The nineteenth century was a period of rapid change. The United States was becoming an industrial power in the midst of a worldwide Industrial Revolution. England with its massive naval and merchant fleets, was still a formidable power. As the world changed a need arose for rapid systems of communications, thus stimulating inventors to look for a new way to send messages.
Inventors sought new devices that might have commercial value in the industrial world. Some, such as Samuel F. B. Morse, strove to fill needs. Morse demonstrated that messages could be transmitted by wire when he invented the telegraph. Of course many other early experimenters were involved in experimenting purely because of scholarly interests. Physicists and engineers both contributed to the growing body of information that led to the invention of radio or wireless. Wireless was the term most commonly used for radio communication prior to about 1919.
Scientists were interested in studying the wireless phenomenon for its scientific value, while other experimenters saw vast commercial and military potential for a wireless system. Long before wireless was a reality, however, experimenters in many parts of the world had to invent the equipment that would make wireless work.
INVENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TELEGRAPHY
A trained painter rather than an electrician, Morse had a lifelong interest in electrical gadgets. During much of his early life he supported himself by painting and by teaching painting. It was not until he was forty-one that Morse heard a discussion about the electromagnet and became interested in the telegraph--called writing at a distance. The possibilities so intrigued Morse that he worked out the philosophy of telegraphy-a philosophy that anticipated the entire scope of the telegraph.
Poverty plagued Morse and it was three years before he was able to test his ideas with the aid of a young assistant, Alfred Vail. During the winter of 1835-1836, they successfully strung 1700 feet of wire around their workshop and sent signals from one end to another. But they needed money to develop the device further. With funds from Vail's father the telegraph experiment was demonstrated publicly and a few years later, in 1843, Congress appropriated the funds to construct a telegraph from Washington to Baltimore.
Morse immediately began constructing the new telegraph system, but his project took much longer than he had predicted. He first tried unsuccessfully to bury the telegraph cable in the ground. Morse then hung new wires on poles and the first test of the telegraph came when he was only half finished. The Whig National Convention was held in Baltimore during May 1844, and Morse had the news of the presidential and vice-presidential nominees telegraphed to Washington from Annapolis-the distance the wires had reached at that time.
Although onlookers in Washington were initially skeptical of Morse's information, they acclaimed him an instant celebrity when a train arrived an hour later confirming the telegraphed messages? The line was finished only a few weeks later and the famous message "What hath God wrought" was telegraphed from Washington to Baltimore and back to Washington on May 24, 1844.
The telegraph system developed by Morse worked by simply turning electricity on and off to conform to a predetermined code. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had a sequence of on and off pulses which formed a code anyone could learn. Although Morse and his associates made no attempt to send voices through wires, they had demonstrated the important fact that in formation could be sent through wires with electricity.
At the sending end there was a simple switch to turn the electricity on and off in the predetermined way. This switch became known as a telegraphy key.
The device at the receiving end was somewhat complex. It was a pen that rode over a moving roll of paper and moved from left to right in cadence with the keying of electrical signals at the sending end. Sometimes the term "record communication" has been applied to telegraph-a result of the pen recording lines on the moving paper.
For many years Morse's invention served as the basis for all electrical communication, and by 1866 the first successful trans-Atlantic cable was completed under the direction of Cyrus Field. Morse code messages were sent by cable between America and Europe. Rapid international communication had begun. News Services The first news service set up for the purpose of providing news to newspapers was the Associated Press of New York (APNY), the forerunner of the modern Associated Press (AP). The organization, begun by newspapers in New York, used fast boats to collect news about Europe from incoming ships. Established in 1848, APNY provided news to all member newspapers. As the telegraph spread across the nation, APNY began selling its services to inland newspapers. Indeed the reach of AP extended almost as far as the growing network of telegraph lines. For years APNY had a virtual monopoly over the collection and dissemination of news in the United States.
Then when the Atlantic cable was laid APNY began exchanging news with Reuters in Britain, Havas in France, Wolff in Germany, and Stefani in Italy.
APNY became the exclusive American distributor for news from the four European news services. AP was reorganized several times in the early 1900s and eventually formed its own international news gathering organization with reporters in many countries besides the United States.
Of course the success of AP led to the formation of other press services across the nation that attempted to compete with AP. Two of the more important of the competitors were United Press Associations, which was formed in 1907, and William Randolph Hearst's International News Service (1909). In 1958 United Press Associations and International News Service merged to be come United Press International (UPI).
