The nine federal government stations listed in the article's map are: the U.S. Army's WVP (Fort Wood, New York City), the U.S. Navy's NOF (Anacostia, District of Columbia), plus seven U.S. Post Office stations (WWX, Washington, D.C.; KDQC, Cincinnati, Ohio; KDEF, Omaha, Nebraska; KDHM, North Platte, Nebraska; KDHN, Rock Springs, Wyoming; KDEJ, Elko, Nevada, and KDEK, Reno, Nevada.) NOF operated on a mediumwave wavelength close to that used by private broadcasting stations, while the rest all transmitted on longwave wavelengths.
 
Popular Science Monthly, June, 1922, pages 27-28:

Uncle  Sam  "Gets  Set"  for  Broadcasting

Of  220  Radio  Stations  Owned  by  Our  Government,  Nine  Are  Now  Transmitting  News  and  Programs  of  Public  Interest

By  Armstrong  Perry
Map of U.S. Government Stations
IF the next edition of the dictionary contains the expression "free as air," the words will be followed by the abbreviation obs. which means "obsolete, or no longer having its original meaning."
IN this article Armstrong Perry tells of the existing skeleton around which an effective government broadcasting service can be built. In a future issue he will describe astounding future possibilities of a national broadcasting system.--THE EDITOR.

    Persons who think that the air is still free have a rude awakening when they try to use it for sending messages to distant friends. In some countries plain citizens are not permitted to transmit messages by radio at all. In our country we can do so only if we have a license from the Department of Commerce. To obtain that license we must study radio until we can answer all the technical questions that a government examiner wishes to ask. Also, we must study the dot-and-dash code until we can prove in tests that we can receive and decode messages at the rate of 10 words a minute. The fact that we may have no desire to send or receive messages in Morse code makes no difference. Experience shows that Mrs. Jones, owning a transmitting set, might, if she did not know the code, fill the air along a stretch of seacoast so full of descriptions of millinery that Bill Jones, whose ship was sinking with a thousand passengers just over the black horizon, might not be able to bring to the attention of the nearest vessels and shore stations three letters, "SOS."

Use  of  the  Air  Restricted

    But after passing the license examination, Mrs. Jones would know the meaning of the buzzing dots and dashes that say: "Stop sending," or, to be still more blunt: "Shut up--we need the air for disaster messages."
    So, the air is no longer free.
    The man who wants to make a dollar has, of course, been the first to grasp the situation. Since the use of the air must be restricted and parceled out among the people, he has tried to make sure that he got his first. At the radio conference called by Secretary of Commerce Hoover at the request of President Harding, all who wanted to reserve portions of the ether were invited to present their cases. Some of the applications were interesting. For example, a mercantile concern wanted licenses for several hundred transmitting stations within what, from the standpoint of radio, is a comparatively small area. Even if this concern had built its stations, and the government had kept everybody else quiet within the territory, it is doubtful if even the best radio receiver could have made anything intelligible out of a jumble of songs, dances and advertisements broadcasted from all these stations.
    Another concern, gigantic in its present operations in wire service, has already started to establish great radio broadcasting stations for the use of the public. Such great utilities under private control seem to be essential to the nation. The very fact that private corporations have built up country-wide broadcasting services almost overnight, while the government is still fumbling with the idea, indicates again the value of private enterprise in developing a new utility in the experimental stage.
    Most private corporations have gone after the rights to the air wisely, aiming to give good service. There are more persons today kicking because other stations prevent their hearing the corporation broadcasts than there are kicking because these broadcasts are in the air. The corporations are entitled to the credit that belongs to the pioneer, the concern that strives to win popularity by doing something that is of real value to the people. But when all is said and done, the fact remains that the future value and interest of radio to us all depends upon the government's taking over its own share of the national broadcasting work. What we want is radio service for the people from the government of the people.
Government Programs

