WRR (FM)

WRR (101.1 FM) is a municipally-owned radio station in Dallas, Texas. 
It airs a classical music radio format. The station's studios are located in the Fair Park complex in South Dallas. The transmitter site is on West Belt Line Road in Cedar Hill.
WRR operates with a maximum effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the highest output permitted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for non-grandfathered FM stations. It also transmits an HD Radio signal. Despite its ownership by the City of Dallas, WRR is a commercial station and sells advertising to support its broadcasts. Over the years, private broadcasters in the Dallas-Fort Worth radio market have made numerous but unsuccessful calls for privatizing the station.
History.
Early Years.
WRR-FM began experimental broadcasts in 1948. It officially signed on the air on October 14, 1949. It began operations as a sister station to AM 1310 WRR (now KTCK), which was first licensed for municipal and police transmissions on August 5, 1921. It received an AM band broadcasting station license on March 13, 1922.
In its first few decades, WRR-FM mostly simulcast its AM counterpart, and the stations were network affiliates of the Mutual Broadcasting System and carried its schedule of comedies, dramas, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio." WRR-AM-FM later switched to the NBC Radio Network.
Classical Music.
As network programming shifted to television, WRR-FM began airing classical music full time, while the AM station concentrated on news, talk and information. The City of Dallas sold AM 1310 to Bonneville International in 1978, which switched the call sign to KAAM (today KTCK). Meanwhile, the Dallas government kept WRR-FM, which continued its classical sound.
Also in the 1970s, the station increased its power to 100,000 watts, from its previous output of 68,000 watts.
City Council Broadcasts.
As part of its municipal ownership, WRR began broadcasting Dallas City Council meetings in 1978. They usually take place every other Wednesday at 9 a.m. But Portable People Meter (PPM) evidence showed that the meetings, which interrupted the classical format, caused a significant drop in the station's ratings. The station averages more than 11,000 listeners on weekdays, according to Nielsen Audio. But that number dropped to 1,900 during council meetings.
In 2018, station management was able to convince the city council to end the broadcasts. The meetings are still available on cable television in Dallas, as well as on line.
Unusual Call Letters.
While most radio stations in Texas have four-letter call signs beginning with a K, this station has three call letters beginning with a W. Many stations going on the air in the early 1920s received three-letter call signs. The AM station with which WRR-FM had once been partnered dates back to 1921. WRR on the AM side was the first licensed radio station west of the Mississippi and second in the country.
With the introduction of land-based U.S. radio station licensing in late 1912, it had been the practice to assign call signs starting with "K" in the west and "W" in the east. (Ship-based stations were just the opposite.) The original boundary line was located along the Texas-New Mexico border, and it wasn't until the shift in early 1923 to the Mississippi River that new stations going on the air in Texas received K instead of W call signs. However, existing stations were allowed to keep their non-conforming call letters. That included such stations as WRR Dallas, WBAP Fort Worth and WOAI San Antonio. When 1310 WRR put an FM station on the air in 1949, the FCC allowed it to use the same call sign, plus the "-FM" suffix.
After the AM station was sold and its call letters changed to KAAM, WRR-FM dropped the no longer required "-FM" suffix from its call sign, effective May 15, 1978.
Notable Personalities.
The station was the starting point of John Peel's radio career. Peel, who later became a British disc jockey, notably covered the arraignment hearing of Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before Oswald was shot and killed.
Transmitting Tower.
The WRR (FM) lattice radio tower was located in the Fair Park complex. The tower was visible across Dallas and in the Fair Park vicinity. The antenna on top of the tower was removed in 2003. The tower was used as a cell tower for the last few years and the tower was eventually dismantled in December 2015. The current transmitter is located at the Cedar Hill Antenna Farm in Cedar Hill.