Kenyon Company
1924

Bankers Life Radio Map of the United States

Radio Map of the United States – Bankers Life Company of Des Moines, Iowa

DESCRIPTION: In 1924, American broadcasting was new enough to map. This Radio Map of the United States, engraved and published by the Kenyon Company of Des Moines with compliments of the Bankers Life Company, plots cities through their call signs. It is a document from the first radio boom, two years before the major networks formed, when individual stations defined the medium and listeners learned the geography of the air by call letters alone.

The design is simple and utilitarian. Time zone lines and numbered radio districts divide the country. Cities host their stations without decorative effects. The emphasis is informational: where a station is, what it is called, and how federal administration overlays the national map.

As advertising, the piece is direct. Bankers Life, calling itself the largest life insurer west of the Mississippi, links its presence to the spread of broadcasting. The sober printing and neat index give the map the tone of a directory while keeping the sponsor in view.

The call letters also tell a regulatory story. After 1912 the United States used the leading letters K, W, N, and A. For broadcasting, officials split K and W geographically and finalized the Mississippi River divide in 1923. New stations west of the river took K, those east took W, but early assignees kept their calls. That is why KDKA and KQV appear in Pittsburgh, east of the line. The 1924 sheet shows the new rule with the older exceptions still present.

A partial list of stations include:

East Coast Stations

Station Call Sign	City	State
WBT	Charlotte	NC
WEAF	New York	NY
WJZ	New York	NY
WFI	Philadelphia	PA
WIP	Philadelphia	PA
WOO	Philadelphia	PA
KDKA	Pittsburgh	PA
KQV	Pittsburgh	PA
WRC	Washington	DC

West Coast Stations

Station Call Sign	City	State
KFI	Los Angeles	CA
KFWB	Los Angeles	CA
KHJ	Los Angeles	CA
KFAE	Pullman	WA
KFRC	San Francisco	CA
KGO	San Francisco	CA
KPO	San Francisco	CA

CREATOR: Kenyon Company

PUBLICATION DATE: 1924

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: N/A

CONDITION: Excellent. Crips and clean with folds as issued.

COLORING: Two color lithograph.

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 20 " x 13 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 41

PRICE: $250

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