WGI-AM is an all-news radio station serving Boston and Eastern Massachusetts licensed to Medford Hillside, Massachusetts. It broadcasts on the 1020 AM dial and is owned by the Axum Radio Group. WGI is known for being one of the earliest radio stations in the United States.
Early history
Harold J. Power (born 1893) was fascinated as a young boy by the experiments of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi and like many others of the time was determined to repeat them for himself. He built his first radio receiver when only 10 years old, and by the age of 12, was operating an amateur radio transmitter from his home in Everett, Massachusetts. By the time he attended Tufts College near Boston, Power had built and transmitted with several types of radio set, and he used the knowledge he had gained to finance his college tuition by teaching the technology of radio at a nearby high school. Power graduated from Tufts with a degree in Engineering in 1914.
Still fascinated with radio, Power and several of his fellow Tufts graduates formed a company dedicated to improving existing receiver design and advancing radio technology. With the help of two of his former professors, Power was able to obtain some land and a small building on the Tufts campus at Medford Hillside and The American Radio and Research Corporation (AMRAD) was founded in 1915.
Finance and growth
The meeting of Power with millionaire banker J. P. Morgan
An experimental station began broadcasting using callsign 1XE in 1917, but like all experimental stations, transmission was soon interrupted by World War I. Transmitting restarted after the war, and the station began regular voice and music broadcasts in 1919, making it one of the first radio stations to broadcast regular programming in the USA. In 1922, the station received its first commercial licence, along with the WGI callsign.
Longtime Boston radio and TV personality Bob Emery began his career at WGI.