THE TELEPHONE
Just as the telegraph had demonstrated the ability of electrical circuits to carry coded messages, the telephone was later to demonstrate that the same electrical charges could carry voices and music. Many people in several parts of the world were interested in the new device. In Germany in 1861 Philip Reis invented the first telephone, but it was so crude that it lacked any practical value. Across the Atlantic at least two different inventors were trying to discover the secret of the talking wire. In Chicago Elisha Gray, who had been working on a device that might send sounds for Western Union, hoped to develop a talking telephone for commercial purposes. By 1874 Gray had made enough progress that Western Union decided to demonstrate his instrument publicly.
It was during that year that the instrument was first called the telephone, but it needed many improvements before it was able to carry the human voice. The improvements came and, two years later, Gray filed an application for a patent with the United States Patent Offices. Ironically, only two hours earlier another patent application had been filed by Alexander Graham Bell for a talking telephone. Bell, a Scotsman who had been educated at the University of Edinburgh, had come to the United States as a teacher for those with defective hearing. He had long been interest in inventing devices that would make better hearing possible. To this end Bell employed a young mechanic, Thomas A. Watson, for $9.00 per week who constructed the instruments Bell designed. They intended to develop a "harmonic telegraph" that could help the deaf and were not interested in devising a telephone, but their experiments led to a new talking device and a patent application on February 14, 1876. The two patent applications that were filed for the telephone by Bell and Gray led to a long series of court fights. Eventually Bell won and, with his backers, started a company, Bell Telephone, that was to become one of the most successful industrial enterprises ever launched. Besides beginning a large company engaged in carrying voices by wire, Bell's invention was later to benefit radio. In fact Marconi, the inventor of wireless-wireless was a name for radio in the early years--was to remark in 1902, "I do not know if you are aware that the message received at St. Johns was received through a telephone receiver, and in connection with the telephone the name of Bell is inseparable..." The telephone added the dimension of voice, and its invention would later benefit radio experimenters who wished to send voices through the air.
INVENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS
Much of the ground work for wireless was being laid while other experimenters were working on the telegraph and the telephone. As early as 1843 Professor Joseph Henry, working in the United States, demonstrated that metal objects could be magnetized at a distance. Later, in the 1860s and the 1870s, James Clerk-Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, developed a theory on how wireless waves might work. Maxwell presented a preliminary statement on electricity and magnetism in 1864, but his fully developed theory did not appear until 1873. Maxwell believed that wireless waves traveled through an invisible medium called ether. According to Maxwell's theory, the ether permeates everything and allows wireless waves to travel through all matter. Maxwell even produced a formula that explained how wireless waves worked. He concluded that wire less waves travel at the same speed as light because, as he saw it, light and heat are both vibrations in the ether. Although later scientists have discredited the ether theory, many of the mathematical concepts evolved by Maxwell still survived. While the notion of an ether has died, the ether as a model for discussing how radio waves travel works rather well for simple discussions of radio waves.
While Maxwell produced a theoretical base for wireless waves, Heinrich Hertz, an experimental physicist working in Germany, demonstrated the existence of wireless waves. Hertz was able to show that wireless waves could be reflected, bent, and handled like light waves. He further showed that radio waves do, in fact, have the speed of light. Hertz' experiments were performed with simple spark gap transmitters and receiving equipment. Hertz succeeded in experimentally demonstrating Maxwell's theory, and in 1888 he published "Electromagnetic Waves in Air and Their Reflection" to explain his experiments. Hertz' interest in wireless waves was that of a physicist and he had no interest in developing a vast commercial system. His experiments effectively demonstrated Maxwell's theory and, as such, would benefit another individual who saw commercial possibilities for the new medium. Although Hertz did not take his work outside the laboratory, his importance was recognized many years later when the name "Hertz" was used for the oscillations of radio waves.
Commercial Wireless Experiments While Maxwell had created a theoretical base for wireless and Hertz had demonstrated the existence of wireless waves, a twenty-one year old Italian developed wireless into a commercial success. During the summer of 1894 while vacationing in the Italian Alps, Guglielmo Marconi picked up an electrical journal and read about the experiments of Hertz. The work of Hertz so excited Marconi that he returned home to work almost continuously to develop a system of wireless that would be commercially feasible. He brought together the transmitting system used by Hertz, the coherer developed by an English scientist Edouard Branly, the telegraph key used by Morse, and a generator of radio waves called the spark gap. To this he added a new aerial which was vertical, like a telephone pole. This new antenna, combined with the other devices, made radio transmission possible.
