WEW Radio: We Enlighten the World
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| Saint Louis
University and the Early Days of Radio |
Radio Station WEW, the original radio station of Saint
Louis University, played an important role in the history
of early radio. In 1921 it became only the second radio station
in the U.S. and the first station west of the Mississippi
River. In 1939 it became the first station to broadcast
Sacred Heart Radio, a Catholic religious program which
eventually grew to include over a thousand stations around
the world. Finally, in 1947 WEW became the first FM radio
station in St. Louis. |
| WEW was founded by Saint Louis University meteorologist Brother George Rueppel,
S.J. (1864-1947). Born in Rothenback, Bavaria, Rueppel left
Germany in the late 1870s to escape Bismarck’s persecution
of Catholics during the Kulturkampf. He moved to New York
and then later took a job in the library at Canisius College
in Buffalo, where he joined the Society of Jesus in 1882.
Rueppel became a coadjutor brother in the Jesuits and worked
at several Jesuit colleges as a teacher and librarian before
coming to Saint Louis University in 1908. |
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A meteorologist by training, Brother Rueppel began experimenting
with radio around 1912 as a way to share data with other
researchers and with the U.S. Weather Bureau. His experiments
with “radio-telephone” station 9KY eventually
grew into WEW, which Rueppel claimed stood for “We
Enlighten the World.” He remained the station’s
technical director for over 25 years, from its beginnings
in 1921 until shortly before his death in 1947, only one
day before WEW made its first FM broadcast.
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THE EXHIBIT hosted by Virtually Missouri
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| Last updated April 13, 2007. |
