November 1, 2 In Radio History

On the 1st in 1894…Billboard Advertising, a 10-cent trade publication dealing with billboard advertising, began publication. After a few years, it started to focus on the entertainment shows advertised by billboards, and by the 1930s Billboard, as it came to be known, was covering radio and sales of a new medium, juke box records.

On the 2nd 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, 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. KDKA is currently owned and operated by CBS Radio.

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.


On the 2nd 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.


On the 1st in 1937..."Hilltop House" first aired on CBS Radio.


On the 1st in 1937…"Terry and the Pirates," a radio serial based on the popular comic strip, debuted on NBC's Red network. The show continued until 1948 with a two-year hiatus between 1939 and 1941.

On the 1st in 1946...WABC, New York became WCBS.

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.


On the 1st in 1946...WEAF, New York changed its call letters to WNBC.

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 1943, the United States Supreme Court ordered RCA to sell off one of its radio networks, citing antitrust concerns. The company decided to keep the Red Network, and it was rebranded as the NBC Radio Network after the Blue Network was divested, along with several stations (including WJZ), to Edward J. Noble and rechristened the Blue Network as the American Broadcasting Company. WEAF's call letters were changed to WNBC in 1946, then to WRCA in 1954, and back to WNBC in 1960.


On the 1st in 1955...The R&B group the Famous Flames entered Macon, Georgia radio station WIBB to record a demo of their first song, "Please, Please, Please." The result, featuring lead singer James Brown pleading into a single microphone while standing on an overturned wooden Coca-Cola case, was rejected by several record labels before finally being picked up by Cincinnati-based Federal Records, a subsidiary of King Records.


On the 1st in 1959...WOV-AM in NYC changes call letters to WADO.

This station was launched as WGL on January 30, 1927, and was owned by the International Broadcasting Corporation. WGL president Colonel Lewis Landes stated on the inaugural broadcast, "The International Broadcasting Corporation's aim is to adhere to truth, to be free of partisanship, religious or political."

WGL was the first station to protest the frequency allocations of the Federal Radio Commission in May 1927. WGL was authorized to move to 1170 AM, but wanted to go to 720, occupied by WOR. When WOR was awarded the 710 frequency, both stations went to court, with WOR eventually winning the case. Finally in June 1927, WGL moved to 1020 AM and shared time with Paterson station, WODA.

On September 16, 1928, WGL changed calls to WOV and was sold to Sicilian-born importer John Iraci. The WGL call sign was then picked up by a Fort Wayne station, which uses them to this very day.

WOV's initial programming was aimed at a general audience, but by the mid-1930s, it strengthened its ethnic ties and expanded its Italian-language programming to fill the daytime hours. WOV soon became the dominant Italian voice in the Northeast through its affiliation with share-time station WBIL and Iraci's WPEN in Philadelphia.  Eventually, the station moved to its current 1280 AM spot.

DeeJay Peggy Lloyd (undated)

The station was owned by WOV Broadcasting until 1959, when it was sold to Bartel Broadcasters, at which time the station was renamed WADO.  The station was sold to Command Broadcasting in 1979. In 1986, Heftel bought the station, and over the next three years, moved to a Spanish language adult contemporary and talk format. By the early 1990s, WADO was a Spanish news and talk station.

In March 1996 they bought WPAT and put a Spanish MOR format there. In 1997, Heftel restructured into Hispanic Broadcasters. They sold WPAT to Multicultural, and acquired WNWK from Multicultural. The brokered shows from WNWK went to WPAT and WCAA went to a Spanish Tropical format. WADO remained News and Talk.

In the 1990s the FCC began to entertain the idea of power increases n the formerly regional channels like 1280. Application was made to raise day power from 5,000 watts on two towers to 50,000 watts on a four tower system. This remained on file, and was periodically amended as the ownership changed. In 1998 the FCC granted a CP for days at 50,000 watts. While planning the rebuilt site, DoE David Stewart hit on the idea of a night power increase using the proposed extra day towers. CP was granted for 7,200 watts.

In 2002, Hispanic Broadcasting was sold to Univision, making WADO and WCAA Univision-owned and operated stations


On the 1st in 1993...Atlantic Radio - a conglomerate of 20 radio stations - became American Radio Systems.

CBS Corp. completed the $2.6-billion acquisition of American Radio Systems Corp.'s 98 stations in 1998.  At the time, Mel Karmazin, chairman and chief executive officer of the CBS Station Group, commented: "The acquisition of American Radio is financially and strategically attractive for CBS. This investment will significantly strengthen CBS's position in the fast growing radio industry.  It will enable CBS Radio to expand into new top 50 markets and increase its position in its existing major markets.  American Radio's stations are located in very attractive radio revenue growth markets where the Company expects to further consolidate its position."


On the 2nd 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.

Mr. 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, Mr. 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.