Ninety years ago today, the January 16, 1926, issue of Radio Digest carried this portrait of soprano Joan Ruth, who appeared regularly on WEAF in New York.  In addition to her broadcasts at WEAF, whe was a member of he Metropolitan Opera.  The magazine notes that the Boston native bore “soulful eyes, the oval face, the black wavy hair and the suggestion of a halo in the dainty bit of silken cord with which it is tied.”

WEAF was the first broadcast station in New York.  Originally owned by Western Electric, it signed on in 1922.  In 1926, it was sold to RCA and became the flagship station for the NBC Red Network.  Starting in 1946, it took the call sign WNBC, which it swapped for WRCA in 1954.  In 1960, it switched back to the WNBC call letters.

The station signed off for the last time in 1988.  As part of a reshuffling of the New York dial, the station’s license, but not the station itself, were sold, and the clear channel 660 frequency was taken over by WFAN, which is owned and operated by rival CBS.

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