WRUL was the call sign for the radio station that began as W1XAL in Boston, Massachusetts, which was founded on October 15, 1927. Four days after Britain and France declared war on Germany, on September 7, 1939, the Federal Communications Commission assigned call letters WRUL (for World Radio University Listeners) to the station. As it had a large worldwide listening audience, which regularly corresponded with the station and a high power transmitter it was seen by British Security Co-ordination, a covert organization that the British Secret Intelligence Service established in New York City as a vehicle for conducting political warfare on behalf of the British. The station was transmitting mostly in English so BSC provided through third parties the finance, translators, and foreign language announcers to produce high-quality programming in other languages. BSC also provided the material to be broadcast and so by 1941 WRUL had become unknowingly an arm of the BSC though outwardly independent and believing itself to be so. From 1939 to 1942, WRUL broadcast radio lectures to Europe and South America in eight languages, and also in the United States over an informal network of over 300 stations.
Like all United States shortwave stations, in November 1942 the U.S. government leased WRUL for further wartime propaganda broadcasts. In 1946, station president Walter Lemmon requested return of control over the station from the War Communications Board. WRUL was allowed to resume partial independent programming in 1947, and full independent programming in 1954. Metromedia bought the station in 1960. In June 1962, International Educational Broadcasting Corporation, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bought WRUL. On June 1, 1966, WRUL changed its call letters to WNYW, which stood for Radio New York Worldwide.
From the combined records of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB), held by the University of Maryland and the Wisconsin Historical Society, and compiled as part of the Unlocking the Airwaves project (unlockingtheairwaves.org).
