The first radio station went on the air in 1909 in San Jose CA. One hundred years later that station is KCBS in San Francisco. Two San Jose State University professors did the research and tell the story, in a book, and in a PBS documentary. This is an excerpt from producer Mike Adams, "Broadcasting's Forgotten Father: The Charles Herrold Story."
There are plenty of claimants to being first. There's KCBS; there's also WWJ in Detroit, which launched its regular daily schedule of news broadcasts on August 31, 1920 under license 8MK. There's KDKA, which got the first commercial license in November 1920 just in time to cover election night (and has stayed on every day since). Finally, Boston's WBZ had the first Commerce Dept. license spefigically for broadcast in 1921. They all have one thing in common...today, they're all owned by CBS.
BobWXXI 1 month ago
The first station with a license. Several others preceded it but had to shut down during WWI. KCBS was the first to transmit voices rather than Morse code.
bakerandbaker1 9 months ago
very enjoyable
revbookburn 9 months ago
Interesting fact: the KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first radio station that inaugurated regular broadcast service
Greden85 10 months ago
Are you sure about this---I thought KDKA was the first commercial station. KDKA was in Pittsburgh---Westinghouse owned it.
PooBah891 1 year ago 2
Awesome, wish there was more of this.
FelixTheHouseFreak 1 year ago
WOW history
moggyparty 1 year ago