Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02
|BROADCAST|NG IS 10
YEARS OLD TODAY
KDKA Sputtered Harding
Election Returns to Drafted
Audience of 100.

Radio broadcasting is 10 years old
today.
Just a decade ago-on November 2,
1920-Station KDKA, Pittsburgh, sput-
tered the returns of the balloting that
of the United States. A drafted radio
audience of less than 100, with ear
phones and crystal receiving sets,
picked up that program from the
worlds first broadcasting station.
Ten years old, 100000 employees,
50,000,000 listeners and billion dollar
turnover-that's the statistical history
of broadcasting in the United States.
Entertainment, education, cultural up
lift, international good will-those are
claimed as its intangible achievements.
Universal Language Needed.
The turn of the decade finds broad
casting searching for new worlds to
conquer with the reckless vigor that
BELTS the youngster of industries. A
universal language, tieing together all
next big stride for sound broadcasting
Television is the offshoot that will
translate radio impulses hurtled
through space in a panorama of
scenes-foot ball games 1000 miles
away, the theater brought into the
home.
The father of broadcasting" slouched
back in his chair.
Yes, it seems like yesterday" said
! man who discovered" broadcasting,
responding to a question by this writer.
"Yet 10 years have passed since
KDKA put on that first program. 1t
was a big night for us. It was the
| first scheduled radiotelephone program
| to be broadcast. And 1t was due to the
| foresight of Mr.. Davis Oh. P. Davis,
vice president of Westinghouse that
we scheduled that original transmission
of the Harding election returns"
When he made these observations
DR.. Conrad was in Washington on a
new mission-another pioneer endeavor
in broadcasting. He appeared before
the Federal Radio Commission to tell 1t
that international rebroadcasting is
! feasible; that the time is ripe for the
rebroadcasting Of commercial programs
from the United States to all parts of
the world. A great international audi
ence has sprung into being listening to
| the programs sent out eXperimentally
over the Westinghouse short-wave
transmitters at Pittsburgh. There is a
! demand for regular scheduled interna-
ttonal rebroadcaSts, he believes, and he
sees in this the forerunner of the uni
verSal language.
Just An Idea 10 Years Ago.
Broadcasting was an idea Just 10
| years ago. Today in this country it Is
an accepted necessity of life. Ten years
ago they didn't know what they could
do with radiotelephony. It lacked
secrecy and it was unfit for long dis
lance use. 1t appeared to have no COM
mercial value.
But what at first was construed as
the handicap of this wireless telephone
its lack of secrecy-proved to be its
virtue and has developed into the magic
of the century. Mass communication,
now called broadcasting, was the thing.
Radiotelephonic communication was
not new in 1920. 1t was, however,
mainly a research problem and play
thing Of the radio amateur. AS early
as 1906 Reginald Fessenden broadcast a
program on Christmas Eve and prob
ably was the first to attempt broadcast
ing. Later. DR.. Lee De Foerst, the In
Ventor of the audion tube the heart of