Evening star., 1933-01-29
|C[A|MS q YEARS.
| BROADCAST RECORD
KQW, in California, Enters
Controversy Over Pioneer
Radio Programs.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

NTO the perennial dispute over
who was first to broadcast radio
programs in America now comes
i little Station KQW, San Jose,
Calf, which claims that on Janu-
ary l6 it will observe its tWenty-fifth
anniversary. Since all. previous claim
ants to pioneer distinction in America
and world radio date their anniver-
saries back only a little more than II
years to 1920. the entry of the Califor-
mia station into the contest has aroused
considerable curiosity.
The fiat assertion is made by Fred j.
Hart, owner and operator of KQW,
that it was founded in 1908, that 1t
began broadcasting music IN 1909 and
that it has been on the air ever since.
Thus it is said to be fully twice as old
As KDKA, Pittsburgh. generally re-
puted to be the first broadcaster in the
world to 60 on the air with scheduled
programs and to remain on the air con-
tinually since its birth date, November
2, 1920.
Older Than KDKA.
Even WWJ, Detroit, which is known
to antedate KDKA by some months,
but which did not remain on regular
schedule, although it still exists, is al
by the San Jose station. There were
many other amateur or experimental
wireless telephone stations before KDKA
and WWJ, including those Of DR.. Lee
DeForest, but none of these is still
existent.
According to Mr. Hart's story, Charles
D. Herrold, an inventor of San Jose
early in the century had studied the
work of Marconi, Poulson. Arco. Carty
and others with the new-fangled thing
called wireless. He decided to under
take some experiments of his own
Quietly and unostentatiously, he con-
structed a huge carpet" aerial con-
tanning some IL 500 feet of wire. He
suspended it between two 7-story build
ings in San Jose and began sending
out both telegraph and telephone mes
sages.
DR.. Herrold still lives in San Jose,
and his operator at the time was Ray
Newhy, who now resides in San Fran
cisco. Between 1909 and 1912 they
devised means for modulating the
voice in the antenna circuit, hooking
four microphones directly to it and
cooling the apparatus with q water
circulating system to keep the current
from breaking it down. In 1912 two
way voice communication was estab-
lished between DR.. Herrold in San Jose
and George Davis in Oakland.
That the experimenters were not
aware of the importance of their work
is indicated by the fact that their
first broadcast - literally was not
staged until 1913 when, instead of con-
fining their messages to restricted
receiving point, they played a record
of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
for all who could hear. Radio operators
at the naval radio station at Bremerton,
Wash, wrote in that reception was
very clear.
First National Radio Law.
It was in 1912 that the first inter-
national radio treaty led to the first
national radio law, then regarded as
applying only to maritime radio. DR..
Herrold Immediately applied for a
license, which has been reissued to the
station regularly ever since except for
the World War period when all private
radio was shut down. One of his
licenses authorized the variable use OF
any wave length between $50 and
$4,000 meters and any power up to
1000 watts.
In 1915, as related by DR.. Herrold to
Mr.. Hart, Lieut.. Ellery Stone, then
Federal radio inspector at San Fran
cisco, later president of Federal Tele-
graph Co., and now a vice president OF
the International Telephone g. Tele-
graph Co., suggested to Dr. Herrold that
he broadcast regular programs for recep-
ton at the Panama-Pacific exposition at
San Francisco. This was done for six
to eight hours daily, and many persons
still remember hearing the strange
phenomenon of voice and music. coming
from so miles away without wires, in
the listening booth established in the
Tower of Jewels.
Contemporaneously. Dr. Lee DeForest,
venerated as the father of radio" for
his invention Of the vacuum tube, had
a radio booth at the exposition. But
his transmitter failed, and reception
in his booth was also from the San
Jose station. Not only were the pro-
grams heard in these booths. but en-
thusiastic amateurs for miles around
reported reception.
The call letters KQW were assigned
to Dr. Herrold's station on December
9, 1921, and he continued on the air
with the same transmitter used for 10
years previously. DR.. Herrold trans
ferred his license to a church in 1925
and its present owners bought the
station in 1925. One Of the other claims
to distinction made for KQW Is that
1t is partially supported by voluntary
| memberships of 81 a year in its "KQW
Radio Club" and that one Of its lis
teners actually willed the station q