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August 20 1995
PIONEER PROFILES - Premier column
WHO'S ON FIRST?
by Barry Mishkind
TUCSON, Arizona] This fall marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of
broadcasting. Or does it? Whenever broadcasters get together to discuss the
beginnings of the industry, it soon seems to sound something like the famous
Abbott and Costello routine. Trying to figure out "Who's on first?"
often turns into a frustrating, even maddening attempt to put a label on a
moving target.
Was KDKA's appearance in November, 1920 that of the first broadcast station?
The question really is difficult to answer, even as one tries to define
"broadcast." Was it operation on a regular schedule? A daily schedule?
Was it continuous operation from some early date? Designed to be heard by the
general public? Licensed by the US government?
Depending upon the criteria, many stations have strong claims for being
first. And like Lou Costello, you may find a straight answer is somewhat
elusive. Some of the contenders go way back.
Under one definition, broadcasting might even be said to have started in the
1880s, when the Budapest Cable Company began sending out scheduled entertainment
programs via telephone lines. They hired people with "specially loud
voices" to read out the news. Of course, RF wasn't involved, but it was
"broadcast" in the sense of programming going out to a variety of
locations.
KCBS, originally "San Jose Calling", FN, 6XE, 6FX, SJN, then KQW,
was built by Charles David Herrold in 1909 in San Jose, California. Broadcasts
of music from Herrold's School of Radio could be be heard every Wednesday
evening. Lee de Forest proclaimed Herrold's station as "the oldest
broadcasting station in the whole world."
KCBS calls itself "the longest continuously broadcasting station in the
world," by a factor of at least a decade, there were, however,
transmissions of music via radio by the Belgian Post Office beginning in the
same time period.
WHA, originally 9XM, Madison Wisconsin was constructed by Earle Terry. The
University of Wisconsin claims WHA "the Oldest Station in the Nation ... in
existence longer than any other." It certainly rivals KCBS.
WWJ, originally 8MK, began operation on August 20, 1920. The next night it
broadcast the results of an election. The station was owned and operated by the
Detroit News. It promoted itself as "WWJ Radio One, Where it All Began,
August 20, 1920."
And then there is KDKA, originally 8XK. Built by Dr. Frank Conrad of
Westinghouse in 1916, it began playing music after the wartime ban on
entertainment was lifted. (Actually, ALL non-governmental stations were
ordered off the air until the end of WWI. 8XK was one of the few stations
transmitting from time to time to test military radio equipment manufactured by
Westinghouse.)
This fall, you are sure to read many articles about KDKA in all sorts of
publications. What is not in debate is that the Department of Commerce started
issuing licenses for what would become the broadcast band as we know it in 1920.
Experimental station 8XK in Pittsburgh, which was to become KDKA, was granted
the first "Limited Commercial" license. During a delay in reception of
the license, the station proceeded to broadcast the election returns on 330
meters (909 kHz) on November 2, 1920 under Special Amateur license 8ZZ.
The broadcast itself was hardly unique, a number of other stations did
election returns that very same night, and even previously. However, the
fledgling KDKA was different in that it inaugurated a regular daily schedule of
transmissions. The parent company Westinghouse, even had plans to start more
stations if KDKA proved successful.
However, the full story of what happened in those days is less than crystal
clear. It is evident that few, including the government, really had any clue as
to the future of the new "wireless" medium. An assortment of stations
in seven catagories (Public Service, Limited Commercial, Experimental, Technical
and Training School, General Amateur, Special Amateur, and Restricted) had
already transmitted everything from earlier election returns to music to
dramatic readings.
And a whole range there were, indeed. Early stations included Experimentals
such as de Forest's "High Bridge" station, 2XG in New York City, and
the "California Theater" station, 6XC in San Francisco, American Radio
and Research Corporation's 1XE in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, Technical and
Training School station 9YY at the University of Nebraska, and General Amateur
8MK from the Detroit News.
The term "broadcasting" found its way into government publications
in 1921. On December 1, 1921 two wavelengths were formally set aside for a
special service category within the "Limited Commercial" class of
stations. The regulations read: "Licences of this class are required for
all transmitting stations used for broadcasting news, concerts, lectures, and
like matter."
Getting a license in those early days was much less formal than it was after
1927 when the Federal Radio Commission was put into place. Basically, anyone
filing a request with any of the nine regional Radio Inspectors of the
Department of Commerce (DOC) Bureau of Navigation was given a license, as a
matter of registration. In fact, some of these early "grants" were
never even built.
In 1927 a familiar phrase was introduced, licensing stations to serve the
public "convenience, interest, or necessity," and more concrete
requirements were set out for new stations.
"Who's on first?" It doesn't really matter. Broadcasting started.
And, as we will see, there is plenty of interesting broadcast history to go
around. From one licensed station in 1920 to over 11,000 today, broadcasting has
truly become a major factor in the development of society in this century.
Over the coming months, Pioneer Profiles goal is to shine some light on the
men and stations that broadcast back before anyone worried about much more than
keeping a cranky transmitter on the air.
[If you or your station has a written history, or any information on the
roots of broadcasting, please share them with me. I would appreciate anything
that would illuminate the pioneer stations and the men who built them. Books,
newspaper clippings, old licenses, ratecards, EKKO stamps, radio guides, even
photocopies are of benefit. Send them to Barry Mishkind, 2033 S. Augusta Place,
Tucson, AZ 85710. The information will be added to the OLDRADIO infobase, and
eventually donated to an archive open to all.]
Barry Mishkind, aka "The Eclectic Engineer," can be reached at
520-296-3797, or "barry**atbroadast.net" via the Internet. You can find
his home page at "http://www.broadcast.net/~barry/"
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