WRR Radio

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this one comes straight off the official marker for WRR Radio, out of Dallas County — and it's a story that starts with fire and ends with Beethoven. Picture Dallas in 1912. A big fire breaks out in the southern part of the city, and every single fire fighting unit the city has gets pulled to the scene.

Every last one of them. While they're all down there working that blaze, another fire breaks out — this time in the north. And here's where fate turns ugly: the central fire station's signal lines have been destroyed.

No dispatch gets through. There's a fire burning and nobody can call for help. Now, that kind of tragedy has a way of focusin' a city's attention.

A man named Henry Garrett — chief of the city's signal department — decided Dallas was never going to get caught like that again. He worked alongside Western Electric Company employees, and together they installed a 50-watt radio broadcasting station right at the fire department's headquarters. The call letters were three simple ones: W, R, R.

Early on, if you wanted to hear WRR, you needed a crystal set — one of those delicate little contraptions that the technology-curious folks of the day were just starting to get their hands on. The signal was there if you knew how to find it. Then came 1921, and WRR did something that put it on a very short list in American broadcasting history.

The municipally owned station became one of the first in the nation to offer regular entertainment programming. A city-owned radio station, playing for the people. Within four years after that, the station had advertising support — which, as the marker is happy to point out, saved the taxpayers some money.

From 1925 all the way to 1939, WRR moved around, housed in several Dallas hotels, including the grand Adolphus. After the 1936 Texas Centennial Celebration, the station made its way to Fair Park, first setting up in the General Exhibits Building. In 1948, the city acquired an FM-band frequency — 101.1 on the dial.

Over the years, WRR tried on different formats the way Texas tries on weather: talk shows, news programs, broadcasts of city meetings, and classical music. In 1978, the city sold its original AM-band station. But the FM side?

The city held on. And here's where the story lands. More than eighty years after those first broadcasts — born out of a 1912 fire and a broken signal line — WRR's FM station was still on the air, still delivering classical music, news, and local programming to the people of Dallas.

A fire department built a radio station to keep the city safe. The city kept that station alive long enough to give people Tchaikovsky on a Tuesday afternoon. That, right there, is Dallas.

What the marker says

A pioneering radio station, WRR Radio grew out of tragic events in early-20th century Dallas. In 1912, a large fire in southern Dallas required all of the city's fire fighting units. While they were on the scenes, another fire broke out in the northern part of the city. The central fire station's signal lines were destroyed, which prevented a dispatch to the second fire. To prevent another such tragedy, Henry Garrett, chief of the city's signal department, worked with Western Electric Co. employees to install a 50-watt radio broadcasting station at the fire department's headquarters. The station's call letters were WRR. Early listeners interested in the new technology could pick up the station's signal using crystal sets. By 1921, the municipally owned broadcasting station became one of the first in the nation to offer regular entertainment programming. Within four years the station had advertising support, saving the taxpayers money. From 1925 to 1939, WRR was housed in several Dallas hotels, including the Adolphus. After the 1936 Texas Centennial Celebration, the station moved to Fair Park, where it was first housed in the General Exhibits Building. In 1948, the city acquired an FM-band frequency located at 101.1 on the radio dial. Over the years the station experimented with different formats, including talk and news shows, city meeting broadcasts and classical music. The city sold its original AM-band station in 1978. However, the city continued to support the FM-band station, which, more than 80 years after its first broadcasts, continues to provide classical music, news and local programming to Dallas citizens. (2003)