One hundred years ago today, the Young McCombs department store in Rock Island, Illinois, ran this ad in the Rock Island Argus, December 5, 1919.

The store’s radio department appears to be very well equipped, although it’s billed as being part of the toy department.  Receivers were in operation, and the store pulled in time signals and press dispatches on a daily basis, and “the large transAtlantic stations are received at all hours.

At night, the store fired up its radiotelephone transmitter with phonograph music, and the station had been heard as far away as Clinton, Iowa (about 40 miles away).  The store was licensed as 9BY with a transmitter power of 500 watts.

According to the ad, the station was headed up by one Mr. Williams, formerly of the U.S. Navy, although I did not find anyone named Williams licensed in Rock Island.  Another main personality in the store was Robert Karlowa, 9XR, who was also a principal in the Tri-City Radio Laboratory, which was also affiliated with Frank and Don Bailey, 9RD in Clinton, Iowa, presumably the station that picked up the wireless music from Rock Island.  The store sold both transmitters and receivers with the Kilbourne-Clark name.