After endless weeks of experimenting, Marconi successfully sent cricket like sounds three-quarters of a mile to a receiving station he had set up. And by turning the transmitter on and off Marconi was able to send letters and words. Just as Morse had sent code over wires, Marconi sent words through the air.
In 1896 Marconi went to England to explore the commercial possibilities of wireless." He hoped to develop wireless for communicating with ships at sea and similar land uses, but Marconi did not anticipate the possibilities of wire less as a medium for broadcasting to large numbers of people.
In England, Marconi applied for a patent, which he received on June 2, 1896, and with the engineer in charge of the British Post Office, Sir William Preece, he began testing wireless on a large scale." So impressed were English businessmen that they formed a company to develop wireless called the Wire less Telegraph and Signal Company, which was incorporated in 1897." The company was later renamed Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company (British Marconi for short). This business venture was almost instantly successful. In 1897 an American ...
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MARCONI COMES TO ENGLAND
When Marconi and his mother came to England to show the new wireless instruments to governmental officials, the customs agents were openly skeptical of the box with wires running everywhere.
Over Marconi's protests, they smashed the machine fearing that it was a bomb intended to destroy some part of London. Marconi was obligated to create a new instrument before he was able to demonstrate it to the government and business officials who would help develop the new invention.
Source: Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping, A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975), p.
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... patent was issued for the Marconi wireless system. During 1897 and 1898 Marconi, with the help of British scientist Sir Oliver Lodge, developed a method for tuning wireless. At the same time the Italian Navy began helping Marconi with his experiments." Later, during 1899, Marconi traveled to New York to transmit bulletins of the American Cup yacht races off the New Jersey coast. While there, Marconi was so certain that his invention would soon span the Atlantic and that the United States would want his wireless services, that he formed an American company to develop wireless. The company, named American Marconi Wire less Telegraph Company and often called American Marconi, began installing wireless stations in America in 1901. 25 The first station, located on Nantucket Island, was soon followed by other stations including one on Glace Bay in Canada.
But Marconi had interests beyond acquiring a contract in America; he hoped to develop a transatlantic wireless system. He achieved his goal on December 12, 1901 when in Newfoundland he and an assistant received the first transmission from England--the letter "s." An ocean had been spanned by wireless!" In 1902 Marconi equipment transmitted messages between President Roosevelt and King Edward III." Wireless continued to demonstrate its usefulness in times of disaster both when the S. S. Republic was wrecked in 1909, and later when the S. S. Titanic sank in 1912.
During these years, Marconi very nearly developed an American monopoly in wireless that continued until a United States firm bought American Marconi.
In the early 1900s Marconi outfitted both military and merchant ships with wireless by providing both the equipment and an operator on a rental basis.
Along with British Marconi and American Marconi, Marconi developed Marconi International Marine Communications in 1900 to help expand the vast international communications business that the companies were developing.
As wireless developed, many companies became interested in it and tried to develop their own wireless system to compete with the Marconi companies.
Since Marconi did not sell his equipment or the right to use his inventions, each wireless company had to develop its own patents and equipment. This meant that it was virtually impossible for any single company to have all the patents it needed to construct a sophisticated wireless system. Consequently, Marconi remained the dominant company in the wireless industry despite the fact that other companies in France, Germany, and the United States had entered the field.
During these early years the principal interest in wireless was maritime. It was apparent that wireless could benefit ships in trouble by enabling them to call nearby ships or ground points for assistance. The Titanic disaster had been particularly effective in demonstrating this value. Besides the maritime uses of wireless, some companies had shown that wireless could be used to send messages across land.
---------- The potential of wireless was developed by Marconi
and his associates and naval uses were quickly found for the new device
in both Europe and America. (Culver Pictures.)
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SARNOFF RECEIVES DISTRESS MESSAGES
When the Titanic was sinking in 1912, a young wireless operator named David Sarnoff was working for Wanamaker as a radio opera tor. Sarnoff picked up the first distress messages and sat at the equipment for seventy-two hours picking up every detail of the disaster. He was able to relay safety messages and he kept millions of people posted on what was happening on the Titanic. Young Sarnoff was to go on from this experience to become an executive in the as yet unformed Radio Corporation of America.
