November 2 Radio History

In 1920...KDKA in Pittsburgh went on the air as the first commercial radio station, a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations (see below), although it has claimed to be the "world's first commercially licensed radio station": WWJ in Detroit, Michigan (also a CBS Radio station), lists its "First Air Date" as August 20, 1920.

Listen to announcer Leo Rosenberg, radio's first announcer:

Frank Conrad's experimental 75-watt trnasmitter

Frank Conrad

KDKA's roots began with the efforts of Westinghouse employee Frank Conrad who operated KDKA's predecessor 75 watt 8XK from the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg from 1916. Conrad, who had supervised the manufacturing of military receivers during WWI, broadcast phonograph music and communicated with other amateur radio operators via 8YK. On September 29, 1920, the Joseph Horne department store in Pittsburgh began advertising amateur wireless sets for $10, which could be used to listen to Conrad’s broadcasts.

Westinghouse vice president and Conrad’s supervisor, Harry P. Davis, saw the advertisement and recognized the economic potential of radio.  Instead of it being limited as a hobby to scientific experimenters, radio could be marketed to a mainstream audience. Consequently, Davis asked Conrad to build a 100-watt transmitter, which would air programming intended to create widespread demand for Westinghouse receivers.

KDKA Coverage of Harding-Cox Election 11/2/1920

The KDKA callsign was assigned sequentially from a list maintained for the use of US-registry maritime stations, and on November 2, 1920, KDKA broadcast the US presidential election returns from a shack on the roof of the K Building of the Westinghouse Electric Company "East Pittsburgh Works" in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.  Four men basically manned that first broadcast: Engineer William Thomas; telephone line operator John Frazier; R.S. McClelland, a standby and Leo Rosenberg, radio’s first announcer.

The election results were relayed to about 1,000 listeners, who learned through this incredible new medium, that Warren Harding beat James Cox in the race for the Oval Office.

There is some indication that the new license had not been received by that date, and the station may have gone on the air with the experimental call sign of 8ZZ that night. The original broadcast was said to be heard as far away as Canada. KDKA continued to broadcast from the Westinghouse building for many months.

Soon after its successful election coverage, KDKA upgraded to a 100-watt transmitter. Early programming often featured live musical performances from a Westinghouse band. KDKA provided its first remote broadcast by airing a choir, live, from the Pittsburg Calvary Baptist Church in January 1921.  On January 15, 1921, at 8 p.m., KDKA broadcast a speech on European relief by Herbert Hoover from the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh that was transmitted ten miles down a telephone line to Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh Works. On July 2, 1921, the station featured the first national broadcast with live commentary of the Jack Dempsey - Georges Carpentier fight via teletype from New Jersey.  Also in 1921 the station had the first broadcasts of major league professional baseball games and the first broadcast college football game.

KDKA hosted political comedian Will Rogers in his very first radio appearance in 1922. KDKA played popular music and advertisers began sponsoring special radio programs like The Philco Hour, The Maxwell House Hour and The Wrigley Party.



In 1923, KDKA began simulcasting its AM medium-wave broadcasts on shortwave.

Along with RCA and General Electric, Westinghouse was a co-founder of NBC in 1926, and thus KDKA was affiliated with the new network. When NBC decided to split its network up into two networks (NBC Red Network and NBC Blue Network), KDKA affiliated with the NBC Blue Network.

In reality, It is difficult to answer the question, "Who was the first broadcaster?" Much depends on what is defined as broadcasting . As far as AM radio is concerned, the grandfather of the broadcast industry, there were five stations that exhibited a rich tradition of being first in broadcasting:

• KDKA, Pittsburgh . Dr. Frank Conrad conducted the experimental work that led to the establishment of KDKA, which made its formal debut on November 2, 1920. Conrad was apparently the first to use the term "broadcast" to describe a radio service.
• WWJ, Detroit . The birthplace of broadcasting at WWJ was the Detroit News. The station signed on the air August 20, 1920. It was the first station to be operated by a newspaper, and the first commercial station to broadcast regularly scheduled daily programs.
• KCBS, San Jose . Doc Herrold's station at San Jose (which eventually became KCBS, San Francisco) began as an experimental operation with the first documented transmissions occurring in 1909. It is said of Herrold that he conceived the idea of broadcasting information and entertainment programs to the public.
• WHA, the University of Wisconsin . 9XM-WHA achieved its first successful transmission of voice and music in 1917 from the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. Pioneers in the establishment of the station were Malcolm Hansen and Professor Earle Terry.
• WGY, Schnectady, NY . Operated by the General Electric Company, WGY served as the test bed for many experiments in AM radio. Later efforts at the facility were directed toward perfecting FM and television transmission.

