WANN Microphone Flag: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This microphone flag is made of cast aluminum. It was used for a tube-shaped microphone. “WANN” is cast on the top part. This microphone flag was used by WANN (1190 AM) radio station.

WANN (1190 AM) was a radio station based out of Annapolis, Maryland that primarily served the area's growing African American community. Morris Blum founded it in 1946, and it broadcast to the entire mid-Atlantic region. The station was home to disc jockey Charles "Hoppy" Adams starting in the early 1950s. Adams hosted weekly events at a local African American only beach, Carr's Beach, which were popular with the area's youth population.

WANN continued to program gospel, rhythm and blues, and public affairs features until 1992 when the station changed to a mainstream country format with the catchphrase “Bay Country 1190.” Around 1998, the station changed ownership and became WBIS, broadcasting a News Talk Information format.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1940s
• Object Name: microphone flag
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 4 3/4 in x 4 3/8 in x 3/8 in; 12.065 cm x 11.1125 cm x .9525 cm
• place made: United States
• ID Number: 2016.0339.07
• accession number: 2016.0339
• catalog number: 2016.0339.07
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.