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Pioneer EraRadio PioneersRadio has grown to the point where we now easily take it for granted. We turn it on and expect it to be there. We expect that it will inform and/or entertain us. If we are not pleased with what we hear on one station we quickly turn to another one. It hasn't always been that way. The medium had its humble beginning more than a century ago. Radio waves were first theorized in 1873 by James Clerk-Maxwell using mathematical formulas. He published a "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism." Clerk-Maxwell determined that an invisible energy that behaves like visible light must exist. That energy is what we now know to be radio waves. Almost a decade later German physicist Henrich Hertz, whose name is still used in radio, i.e. (kHz, mHz) conducted the first experiments confirming the existence of the energy postulated by Clerk-Maxwell. Hertz was able to measure the vibration of the waves. He proved that these waves acted like light and heat waves and were susceptible to reflection and refraction. At this time there was no known use for these waves. Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi is significant because he proved that this electromagnetic energy could be put to a practical use. That practical use was in the transmission of information. Marconi demonstrated that it was possible to manipulate the waves to send telegraphic messages. Marconi adapted the Morse code system of dots and dashes to interrupt the waves in a manner similar to the on-off configuration of existing telegraphy. Message, sender and receiver no long had to be wired together. Messages could now be sent across water. Wireless, as it became known, allowed for ship-to-shore communication and helped advance interoceanic travel and commerce. When the Italian government expressed no interest in Marconi's invention, he went with his British-born mother to England. Marconi's practical success was translated into commercial success. He became one of six directors and a major stockholder of a company formed to foster wireless. When Marconi brought his invention to the United States, the Navy took a strong interest in it. Other inventors began to speculate that if these "hertzian" waves could send telegraphic messages, they could also transmit sound. One of these inventors was Canadian Reginald Fessenden. He teamed with General Electric Engineer F.W. Alexanderson to develop an alternator that produced a continuous wave that could transmit sound. This is the principle of amplitude modulation (AM). On Dec. 24, 1906, Fessenden used the 50,000-hertz alternator that he and Alexanderson had built to transmit sound from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Fessenden broadcast a Christmas Eve program that startled teletype operators as far away as Norfolk, Va. Fessenden played the violin, a phonograph of Handel's "Largo", read from the Bible, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and promised to broadcast again on New Year's Eve. Other radio experimenters include: Thomas E. Clark in Detroit and Charles D. "Doc" Herrold in San Jose, California. Both were operating before 1910, Herrold opened the Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering in San Jose. He and his students provided a weekly schedule of programs and went door-to-door with receivers they had made to generate a listening audience. Herrold and his students experimented with many of the formats still in use today. Herrold's operation ended in 1917, when all non-government broadcasting was ordered off the air with the start of World War I. Herrold's attempts to revive the station after the war were largely unsuccessful. The station was later moved to San Francisco and became KCBS. Herrold is often referred to as "Broadcasting's Forgotten Father." Active during this period was inventor Lee De Forest. De Forest is credited with the invention of the audion tube (later called the vacuum tube), a device used to amplify weak radio signals. In addition to his work as an inventor, De Forest was also an early broadcaster. He presented programs to early experimenters fascinated with the novelty of receiving programs out of the air. Edwin Howard Armstrong was one of De Forest's major rivals. Major Armstrong, the "Father of FM" is credited with improving on many of De Forest's inventions. Armstrong invented the Regenerative Circuit and the Superheterodyne Circuit, which vastly improved radio. He also offered a series of experimental broadcasts. It was Armstrong's idea to begin using a speaker to listen to the radio. Early radio listening was done with "headsets." During this period, radio was a curious experiment. It was David Sarnoff who in 1915 began to identify radio's commercial potential. He began to see the possibility of "radio music boxes" in every American home. He still saw radio as an appliance, little more than "talking furniture." Sarnoff said, "The main revenue to be derived will be from the sale of the 'Radio Music Boxes', which if manufactured in lots of one hundred thousand or so could yield a handsome profit." When Sarnoff headed the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) he put his plan to sell "Radio Music Boxes" into action. Broadcasting was set to become a major part of American life. In 1920 KDKA Pittsburgh came on the air. It holds the much-disputed title of "First Station On The Air" Westinghouse Engineer Frank Conrad broadcast from his garage like many other hobbyists. Following W.W.I, Westinghouse became a large firm as a result of manufacturing radio receivers to fill military contracts. The company was also aware that RCA, David Sarnoff's company and AT&T, the telephone company, owned most of the patents for the new industry. Conrad teamed up with Horne's Department Store to provide receivers for the new station. Westinghouse would manufacture and supply the receivers, Horne's Department Store would sell the receivers for $10. Westinghouse also applied to the U.S. Department of Commerce for a license and received the call sign KDKA on November 2, 1920. The station broadcast the presidential election in which Warren G. Harding defeated James M. Cox. The concept of the commercial radio station had been born. KDKA is credited as the oldest station in the country because it was the first to do several things simultaneously. 1. It was the first to receive a commercial license. 2. Conrad borrowed music from a Wilkinsburg music store in exchange for mentioning the store on the air. 3. KDKA broadcast a regular schedule. 4. The station's partnership with Horne's Department Store put receivers into the hands of the listening audience. Because of these factors KDKA is said to have fostered the notion of "radio as a mass medium" (one to many). Commercial at this time meant that KDKA and other pioneer stations were licensed by the US Department of Commerce. Advertising still hadn't found it's way onto the airwaves. Westinghouse established another radio station, WJZ in Newark, New Jersey, to serve the New York area. Entertainment personalities were soon flocking to radio. During this period, department stores, newspapers, colleges and universities and religious organizations scrambled to set up radio stations. There was some notion of using the medium for educational purposes but at the time the real fascination was with radio itself. Most owners were content with the goodwill and publicity generated for their organizations. AT&T was the first to realize the commercial potential of the new medium. In 1922, the telephone company opened its broadcast facility, WEAF in New York, to paying customers. These customers could use the facility for whatever they wished to put on the air. The concept was known as toll broadcasting. AT&T soon recognized a flaw in the toll broadcasting concept. Without an audience, no one was willing to pay to use WEAF. Without programming, no audience was willing to listen to WEAF. AT&T decided to supply a certain amount of programming to generate an audience and, as a result, willing clients. WEAF was soon thriving. Radio's first commercial was for an apartment in the Jackson Heights section of Queens. The concept of toll broadcasting became an instant success. It lead to the broader use of radio as an advertising medium.
ReferencesKeith, M. C. and Krause, J. M. (1989). The Radio Station Focal Press: Boston. O'Donnell, L., Hausman, C. Benoit, P. (1989). Radio station operations: management and employee perspectives. Wadsworth: Belmont, CA.
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