KEAD explained

KEAD
Area:Wake Island
Format:Free-form
Owner:Armed Forces Radio and Television Services
Airdate:before February 1969[1]
Licensing Authority:FCC
Power:500 watts
Coordinates:19.2833°N 205°W

KEAD was the callsign for two defunct American Forces Radio and Television Service radio stations on Wake Island, an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States.

Info

On AM, the station carried a mix of free-form live programming hosted by military personnel and other workers stationed on the island, while on KEAD-FM, the station played pre-recorded easy-listening music off reel-to-reel tapes.[2] The KEAD callsign was previously assigned to the Civil Aeronautics Authority navigation service station based on the island.[3]

Recent discoveries

In 2011, some 9,000 vintage vinyl records provided by AFRTS to the station from the mid-1960s into the 1970s were discovered in the old studio in a restricted area of the Wake Island Airfield terminal building.

Notes and References

  1. February 1969 . Broadcast Band News . Electronics Australia . Sydney, New South Wales, Australia . 30 . 150 . A new radio station is reported to be operating on Wake Island in the Central Pacific. The station, using the call sign KEAD, is on 1490KHz, with programs in English 24 hours a day. . 11.
  2. Web site: A Conversation with Dennis Lowden — Wake Island 1973–1975: U.S. Weather Service and the Evacuation from Viet Nam. March 14–15, 2001. Blue River Community College. Independence, Missouri. Blount. Clinton. August 24, 2021.
  3. Book: Radio Navigational Aids . United States Hydrographic Office . 1961 . Washington, D.C. . 4–5.