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WJZ at Newark and New York City, 1922-25
The original installation of WJZ in Newark. This was the entire station facility.
A view of the WJZ transmitter plant at the Westinghouse factory in Newark (Scientific American, 1922)
A view of the improved WJZ studios at the Westinghouse factory in Newark (Scientific American, 1922)
This was the WJZ operating room in 1923, showing a newer, 500 watt transmitter. The cabinet at left contains six rectifier tubes that supply the plate voltage for the transmitter, at right, which has five modulator and four oscillator tubes.
Musicians perform in the studio of WJZ in Newark, 1923. A candlestick microphone and a large suspended cone-shaped microphone can be seen, along with a horn speaker.
Author Fannie Hurst is interviewed on WJZ in Newark, 1922.
RCA acquired WJZ from Westinghouse, and moved it from Newark to the Aeolian Hall Building in New York City in 1923
The WJZ antenna on the roof of the Aeolian Building, 1923.
Inventor Edwin Armstrong performs acrobatics on one of the WJZ towers on the roof of the Aeolian Hall, 400 feet above street level, on the day of the station’s official opening in May, 1923.
This was the operating room of RCA stations WJZ and WJY in the Aeolian Hall Building, 1923. The transmitters can be seen in line behind the operator’s desk. WJY went off the air in 1925.
This was the WJZ reception room at Aeolian Hall. An RCA Aeriola Grand receiver is on the table.
WJZ studio at Aeolian Hall in New York, about 1924. (Colorized image © The Radio Historian)
Another view of the WJZ studio at Aeolian Hall in New York, about 1924.
A broadcast from Aeolian Hall. Norman Brokenshire (left) is the announcer.
In addition to the main studios, WJZ opened a performing studio behind a glass window on the main floor of the Aeolian Hall Building.
The WJZ 50 kW Transmitter at Bound Brook, NJ, 1926
This transmitter, built by Westinghouse, was the second 50 kW broadcast transmitter in the U.S.
Outside of view of the WJZ transmitter house and antenna at Bound Brook, 1926. The 455 meter antenna downlead and tuning house can be seen at the left. The 100 meter antenna is on a pole to the right of the building.
An end view of the WJZ transmitter house and both towers. The wire antenna was suspended between the towers.
A third exterior view of the WJZ installation at Bound Brook.
This view shows the pulley and cement counterweight that maintained tension on the wire antenna.
Looking upward at one of the WJZ towers
A close-up view of a WJZ tower leg foundation, showing its base insulators. Even though the wire antenna itself was isolated from ground, these insulators kept the tower from drawing coupled RF currents to ground.
This heat exchanger cooled the water being pumped out of the transmitter's cooling system
This view of the WJZ transmitter building shows the 100 meter shortwave antenna. The water cooling tower is in the background at right.
This was the antenna tuning house, located directly underneath the antenna.
Interior view of antenna tuning house, showing the tuning network with its motorized adjustable capacitor plates.
An aerial view of the WJZ site in Bound Brook, 1925. The antenna is surrounded by farmland, with the Raritan River seen in the background.
Another aerial view of the Bound Brook site.
Main operating room of WJZ, showingthe two 455 meter Westinghouse oscillator panels (back wall), and one modulator panel and two rectifier panels (right wall). The operator’s desk with its radio receiver and horn speaker is in the center. (Colorized image © The Radio Historian)
Two 455 meter WJZ oscillator cabinets. They were called oscillators instead of power amplifiers, as the frequency was generated at high power by causing the final tubes to oscillate at the desired frequency.
One of the two 455 meter WJZ oscillator cabinets. The coiled water tubing and six oscillator tubes with their water jackets attached were clearly visible to the operator.
100 meter shortwave transmitter. The three panels, left to right, are the rectifier, modulator and oscillator.
A WJZ engineer shows a rear view of one of the modulator cabinets. The lineup of power tubes with their water jackets is at the top center of the cabinet.
Main power control panel for all equipment at WJZ.
This panel of rectifier tubes created the 10,000 volt DC plate voltage fed to the transmitters.
The main operator’s position for WJZ in Bound Brook. The operator was responsible for maintaining the station on frequency and keeping the program log and meter readings. The cabinets at right contain audio amplifiers for the incoming program lines.
WJZ audio rack and oscillograph (for monitoring modulation).
These motor generators in the basement provided the 15 volt DC current for all the tube filaments. The switching equipment for the 4,400 volt three phase incoming power can be seen in the background.
Another basement view, showing the power transformers at left, filament motor-generators in the center, and the plate voltage reactor at right.
These power transformers in the basement converted the incoming 4,400 volt energy to the transmitters' 10,000 volt plate voltage.
The main power switching panel in the basement. Live knife switches were operated with a wooden handle.
For more information, see:
A Virtual Tour of WJZ
