After first testing as station 2XH, WMCA began regular transmissions on February 1, 1925, broadcasting on 428.6 meters wavelength with a power of 500 watts. The antenna was high atop the McAlpin Hotel, from which WMCA's call letters derive. In 1928 it moved to the 570 kHz frequency. In 1945, host Barry Gray began dropping music and adding talk with celebrities and later call-in listeners; he is thus sometimes considered "The Father of Talk Radio", and his show lasted on WMCA through several decades and format changes.