Idle  Hours  Could  Be  Used

    Government ownership of radio facilities is a present fact, not a theory. The list of radio stations of the United States shows 220 stations already owned by our government on land or on moored ships. There is no home so isolated that it cannot hear a government radio station if it has a receiver adapted to the purpose.
    Many government radio stations are idle for a large part of the 24 hours. The departments controlling them are not averse to using them for the public good. Of course, all traffic handled is for the public benefit, but much of that transmitted at present would not interest the individual listener. He would not care, for example, whether the Shipping Board vessel, Jeff Davis, called at Norfolk for orders, or proceeded direct to New Orleans, though indirectly that might be of sufficient importance to the public to justify a message from the Shipping Board's headquarters in Washington to the vessel at sea. After such traffic is disposed of, why should the government station remain idle while every owner of a radio set is tuning up and down through the ether seeking a wider variety of entertainment and information?
    Our interest in our senator and representative does not cease when we cast our ballot. We have much at stake in the problems they are tackling from day to day. Must we hear from them only through the newspapers? Why not listen to them talk, as the radio makes it possible to do?
    We have government bands that make as good music as any that we pay foreign artists to produce. Many Americans would rather hear the Washington Marine Band, the band at the Presidio, or battleship bands in which inland mothers' sons are playing, than orchestras from Germany, Russia, and Italy. We have radio stations that can send the music to us. We pay for these stations. Why not use them?
    The Post Office Department has given a splendid demonstration of what public radio stations can do. Carrying information to the public has been the Post Office's business ever since there was one. In using the airplane and radio it is merely keeping abreast of the times. Across the continent at intervals of a few hundred miles the Department has a complete chain of stations. Some time ago the Department of Agriculture was invited to send out through these radio stations information that the farmers need. Up to that time Solomon Buyupski, purchaser of the products of farm and ranch, had the advantage of being in closer touch with the market than Josh Slocum who plowed the soil, planted the seed and took chances on the results.
    The price that was offered for produce and that the farmer accepted often was far below what the farmer could have asked and received if he had known the state of the market at the moment as well as did the buyer. The Bureau of Markets, which is part of the Department of Agriculture, began delivering to the Post Office radio stations up-to-the-minute quotations several times a day and these are shot out immediately to the farmers, and any one else who cares to listen. The records show that the gain to individual farmers from single quotations has sometimes amounted to hundreds of dollars. But the farmer needs more than that. He can have, if he will ask for it, not only government radio service that helps his pocketbook, but also service that feeds his brain, and makes farm life less isolated and lonely.
    The Navy was the first Department to inaugurate a broadcast service. Not claiming any jurisdiction over landlubbers, the naval officers began by addressing their news broadcasts to "all naval vessels," but a lot of shore folks who never smelled salt spray at once picked them up. In Washington the Naval Air Station broadened its service and demonstrated the possibilities of radio as an aid to education. Twice a week it opened for one hour in the evening. It started with a concert and a 10-minute lecture by the Public Health Service. Then there was more music, and after that .another brief lecture covering concisely some phase of radio or airplane development.
    One afternoon a week a program for public schools was broadcasted. This service demonstrated the tremendous educational possibilities that lie in the expansion of government broadcasting programs. What a help it would be to the teacher of a district school to be able to start the day with a peppy march from a military band, followed by a 15-minute talk from the Bureau of Education in which the current events that were of importance to the pupils and their homes were covered in such a way that the arithmetic, geography, spelling and reading lessons would be but the continuation of a history in which the pupils were conscious of playing a worthy part!
Keeping  You  Up-to-Date  In  Radio
WITH exclusive articles each month by two of America's foremost authorities on radio--Armstrong Perry and Jack Binns--supplemented by a wide range of other helpful radio information, including broadcasting charts, a blueprint service, and answers to questions on wireless problems, Popular Science Monthly is aiming to give readers the best all-round information and helpful radio service available.
    In addition, Popular Science Monthly's new booklet, "The Standard Radio Guide," is an invaluable supplement to the regular monthly radio articles. This booklet is now on sale for 50 cents.
    Our famous broadcasting chart of the United States, corrected up to date, and showing all the great wireless broadcasting stations you may want to hear, giving location, call letters, range and all other important details necessary to the owner of a receiving set, will be supplied by Popular Science Monthly's Blueprint Department at a charge of 25 cents. In ordering this chart, send stamps, cash or money order to Blueprint Department. Popular Science Monthly, 225 West 39th St., New York City.