Each of these stations was first in its own way, and each played a significant role in establishing the foundation for broadcasting. Contributions included both equipment and technology.

The Baltimore News-1925

In 1925...WBAL began broadcasting as a subsidiary of the Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company, a predecessor of Constellation Energy.  WBAL's initial broadcasting studio was located at the utility's offices on Lexington Street, and it operated as part of the Blue Network of the National Broadcasting Company.  On January 12, 1935, with radio becoming more commercialized, there was little justification for public service company ownership of a radio station, and WBAL was sold to the Hearst-controlled American Radio News Corporation, who operated it alongside the Baltimore News-Post and Baltimore American (later merged as the Baltimore News-American).

During the 1960s, WBAL had a full service free-flowing Middle Of The Road music format heavily emphasising personality. The station played a mix of soft rock and roll and non rock songs/standards.

By the early 1970s, the station had a full-service adult contemporary music format with the exception of weekday evenings, where the station employed talk programming. Among its personalities during that period were program host Jay Grayson, Harley Brinsfield (who had a long-running Saturday night jazz music program, The Harley Show), and White House-accredited newsman Galen Fromme.

In the early 1980s, WBAL began running talk shows overnights as well as evenings and continued to play some music during the day. Music gradually decreased and in the fall of 1985, WBAL had transitioned to its current news-talk format, winning 19 national Edward R. Murrow Awards since then – the most of any local U.S. radio station.

In addition to its analog 1090 kHz signal, WBAL is repeated on WIYY 979.9 FM HD2.

The Dixie Spiritual Singers performed on the first broadcast of WRVA

In 1925...Although three-letter call signs were still available when the station was started, "WRVA" was chosen since RVA was short for Richmond, VA. WRVA 1140 kHz was launched at 9:00 p.m. on November 2, 1925. Known initially as "Edgeworth Radio", it was owned by Larus and Brother, a tobacco company known as the House of Edgeworth. The radio station was originally operated as a public service 2 nights per week.

The early WRVA facilities were a small studio in a corner of a warehouse on Richmond's Tobacco Row and a tower mounted on the roof of the building. It soon became a vital and profitable business enterprise.

By 1930, WRVA was on-the-air 7 days a week, 24 hours daily, with broadcasting power increased to 50,000 watts.

In the late 1940s, WRVA's facilities extended beyond Richmond; an ad in a 1947 issue of the trade magazine Broadcasting proclaimed "Studios in Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia." The same ad noted that WRVA was "Virginia's only 50,000 watt radio station."

In 1931...the 15-minute daily drama “Myrt and Marge” was heard for the first time — at 7 pm on CBS radio. The program centered on two chorus girls who competed for the same parts and the same men. The creator and writer of the series, Myrtle Vail, also played the role of Myrt; and the original Marge was performed by Vail’s daughter, Donna Fick. Three other performers played the part when Donna died giving birth. Myrt and Marge continued for 11 years, most of the time as part of the daytime soap opera block.


In 1936...A new Canadian Broadcasting Act created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC replaced the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission and is the country's oldest existing broadcasting network. The nature of the CBC often places it in the same category as other high-end national broadcasters, such as the Britain's BBC, although unlike the BBC, the CBC uses commercial advertising to supplement its federal funding on its television broadcasts. The radio service employed commercials from its inception until 1974. Since then, like the BBC, CBC Radio has been commercial-free.

NY Times Ad appeared November 1, 1946

In 1946...WEAF, New York changed its call letters to WNBC.

N Y Times story

WNBC signed on for the first time on March 2, 1922, as WEAF, owned by AT&T Western Electric. It was the first radio station in New York City.

