WBBZ Radio Station, Ponca City
A story of communications and architecture in northern Oklahoma
Built in 1952, the WBBZ Radio Station in Ponca City was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in April 2022 for its significance in communications and architecture. The above photograph accompanied the National Register of Historic Places nomination.
WBBZ Radio Station originated in Chicago in the mid-1920s by entrepreneur Charles L. Carrell. Hoping to create a radio network, Carrell received ten portable station licenses in 1922 and subsequently acquired the license for WBBZ from Indianapolis. The WBBZ station toured the country until 1927, when station manager Harry B. Kyler brought it to Ponca City. By this time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated all radio stations to take a permanent location. Under Kyler's urging, Carrell decided to make Ponca City the permanent home of WBBZ and moved his family to the northern Oklahoma community.
Ponca City became the permanent home of WBBZ Radio Station by 1928, when the FCC mandated all radio stations to take a permanent location. "Portable Radio Stations Again Ordered To Quit," The Oklahoma City Times, May 11, 1928, The Gateway to Oklahoma History (accessed January 8, 2023, Oklahoma Historical Society).
Charles Carrell passed away in 1933, after which his wife, Adelaide, assumed management of the station. According to the Ponca City News, Adelaide was "one of the first women to own and operate a radio station." (The Ponca City News, September 1, 1948) According to the same newspaper, Adelaide was the only female station owner-manager in the region by the time she sold the station in the late 1940s. Adelaide oversaw a period of growth for the station. During her tenure, WBBZ was granted an increase in power (from 100 watts to 250 watts), a new tower, moved from the Poncan Theatre, where the station originally broadcasted to a new office suite on West Grand Avenue, and became affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System. She sold the station to the Ponca City Publishing Company in September 1948, with the FCC approving the transaction in January 1949.
Advertisements for political addresses broadcast over WBBZ and other stations appeared in a variety of Oklahoma newspapers. From left to right: Oklahoma State Register (Guthrie), October 11, 1934; Chickasha Daily Express, November 5, 1934; Oklahoma City Times, October 30, 1936; Oklahoma City Times, June 29, 1938; El Reno Daily Tribune, May 13, 1942. The Gateway to Oklahoma History (accessed January 8, 2023, Oklahoma Historical Society)
There were fourteen radio stations owned by a publishing company in Oklahoma by 1949: WBBZ in Ponca City; KIHN in Hugo; KWHW in Altus; KVSO in Ardmore; KESO in Durant, KCRC in Enid, KBIX in Muskogee, KGLC in Miami, WKY in Oklahoma City, KHBG in Okmulgee, KSPI in Stillwater, KVLH in Paul’s Valley, KGFF in Shawnee and KTHO in Wewoka.
WBBZ relocated to its current location off East Oklahoma Avenue in the early 1950s. The location was highly desirable for the station. The new one-story (plus full basement) building was capable of housing everything for the everyday operations of the station, including transmittor/control rooms, studios, and business offices. Meanwhile, a new 165-foot-tall tower and ground system was located on low ground east of the station building. Overall construction costs for the facility amounted to over $40,000. When the station completed its move to the new facility in May 1952, WBBZ's signal spanned Ponca City and its immediate environs and even as far north as southern Kansas.
The WBBZ Radio Station property is located in east Ponca City, near East Central Avenue and South 14th Street.
The above photographs of the WBBZ Radio Station and Transmittor Tower accompanied the 2022 National Register of Historic Places nomination.
The station building is notable in Ponca City for its International-style design. Built into the hillside, the building has a flat roof with broad eaves and prominent corner windows. Curved, glass block windows flanking the main entry. The interior remains largely unaltered, retaining its original floorplan and many historic features and finishes. These qualities easily convey the property's significance as a mid-twentieth century radio station.
In May 1954, the WBBZ Radio Station collaborated with other civic officials to develop a tornado warning system for Ponca City. Bill Maugans, the program director for WBBZ, oversaw the work of the committee, which included coordinating with various city departments, the federal Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), and amateur storm chasers (or, "spotters") to watch for severe storm activity and to coordinate a response. The "Ponca City Civil Defense Tornado Warning Center" operated from the basement of WBBZ Radio Station by March 1955. The center featured direct wire connections to the city's warning siren system and phone lines to communicate with local spotters and weather officials.
WBBZ Radio Station was on high alert on May 25, 1955, when an EF-5 tornado struck the nearby town of Blackwell.
Aerial view of the damage following the Blackwell tornado. Photograph by Bob Mathis, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, The Gateway to Oklahoma History (accessed January 8, 2023, Oklahoma Historical Society).
According to the National Weather Service, the Blackwell tornado devastated approximately 80 blocks in town, killing 20 people and injuring over 150 people. The above photographs were published as part of a special feature in The Daily Oklahoman that documented the tornado's aftermath. Photographs by Bob Mathis, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, The Gateway to Oklahoma History (accessed January 8, 2023, Oklahoma Historical Society).
By 1956, Ponca City joined Oklahoma State University in Stillwater and Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City as one of only three places in Oklahoma to have an atmospheric detection and direction indicator (ADDI) in operation. Built by engineer Gerald J. Overall and located in the basement of WBBZ Radio Station, ADDI was designed to measure the intensity of severe thunder storms, giving the station the ability to convey accurate data to local citizens about the possibility of tornado outbreaks. In June 1957, Alexander Sadowski of the U.S. Weather Bureau referred to WBBZ's tornado warning center as among the most effective local severe weather warning systems then in operation in the United States (The Ponca City News, June 16, 1957). WBBZ would continue to play a key role in Ponca City's emergency preparedness until 1976, when its storm warning center relocated to a newly constructed police station and emergency operations building.
The WBBZ Radio Station was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 4, 2022. The property is locally significant for its role as a community radio station, and is particularly notable for its role in emergency preparedness during the mid-twentieth century as the location of Ponca City's storm and disaster warning system. From an architectural perspective, WBBZ Radio Station is an excellent example of a locally designed and constructed International-styled building.
Reference
Much of the above information is derived from the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for WBBZ Radio Station, which was prepared in 2021 for the City of Ponca City by architectural historian Cynthia Savage. The digital version of the nomination form can be accessed on the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office's website: http://nr2_shpo.okstate.edu/QueryResult.aspx?id=SG100007542 . The nomination file is also available for public review by visiting the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, located on the second floor of the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
Further Reading
For more on WBBZ Radio Station's importance to Ponca City, read Cynthia Savage, "Mid-Century Civil Defense and Storm Warning: WBBZ, the Voice of North Central Oklahoma," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 100 (Fall 2022): 312-329.
For more on the 1955 Blackwell tornado, see "The Great Plains Tornado Outbreak and Blackwell Tornado of 25-26 May 1955" National Weather Service, https://www.weather.gov/oun/events-19550525 , accessed January 8, 2023.
For an environmental history of natural disasters in the United States (including severe weather events), read Ted Steinberg, Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America, 2nd edition ( Oxford University Press, 2006 ).
