WCAP (Washington, D.C.)

{{Short description|Radio station in Washington, D.C. (1923–1926)}}

{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}

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File:Miss Viola Hudson, the W.C.A.P. Radion station's Valentine Girl who broadcasted a Valentine greeting LCCN2016887114a.jpg greetings over WCAP in February 1924]]

WCAP was a short-lived radio station located in Washington, D.C. during the mid-1920s. It was initially licensed in mid-1923 to the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company (C&P),[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008420265&view=1up&seq=129 "New Stations: Broadcasting Stations"], Radio Service Bulletin, July 2, 1923, page 3. and its call letters were chosen to reflect the station owner. C&P was controlled by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), and the station was the second of two, following WEAF (now WFAN) in New York City, that would be established by AT&T. WCAP was high-powered "Class B" station, and it shared time on the 640 AM frequency with WRC (now WTEM), owned by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).

On May 11, 1926, AT&T announced that a subsidiary, the Broadcasting Company of America (BCA), had been formed to take over its radio broadcasting assets, including WCAP.Commercial Broadcasting Pioneer: The WEAF Experiment by William Peck Banning, 1946, page 288. Two months later AT&T signed an agreement to sell its BCA subsidiary to RCA for $1 million. Because there was no need for RCA to continue operation of two Washington stations, WCAP ceased broadcasting on July 31, 1926, with its hours ceded to WRC.[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89074767211&view=1up&seq=317 Big Business and Radio] by Gleason Archer, L.L.D., 1939, page 279.