The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-09-02

I'm March, 1921, business in radio was practical
ly at standstill the only receiver sales at that
time were of very small volume and consisted
of parts sold to a few experimenters, and these
had fallen off that advertising patronage for
my magazine practically nil. Something had
to be done to move the dealers supplies.
"The Invest issue in the public mind at the
time the forthcoming battle of the century
between Dempsey and Carpenter, the advance
publicity for which then in full swing |
decided upon hitchng my wobbly wagon to that
particular ascending star, to drag forth the neg
ected radio baby, and set it down in the spotlight
where public attention would be focused"
The whole scheme of broadcasting originated In
office memorandum prepared in 1914 Major
White says. This memorandum was prepared in
the old Marconi days by David Sarnoff who since
has become vice president and general manager
of the Radio Corporation of America, and was
submitted for comment and suggestions to Major
White who in addition to his magazine work
was in charge of Marconi public relations. The
World war postponed any action the broad
casting idea, and the memorandum had to wait
until March, 1921.
Arrangements were made with Tex Richard.
promoter of the fight, before broke the news to
Sarnoff" Major White recalls He fell in with
the idea and dug into inactive spot in the
budget and produced an appropriation Of $500
which, / recall, he turned over to me with the
strict admonition: But don't you spend more
than $1,000, remember
my idea was to have the broadcasting received
in halls and theaters in cities and towns through
out the Middle Atlantic states. The plan was to
have amateurs do the receiving in the appointed
audtoriums in their own neighborhoods and
make the fight description audible to the audi.
ences gathered together for that sole purpose.
Well first Of ALL there were practically no loud
speakers in existence then-imagine that Ear
phone arrangements such as are used by the
deaf had to be improvised into loud speakers by
attaching them to old tin tulip horns which were
relics of the early days of the photograph.
"Throughout the stretch of many weary weeks
this work of organization continued. Lining up
the theaters was hercuean job but finally done.
aEach day the situation became com
pIicated. Funds to carry out the ambitious
project were very sparse and one of the early
snags was matter of $4,000 demanded to erect
towers for the transmitters at Boyle's Thirty
Acres in Jersey City. This alone was more than
ave times the actual money had at my disposal,
SO something else had to be done. The something
else consisted of getting the of the towers of
the Lackawanna railroad at Hoboken, and con-
meeting up the intervening distance by land wire.
.FinaIIy we had transmitter and towers and
a receiving network. Testing began Days went
nv . week. and we were getting perilousy near
Julv q but had been heard only distance Of
three or four rallies, and then only family. The
testing had to be done late at night for In those
DAYS receivers were not selective as they now
are and the hftrbor was filed with ships whose
wireless telegraph messages must not be gummed
m bv our spoLen words AS night after night
went bv and amateurs all along the eastern sea-
board were unable to pick up our tests deluge
II frantic COMMUNICATIONS swamped my Office BY
jong-distance phone telegraph and special de-
livery I was Informed that things were getting
nanickvs postes were up in front of theaters
and auditorums inviting the public in, and here