The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

WIP Radio
Control Room
Gimbels Building, 8th and Market, Philadelphia
circa 1922

This is a photo of WIP Radio's very first control room. The station came on the air at 11 am on Saturday, March 18, 1922. It was the city's third radio station, even though WIP claimed to be our first one.

WFI Radio (which later merged with WLIT to become WFIL) signed on the air also on March 18th. However, they beat WIP by 44 minutes. So that makes WFI the city's second station.

The first one was WGL which was located a block north of the old Uptown Theater. We know that government records illustrate that WGL was already on the air by March 1, 1922.

Because this photo has been restored by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, the restored version (shown above) with or without the watermarking (Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Archives) is a protected image under US Copyright Laws and cannot be reproduced without the written permission of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com