St. Olaf College WCAL radio station records

The WCAL radio station began in 1918 as a physics experiment led by Professor Erik Hitle and physics student Hector R. Skifter. Hector Skifter later became the first licensed operator and first director of the station (as a St. Olaf senior). The station had previously been run by Milford Jenson who was the only full-time staff member at the time. One of the first broadcasts over WCAL, was on May 19, 1922, where Dr. L. W. Boe, then president of St. Olaf College, gave an address, Oscar R. Overby performed two piano pieces and Gertrude Boe sang into a primitive microphone built into a wooden chopping-bowl, which is held in the College Archives.

Starting in 1921, play-by-play action of the St. Olaf football and basketball teams were broadcasted and in and in 1922 Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” was broadcast, which has been billed the first play ever aired. Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis began to broadcast church services spoken in Swedish, Danish, Finnish, German, and English, Norwegian, Latvian, and Estonian. Other popular recordings included the Dr. America series and St. Olaf College Choir concerts.

After a fire burned down the station in 1923, listener donations helped to rebuild the station and $13,000 of donation money kept the station from closing in 1930, despite the strains of the Great Depression. 

In 2004, St. Olaf College announced WCAL was to be sold to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) for approximately $10.5 million.  After the announcement of the plan to sell the station, a group of over 4,500 St. Olaf students, alumni, faculty, and other community members organized the SaveWCAL to oppose the sale.  The case was tried in the Minnesota Court of Appeals and in 2009, the court ruled in the favor of St. Olaf College.

The WCAL radio station collection is arranged into eleven (11) distinct series in order to respect the original order in which the records arrived in the archives as well as to organize materials by type for ease of access and long-term storage.