The Crosley Broadcasting Corporation was a radio and television broadcaster founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr. It had a major influence in the early years of radio and television broadcasting, and helped the Voice of America carry its message around the world. History Early years The company was founded by pioneer radio station operator Powel Crosley and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its flagship station, WLW (AM), was first licensed in March 1922. Most of its broadcast properties adopted call signs with "WLW" as the first three letters. In the 1930s, WLW had an effective power of 500,000 watts, and was the only commercial U.S. AM broadcasting station ever to be permitted to transmit regularly with more than 50,000 watts. The 500,000 watt transmissions were only allowed by the FCC in the "experimental" hours, midnight to 6:00 AM, and the signal was heard in many places, including Europe. By the 1950s, the company operated a small television network in Ohio and Indiana. During World War II, Crosley built the Bethany Relay Station in Butler County, Ohio's Union Township, one mile west of its transmitter for WLW, for the United States Office of War Information. It operated as many as five shortwave radio stations, using the call signs WLWK, WLWL, WLWO, WLWR, and WLWS. Many of these stations were later incorporated into the Voice of America. Crosley operated the facilities for the government until 1963. In 1945, the Crosley interests were purchased by Aviation Corporation. The radio and appliance manufacturing arm changed its name to Avco, but the broadcast operations continued to operate under the Crosley name until they adopted the Avco name in 1968. Crosley (Avco) also owned WLWF, an FM broadcasting station it operated along with its Columbus, Ohio TV outlet WLWC (now WCMH-TV). WLWF went silent in 1953, and Crosley (Avco) returned its license to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the late 1950s, a construction permit for a new station on WLWF's frequency was granted to Taft Broadcasting, owner of WTVN-TV, also in Columbus (now WSYX), which started the station in late 1959 as WTVN-FM (now WLVQ). Television network From the 1950s through the 1970s, Crosley operated a small television network in which programs were produced at one of its stations and broadcast on the other Crosley stations in the Midwest, and occasionally by non-Crosley stations as well. The company occasionally produced programs picked up