Commercial Radio Broadcasting Begins
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events from History: North American Series
- Categories: Technology, Inventions, Economics
- Subcategories: Television, Radio, Broadcasting, Communications, Elections, Voting
- Curriculum: American History 1901-1950
- Geographical Location: Pennsylvania
- Date: August 20, 1920
Article abstract: The 1920 presidential election returns give occasion to the first major commercial radio broadcast.
Summary of Event
At 8:00 p.m. on November 2, 1920, the airwaves near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crackled with sound as the tiny, newly licensed KDKA radio station broadcast the first scheduled public radio program, the presidential election returns. Using only a 100-watt transmitter, Leo H. Rosenberg of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company’s publicity department, read the returns as they were received by telephone from the...
[The entire page is 1544 words long]
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