Four important results came from this event. First, the nation became acutely aware of the importance of wireless in saving lives in a disaster. Second, wireless became well known. Third, wireless proved its worth as an information tool, telling the nation what was happening as it occurred. Fourth, Sarnoff himself had reinforced the power of wireless, and went on to become a leader in the new industry.
Source: Gleason L. Archer, History of Radio to 1926, (New York: The American Historical Society, 1938), pp. 110, 111.
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WIRELESS INVENTORS AND THEIR COMPANIES
Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian born physicist who spent much of his working life in the United States, conducted early experiments in voice transmission.
More than 500 patents were attributed to him. The National Electric Signaling Company was formed in 1902, like other companies before it, to develop the inventions." Fessenden felt that the early developments in wireless had proceeded in the wrong direction and he hoped to rectify this. The Marconi transmitters--called spark gap transmitters-generated their radio waves by causing electricity to jump between two metal points spaced a short distance apart. When in operation, the machine created an incredible noise.
To correct this, Fessenden developed the high frequency alternator--a device that worked much like a conventional generator but created radio waves. The alternator was so successful that Fessenden was able to combine the microphone with his alternator to transmit music and speech. On Christmas Eve 1906 ship operators and amateurs alike must have been astonished to hear sounds of music and the human voice coming through the ether. Fessenden's alternator at Brant Rock, Massachusetts had been successful in transmitting sounds and proved to be an important contribution to the evolution of wireless.
In addition to the alternator, Fessenden developed some of the circuits that are still in use today. In fact Fessenden was credited with developing a detector that was a step between the old coherer and the vacuum tube of modern receivers." Yet with all of his creative force, Fessenden was only one of the inventors who contributed to the evolving system of wireless. Perhaps he could have carried his experiments further had it not been for a long series of legal conflicts over patents.
Unlike other experimenters, Ernest Alexanderson came to explore wireless as an exployee of an established firm--General Electric (GE). When Fessenden wanted an alternator he contacted GE to construct it for him.
Alexanderson, who had come to the United States from Sweden, was the engineer to whom the job of developing the new machine was assigned. Working with Fessenden's directions, Alexanderson was able to produce the instrument that was needed for the Brant Rock experiment.
But Alexanderson was dissatisfied with Fessenden's design and set out to build a better alternator. He was successful with his device and, ultimately, a 200 kilowatt alternator was installed at New Brunswick, New Jersey for the Marconi Company. This alternator, which was the most powerful in the world, generated signals that could be heard over much of the Atlantic and by field receivers in France. Alexanderson's interests did not stop at the alternator for he later worked on tuned circuits for wireless and eventually became involved in television. Unlike the inventions of Marconi, which had been noisy and were consequently limited in their usefulness for transmitting sounds, the devices made by Fessenden and Alexanderson transmitted quiet radio signals. But the alternator was bulky and subject to mechanical failure. Therefore, it was left for someone to devise a system that overcame both of these problems. A substantial step in that direction came when John Fleming, a British physicist, started his experiments.
The Audion Fleming's experiments led to the Fleming valve, a glass case surrounding two metal elements and resembling the vacuum tube still used in some modern receivers and many transmitters. Fleming applied for a patent for his invention in 1904, but his tube could only separate sounds waves from radio waves and, therefore, had only limited application." Nevertheless his tube was only the first step in an important development.
Lee de Forest took Fleming's invention farther and created the audion.
While Fleming's valve had only two elements, de Forest's audion had three and could amplify sounds in addition to other functions. De Forest, who had been born in Iowa, received a doctorate from Yale in 1896 and had worked for the Western Electric Company, but he decided to experiment independently with radio devices. "From his work Abraham White, a business friend, organized the de Forest Wireless Company in 1902 to develop the work and inventions of de Forest. However, the company had many troubles and eventually went bankrupt. De Forest began working independently after the demise of his company. Of course de Forest's 1906 invention, patented in 1907, had defects, but it was a start."
--------- Lee DeForest works on one of his radio devices. It
was DeForest who first effectively demonstrated the audion. (Culver Pictures.)
