The Wolverine Orchestra in the New York Times

The appearance of the Wolverine Orchestra in the Cinderella Ballroom in 1924 was not reported in the New York Times. However, the NYT gave detailed radio programs at the time.

I found a few mentions of the Wolverines in the radio listings. Here they are:

Oct 14, 1924

 Scroll down to WOR to see the listing for the Wolverines.

Oct 20, 1924. Here the band is designated as the Cinderella Wolverines.

According to the United States Department of Commerce, there were 301 licensed radiotelephone broadcasting stations in the United States on  June 1, 1922. One of these was WOR, Newark, New Jersey, owned by  L. Bamberger and Company (a department store).  The radio station began transmitting on February 22, 1922, at 360 meters (833.3kHz) from the sixth floor of the Bamberger building at 131 Market Street, Newark, NJ. This is what the transmitter tower looked like in 1924.

Initially, all stations transmitted at the same wavelength of 360 meters. However, because of congestion (especially in the New York area), at the end of 1922, the wavelength of 405 meters (740 kHz) was also used, and WOR switched to that wavelength.

Thus, the programs for the Wolverines were listed as WOR, Newark – 405 in the New York Times. (In 1928, Bamberger’s department store installed a Manhattan studio at 1440 Broadway for what was then WOR, Newark. On January 23, 1941, WOR, transmitting at 710 kHz since 1927, moved permanently to New York City).

The Wolverines had to travel from Manhattan to Newark for the WOR transmissions. Hence, they broadcasted in the evening, from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m., so they had time to go back to Manhattan for their appearance at the Cinderella ballroom.