On Tuesday, November 2nd from 9am-3pm in the Great Hall at the Heinz Center: Special historic broadcast. KDKA will celebrate their first historic broadcast on election day in 1920 along with going back through time at KDKA (website). Admission costs apply. Its interesting to note KDKA’s 90th Anniversary Celebration is powered by Westinghouse, original owner of the station. KDKA is now a part of CBS Radio.
KDKA's roots began with the efforts of Frank Conrad who operated KDKA's predecessor 75 watt 8XK from the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, PA. from 1916. Conrad's musical offerings proved unexpectedly popular and his operations continued until his employer, the Westinghouse Electric Company, realized the commercial potential of this new medium and applied for an official broadcasting license.
The KDKA call sign 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 a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. The original broadcast was said to be heard as far away as Canada.
Although KDKA claims to be "the pioneer broadcasting station of the world," the issue is disputed. According to an Wikipedia entry, contenders for initial broadcasts include:
- Charles Herrold of San Jose, California started broadcasting voices (as opposed to Morse Code) in 1909. He used several different call signs over time (FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE), but had to shut down during World War I. After the war, he started up again as 6XF/6XE. The station received a commercial license in 1921 and became KQW. The station broadcasts today as AM 740 KCBS, which, like KDKA, is part of the CBS radio station group.
- Lee De Forest's 2XG in the Highbridge section of New York City began daily broadcasts in 1916. Like most experimental radio stations, however, it had to go off the air when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, and did not return to the air.
- Harold J. Power's 1XE in Medford, Massachusetts was an experimental station that started broadcasting in 1917. It had to go off the air during World War I, but started up again after the war, and began regular voice and music broadcasts in 1919. However, the station did not receive its commercial license, becoming WGI, until 1922.
- 2XN from the City College of New York
- 2ZK in New Rochelle, New York
- 8MK in Detroit, Michigan (now WWJ) which has had regular scheduled daily broadcasts since August of 1920 and is also currently a part of the CBS radio station group.
- WWV the U.S. Government time service, believed to have started 6 months before KDKA
- XWA, Marconi's broadcast station in Montreal, Canada, since 1919 (was CFCF, later CINW and shut down in February 2010)
- W2XQ, now WRUC, Union College, Schenectady, New York
- 9XM, now WHA (AM), University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
- KQV was one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, signing on as amateur station "8ZAE" on November 19, 1919, predating KDKA which was granted the distinction of being the nation's first commercially licensed station in 1920. KQV did not receive a commercial license until January 9, 1922, despite having started transmitting three years earlier.
- On August 27, 1920 the Argentina Station started the first transmission from Coliseo Theatre at Buenos Aires, Argentina. Later that station received the name LOR Radio Argentina, and finally LR2 Radio Argentina. That station was in service until 31 December 1997 at 1110 kHz.
Also Read here:
KDKA celebrates 90th at History Center (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
No comments:
Post a Comment