<VV>OT AM radio

[Tony Underwood]

At 02:14 hours 08/03/2005, Harry Yarnell wrote:
>I've always KNOWN KDKA was the first commercial radio station. That said,
>let's put this thread to bed; it's getting old.



Yep, it was KDKA which aired the *first* nationally broadcast news 
story to be officially aired.   It was the 1920 election results of 
the Harding-Cox Presidential race.   This was a test question on one 
of the college exams in BCST-201, Broadcasting Technology and 
History, remember it well (studied hard, got an A).

Other stations were on the air at that time, a few even before KDKA, 
like WGI of Boston (used to call itself "first in broadcasting" but 
went belly-up soon after)  but it was the Pittsburgh station that 
went on, stayed on, and had enough power and clout to go "national" 
with effective news coverage.   Their election returns report was the 
first "national" news broadcast, which carries more weight that just 
claiming to be the first "on the air".  KDKA was the first on the air 
to go national and stay that way... and they got the news of the 
election returns and aired it before anybody else.

As a final note...

All this AM Radio discussion came along ironically not long after I'd 
originally got to thinking about the "golden age" of top-40 AM a 
while back... and how I'd fondly recalled Dick Summer's Nightlight 
show at WBZ in the '60s, so I thought I'd kinda tell him how much I'd 
appreciated the show...  spent some time and managed to chase down 
his address and wrote him and told him.   He wrote me back and 
thanked me for remembering what he regards to this day as a wonderful 
time in his life and that he was pleased that I'd remembered it with 
such fondness and had taken the time to tell him.    This of course 
pleased ME no end.

Just thought I'd mention it.   His *was* indeed a great show.

You  guys out there who had a favorite DJ from Back When might wanna 
consider chasing them down and writing them to tell them how much 
they were appreciated... some of those guys are getting long of tooth 
these days and would likely cherish the kind words in a BIG way.


Now:    What say we take this to VV-talk...?   I do enjoy this stuff, 
but it's crowding the Vair discussion.


tony..