Westinghouse station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election on 2 November 1920, the conventional start of scheduled commercial broadcasting. Competing claims to the first broadcast include 8MK in Detroit, CFCF in Montreal, and experimental transmissions at Chelmsford in England earlier the same year.
Facts
Milestone Year When2 November 1920, election night 1 LocationPittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1 LocationThe election-night broadcast itself originated from the Westinghouse company's international radio station at East Pittsburgh, a few miles outside the city of Pittsburgh proper. 2 Connections
Associated With
Source A Social History of the MediaAsa Briggs and Peter Burke
In Medium
Open Questions
Sources
1. A Social History of the Media
Asa Briggs and Peter Burke, Polity Press, 2009
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: KDKA (AM), Addition of a broadcasting service sectionQuote, Wikipedia: KDKA (AM), Addition of a broadcasting service section
The returns by wireless telephone, which were transmitted from the Westinghouse international radio station at East Pittsburgh, were exceptionally clear and distinct.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Was KDKA's 1920 election-night broadcast really the first, or do rival stations have an equal claim?
At least three other stations made audio transmissions of election returns that same evening (the Detroit News's "Detroit News Radiophone" service, amateur station 8MK, plus a Saint Louis Post-Dispatch arrangement and a Buffalo Evening News broadcast), and earlier scheduled transmissions already existed, Lee de Forest's 2XG from late 1916 and Charles Herrold's San Jose station from 1912.
What would resolve this An agreed scholarly definition of what counts as a qualifying broadcast: a regular published schedule versus a one-off transmission, and a licensed commercial station versus an amateur one.
Broadcast historyWikipedia
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