[SBE] Broadcast Fax

[Dan Rapak]

Okay gang. Here's an oddball question. As you know, the FCC has had a practice of assigning a suffix to co-owned broadcast stations. WABC, WABC-FM, WABC-TV where the suffix is actually part of the official call sign.

Well, I was reading an article in Monitoring Times magazine about early efforts to transmit facsimile over broadcast radio stations. I was aware of this previously in that I grew up in the Philadelphia market and one of the stations engaged in this was WFIL-FM. While some stations experimenting with FAX transmissions used the main program channel, WFIL-FM actually used an SCA subcarrier.

In doing a little additional reading, I discovered that the fax operation at WFIL was repeatedly referred to as WFIL-FX. Here's a link to the July 10, 1942 issue of "Billboard" that briefly describes the operation and refers to it as WFIL-FX.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ywwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=wfil+broadcast+fax+receivers&source=bl&ots=6eODmi1AsI&sig=2OUI1lJGOmyxDmXCrQafjg_qe5U&hl=en&ei=hXvlTa__OdGtgQf--qG1Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CFoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=wfil%20broadcast%20fax%20receivers&f=false

Here is a second link that also refers to "WFIL-FX."
http://www.phillyradioarchives.com/philadelphia_radio_history_wioq.asp

Finally, in case you're curious, here's a link to a photo of the FAX transmission facility at WFIL.
http://www.ggninfo.com/WFIL-FAX.JPG

My question is, was "-FX" an officially assigned FCC suffix or was this simply a moniker used for marketing purposes?

Just curious,
Dan Rapak - CPBE
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