WPGC-AM on 640 & 1240khz!

In the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese bombers used radio station signals in Hawaii as signal beacons to guide them to their target. In its aftermath, ConelRad (CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation) was a method developed as the precursor to the Emergency Broadcast System by which all stations in a given area would broadcast on two frequencies, 640 and 1240khz, alternating the point of emination for a few seconds on any particular station and then changing to another station seemlessly.

The idea was to constantly change the point of origin of the signal so enemy planes could not get a fix and target the stations or the population centers surrounding them. The advent of Inter Continental Ballistic Missles with their own guidance systems effectively made ConelRad obsolete. FM stations did not participate in the drill and simply signed off the air. Hear a generic CONELRAD public service announcement featuring Don Pardo.

Below is extremely rare audio of WPGC-AM signing off regular programming in the middle of the afternoon to participate with all other DC area stations in a ConelRad test. Dean Griffith (Dean Anthony) advises that regular programming will resume in about a half hour. The next voices heard are the generic announcement of the ConelRad test that aired for only a few seconds on any given station before being transferred over to another station, always simulcast on 640 and 1240 regardless of the stations' actual licensed frequency.

Shortly after the broadcast below, ConelRad was phased out and replaced with the familiar EBS test with the standard line, 'If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information' (which would have been both 640 and 1240 on the AM dial).

Miscellaneous Audio

News

Much of what we now know about the 'Missles of October' was learned after the fact, particularly how perilously close the world came to potential nuclear war. Listen to a montage of late breaking developments as they occured in the Cuban Missle Crisis (6:35) or to the individual cuts below.

Click on time to hear newscast or Jock's name to visit their page.

(Extra special thanks to contributor Lee Whitney for all of the above audio).

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