The call are popularly thought to have stood for Western Electric AT&T Fone or Water, Earth, Air, and Fire (the 4 classical elements).  However, records suggest that the call letters were assigned from an alphabetical sequence. The first assigned call was actually WDAM; it was quickly dropped, but presumably came from the same alphabetical sequence.

In 1926, WEAF was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America, making it a sister station to WJZ. RCA then formed the National Broadcasting Company, which operated two radio chains.

WEAF became the flagship station of the NBC Red Network. The other chain was the NBC Blue Network, whose programming originated at WJZ (now WABC), also owned by RCA. As a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement of 1941, WEAF became a clear channel station, and could be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night.



In 1946...WABC, New York became WCBS.

NY Times Ad 11/02/46

The station's history traces back to 1924, when Alfred H. Grebe started WAHG at 920 AM. WAHG was a pioneering station in New York, and was one of the first commercial radio stations to broadcast from remote locations including horse races and yachting events. Two years later, in 1926, Alfred Grebe changed the station's call sign to WABC (for his Atlantic Broadcasting Company) after concluding a business arrangement with the Ashland Battery Company (which had owned the call sign for a station in Asheville, North Carolina) and moved his studios to West 57th Street, which would not be the last time the station would operate from 57th Street.

In 1928, General Order 40 moved the station's frequency to 970 AM, and the station became a part-time affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System, which was looking for a full-time radio presence in New York City (CBS's first flagship was WOR). After a short time broadcasting CBS programming three days a week, CBS president William S. Paley purchased WABC and it became a subsidiary of CBS.

Soon after this purchase the station moved to a new frequency, this time to 860 AM, and would eventually increase its transmitting power from 5,000 to its present 50,000 watts. The station also moved its studios into the CBS headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue (on the corner of 52nd Street). The station, still operating as WABC, featured a mix of local interest programming, ethnic content and music programs from CBS's national feed. As time went by, WABC turned more and more to the national programming provided by CBS and its affiliates, and its broadcast day was influenced by CBS's growing interest in news programming.

In 1939, the broadcasting operations were moved across 52nd Street from the headquarters to the new CBS Studio Building.

In 1941, WABC moved to the frequency it currently occupies, 880 AM, and changed its call letters to WCBS on November 2, 1946, to identify more closely with its parent network, the Columbia Broadcasting System or CBS, and avoid possible confusion with the rival network of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which had begun operation in 1943. As a result, this station has no relation to the longtime ABC radio flagship station on 770 AM that began in 1921 as WJZ, and has operated as WABC since 1953.



In 1958...Billboard magazine introduced a new chart. It ranked the top singles in order, from number 1 to 100. Previously, only 30 records had been on the weekly hit list. It would take Casey Kasem to count ‘em down backwards from #40 to #1 years later.


In 2004... Providence, Rhode Island broadcasting legend Walter Leslie "Salty" Brine, Jr., the morning host on WPRO 630 AM for 51 years, died at the age of 86.

Salty Brine

"Salty" Brine was born on August 8, 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts, the last of four children. His parents were from Nova Scotia; his father was a carpenter. For over 50 years the morning host on popular AM-radio station WPRO, and for 13 years (1955-1968) the host of Salty's Shack, a live children's television broadcast, Mr. Brine has become somewhat of a cultural icon to thousands of Rhode Island residents.

Brine lived in Massachusetts until he obtained his position as a staff announcer at WPRO in September of 1942.

His first jobs in radio were all in Massachusetts, at WNAC, WESX in Salem, and WCOP in Boston.

In 1943, Brine began his 50-year run as WPRO's morning announcer on a news show called the TNT Revue, short for "Time, News and Temperature". His radio name derived from the nickname his friends gave him, "Walt the Salt", and a question a listener had about the spelling of his surname. Mr. Brine was as popular with advertisers as he was with regular listeners, as sales tended to increase in response to his presentation of product advertisements.

Breaking into television in 1955, WPRO broadcast a nautically-themed children's program called Salty Brine's Shack, produced live, which Mr. Brine hosted with a collie named Jeff. Both Salty and Jeff evolved into local celebrities. The show ran until 1968.

Brine became a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1979.