Photo from Wnyc Archives
| Saw an interesting stamp listed on ebay in my daily search for Lima Ohio memorabilia. It had the radio call letters WWSR, and seller said it was an EKKO stamp from Lima. I had never heard of EKKO stamps, so I did a little research. Turns out they are similar in concept to CB radioers' QSL cards. When you were listening to the radio, circa 1920s and 1930s, you would try to receive stations from all over the country. When you heard them announce their call letters, you would make a note of that, and send the info in to the station - where, when, etc., and they would send you their EKKO stamp. The goal was to fill an album with as many station's stamps as possible. Read about EKKO stamps on the NYPR website -- Radio Fad: Collecting Verified Reception Stamps Alas, I found out that this was not from a Lima radio station. Too bad, as it is a cool looking stamp. While there is a station in Lima using those call letters now, in the 1920s, when these EKKO stamps were issued, the letters were used by WWSR St. Albans VT (as per this document: http://dokufunk.org/upload/us_22_46.pdf ) More history on EKKO stamps here: http://www.antiqueradio.com/gilbertcombs_ekko_6-97.html |
I sent the seller my research links and he thanked me and changed the listing.
He also said it was marked in the collection he bought as being from Vermont, then that was crossed out and Lima written in. But he didn't think to research it before he listed it.
You just never know what you'll learn when you are antiqueing!
