Re: [Swlfest] 10/27- Birthday of Broadcast Radio

Harold Cones Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:44:55 -0800

But Curt, what about Charles "Doc" Herrold who was broadcasting regular, scheduled programs of music and talk in San Jose in 1910? His wife, Sybil claimed to be the first female DJ in 1913. His station morphed into KQW and eventually KCBS. Or the Physics Department of Iowa State University that carried on regular broadcasting in 1913, even broadcasting from the Iowa State Fair in 1915? Their station eventually became WOI. Or the University of Wisconsin station in 1917 that became WHA? I think the difference is that KDKA had one Hell of a PR man working for them. As I have researched radio history I have found hundreds of instances like this one. I don't think it was KDKA, but, ain't we glad somebody did it? By the way, I am just having fun here, not giving Curt a hard time (it is always hard to tell in email contacts). Radio historians have been debating this issue almost as long as there has been radio.

Harold

Curt Phillips W4CP wrote:

from 440.com

RADIO DAY 10/27/07

Marconi, Fessenden, and De Forest were the catalysts. However, it was an engineer for Westinghouse Electric who, in 1916, was broadcasting music from his garage (in Wilkinsburg, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh) over a wireless (amateur radio station 8XK) who really got the whole thing started. A newspaper article about the broadcasts caused such interest that the head honchos at Westinghouse decided to build a real radio station.

It took until this day in 1920 for the Westinghouse radio station to receive a license to broadcast. The license for KDKA, Pittsburgh came from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Although the license was officially issued on this day, KDKA did not start their broadcast operations for a week (they had to wait until the license was posted in the station). On November 2, 1920, the station aired the returns of the Harding/Cox election ... the first radio programming to reach an audience of any size ... approximately 1,000 people.

And so we salute this day as the official birthday of mass-appeal radio.

More KDKA info:

http://www.hammondmuseumofradio.org/kdka.html

Curt Phillips, CEM
W4CP ex-KD4YU; WB4LHI
ARRL Life; QCWA; SKCC; NASWA
Tar Heel Scanner/SWL Group
WMPM AM1270- Coffeetime Sat. Mornings
Raleigh, NC
w4cp<at>arrl.net

--
Success is never final, failure is never fatal, courage is all that matters. -Winston Churchill

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
Swlfest mailing list
[email protected]
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest
To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit the URL shown above.

For more information on the Fest, visit:

http://www.swlfest.com
http://swlfest.blogspot.com
  

_______________________________________________
Swlfest mailing list
[email protected]
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit the URL shown 
above.

For more information on the Fest, visit:

http://www.swlfest.com
http://swlfest.blogspot.com

Re: [Swlfest] 10/27- Birthday of Broadcast Radio

Reply via email to