 |
| Courtesy of KDKA100.org |
On Nov. 2 a century ago, engineer Frank Conrad, a little bit the maverick, went where no man had gone before — into a little shed atop the tallest building in Westinghouse’s East Pittsburgh plant to broadcast history’s first radio news event, Warren G. Harding’s presidential victory over fellow Ohioan James M. Cox.
According to The Pittsburg Post-Gazette, the shed was equipped with an antenna, a 100-watt transmitter, a candlestick telephone “microphone” buffered in a cardboard box and several chairs.
Conrad had tinkered and innovated for years to bring KDKA radio into being. Its commercial license had been issued just six days before the election, and only a few thousand people had receivers to hear the results.
Two years later, the U.S. Department of Commerce had licensed 500 radio stations broadcasting to mass audiences.
KDKA’s 100th anniversary is being commemorated today and Tuesday in a replica of that little shed. Duquesne University and the National Museum of Broadcasting have collaborated on several events that will be live streamed on YouTube, with a link here.
Duquesne University President Ken Gormley will narrate an almost hour-long documentary about KDKA’s pioneering legacy at 7 p.m. Monday. 2. A live celebration will follow.
On election night, Tuesday, starting at 8 p.m., KDKA personalities and Duquesne University officials will discuss parallels between the 1920 and 2020 elections and the importance of KDKA and its role in the original broadcast.
That broadcast will be re-enacted with help from radio historians.
In 1920, the Pittsburgh Post, predecessor of the Post-Gazette, supplied periodic election returns to the broadcasters in the shed, then they announced the results to listening parties around Pittsburgh and across the Midwest.
KDKA 100 Years Podcast Podcast https://t.co/OUUqXogUGz via @0
— Tom Benson (@Tombenson1) November 2, 2020
➤CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON KDKA & THE BEGINNING OF COMMERCIAL AM RADIO
No comments:
Post a Comment