Wdnc Transmitter

Durham's first radio station, WDNC actually began ints life in Wilmington as WRBT and later WRAM. In 1934, the station was purchased by Mayor W.F. Carr and several investors dismayed at the fact that Durham--then North Carolina's third-largest city--had no radio station of its own. In February of 1934, WRAM signed off in Wilmington and its equipment was delivered to the Bull City by truck, where it would be set up on the top floor of the Washington Duke Hotel downtown, where the station was rechristened as CBS affiliate WDNC at 1500 on the dial with 100 watts from a long-wire antenna strung between two steel towers atop the hotel.

The Herald-Sun newspapers bought WDNC in 1936, and the station's studios moved to the newspaper building, next door to the hotel at 138 East Chapel Hill Street. WDNC increased its power to 250 watts in 1938, likely the same time the Forest Hills transmitter site seen here was activated.

In 1941, the feedral government required many of the nation's radio stations to move channels in an international agreement with Canada and Mexico called NARBA. This had WDNC move to 1490 on the dial.

WDNC's last broadcast from this site came on February 28th, 1948. On the next day--Leap Day--WDNC fired up their current three-tower directional array on Shocoree Drive off Interstate 85 in western Durham, complete with a coveted low AM frequency, 620 AM, and a powerful 5,000-watt daytime and 1,000 watts nighttime signal.

Leap Day 1948 is arguably the biggest day in the Bull City's broadcasting history. In addition to WDNC's big power boost and frequency switch, two new stations hit the airwaves that day: WSSB (now WDUR), which took the now-vacated 1490 dial position and WDNC-FM 105.1 (now WDCG "G-105"), which signed on from an antenna on the easternmost of the new WDNC towers.

Sadly, the studios for all three stations are now in Raleigh.

Based on the 1940 Farm Service Agency aerial imagery of Durham (available here, grid number 6B-85), it appears that the transmitter was located closer to present day Wilshire Drive than to Roxboro Street.  It was likely situated roughly toward the rear of the parcel boundary separating 2203 from 2207 Wilshire, which are the two parcels to the southeast of the house with the oval swimming pool in the back yard.

I wonder if those residents have ever found anything interested in the ground while gardening!

Casey Herbert of Beverly Drive added this remembrance:

I remember WSSB on the top of the hill where Wilshire now is. I watched as the tower swayed in a large storm as my folks house at 46 Beverly was under construction. I vividly remember standing in what would become the front door and aligning my line of sight with the tower and the door framing and was amazed at how much the tower moved.

You could alway hear WSSB on our house phones.

You could also hear WSSB on at least one toaster we had. The windings of the toaster's heater wire were just right to the frequency of the AM signal they transmitted.

I finally remember when the station was demolished and other kids and I played with hundreds if not thousands of LPs and 45s like frisbees on that big undeveloped hillside.