle who was at home with his transmitter. Doolittle repeated the information into his homemade microphone.

Doolittle prepares 1921 Yale/Princeton football broadcast

Click for newspaper announcement | Click for fan mail

November, 1922 - Doolittle Radio Corporation applied for a federal license for a "limited commercial land radio station" based at 817 Chapel Street in New Haven.

December 10, 1922 - Above a shop at 115 Crown Street in New Haven, Connecticut's first commercial radio station was born: 10-watt WPAJ (360 meters/833 kilocycles). In cramped quarters, Doolittle worked with engineer Italo A. Martino and partner, Walter B. Haase. Doolittle was President & Treasurer.

March 13, 1923 - Since U.S. Commerce Department radio licenses were only good for three months, WPAJ filed for renewal. It specified its Beacon Hill antenna system was "T-type" consisting of two 110-foot wooden masts with a 105-foot horizontal part and 35-foot vertical part described as "4 wire flat top 13' spreaders." For an electrical ground, this mechanism was clamped to a steam pipe.

Click for enlargement

F.M. Doolittle and Italo Martino in WPAJ Storefront circa 1923

1923 - The station shared a storefront on Chapel Street where Doolittle sold his line of equipment, including radio receivers. Doolittle sets sold for $250 to $300.

Click on photos for enlargements

August 16, 1924 - The Federal Radio Commission opened a three-month window for a nonrenewable authorization, permitting Doolittle to experiment with two-channel broadcasting. Two transmitters were used; the regular WPAJ at 268 meters (1120kc), and 227 meters (1320kc).

November 4, 1924 - Doolittle obtained U.S. Patent #1,513,973 for a "useful Improvement in Radiotelephony:"

"This invention relates to a method of transmitting and receiving radio telephonic impulses in such a manner as to evoke in the mind of the listener substantially the same consciousness of location of the source of the sound or sounds as he would have obtained had he been personally present at the transmitting station. An important application of my invention is to the field of radio telephone broadcasting, the end in view being to place the listener to a broadcasting program in the same acoustical relation with the performance as though he were present."

click for enlarged diagram