The audion, with refinements, later became known as the triode, referring to the three metal elements in the tube. The third element added by de Forest became know as a grid and could control the flow of electricity between the other two elements. In fact a very small charge of electricity on the grid could control large amounts of electric flow between the other two elements.
Although the audion needed refinement--refinements that came through the work of others--it had the potential to overcome the problems associated with the alternator and the spark gap transmitter. The audion was small, it could amplify sounds, it could create radio waves, and it could add sounds to radio waves-in short the audion provided the basis for all that was to develop in wireless in the future. It created a system that could transmit music and voices to large numbers of people in America and the world.
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Early vacuum tubes were large and unsightly, but they made possible electronic transmissions without all of the noise that accompanied spark pip transmitters. Vacuum tubes are still the core of modern radio and television transmitters. (Culver Pictures.)
AUDION'S MAIN PROBLEM
One of the most serious problems with the de Forest audion was that gasses, or air, remained in the tube. De Forest did not think of pumping air out of the tube, but two scientists working independently discovered that removing the gasses improved the tube's performance. Irving Langmuir, a physicist and chemist working for General Electric, turned his attention to the audion in 1912 and developed a vacuum tube that could handle much higher power than the audion. About the same time, Harold Arnold of AT&T achieved similar results. Thus de Forest's audion was improved by others.
Source: Orrin E. Dunlap. Jr. Radio's 100 Men of Science (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1944), p. 202.
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DeFOREST AND THE PATENT COURT
Lee de Forest always seemed to be in trouble with someone. At one point he was arrested for exploiting an unsuspecting public with stock in a wireless company. He was charged with using the mails to defraud the public. The District Attorney who prosecuted the case argued: De Forest has said in many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit the human voice across the Atlantic before many years. Based on these absurd and deliberately misleading statements of de Forest, the misguided public, your Honor, has been persuaded to purchase stock in his company, paying as high as ten and twenty dollars a share for the stock. * The District court demanded that de Forest be sent to the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Although de Forest was acquitted, some of the board of directors were found guilty of criminal intent. The judge in the case felt that the jury had not done the job and harshly lectured de Forest, telling him that he should get a common, garden variety sort of job.
*Source: Gleason L. Archer, History of Radio to 1926 (New York: The American Historical Society, 1938), p. 110.
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Unfortunately, others were also to enjoy many of the financial benefits of de Forest's invention because, out of economic necessity, he sold many of the rights to the audion to a representative of American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in the summer of 1913 for a mere $50,000. Although he did not relinquish all of the rights to the tube, de Forest lost much of his control over it.
Prior to selling the rights to his tube, de Forest had experimented with transmitting sounds from the Eiffel Tower in 1908. 36 But he did not pursue these experiments, and they did not involve the audion. However, de Forest did return to his audion to experiment with sound transmission when AT&T began experimenting with voice transmissions in 1915.
Early Wireless Laws
Regulation of wireless began in 1910 under the Wireless Ship Act, but this law made no attempt to regulate all four categories of wireless communication ...
-------- DeForest sits with the device that made his first voice
communications possible in 1906. This photograph was taken in 1907. (Culver
Pictures.)
... noted in 'Early Wireless Services.' The law required large, sea-going, passenger ships to be outfitted with wireless equipment and operators.
Enforcement of that law was left to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
Two years later (1912) two events led Congress to pass a. second law covering the regulation of wireless. During that year the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic and the success of wireless in saving some of the passengers dramatized the need for more legislation to force operators to keep their wireless equipment on constantly. Also during that year an international radio conference was held in London at which the participating countries agreed to uniform regulations for wireless communication. The United States passed the Radio Act of 1912 to fulfill its obligations under the treaty signed at the London meeting." The Radio Act of 1912 specified the role of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in handling wireless, and authorized the secretary to license ship operators. In addition, the law allocated certain frequencies for governmental use, specified the character of radio transmissions, and set up procedures for distress calls. The licensing aspect of the 1912 law permitted the secretary to license bath the equipment and the operators.
However, the law had a serious flaw. While it authorized the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to award licenses, it provided no method for him to reject licenses. Thus, the secretary could not protect radio waves from operators who would misuse them. This oversight was not corrected until 1927 when Congress formed the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). Because wireless was dominated by marine demands, the distribution of radio services was made for the benefit of ships. Since ships could accommodate antennas carrying signals in the 500 kHz range, that frequency was set aside as the international distress frequency. Consequently, when other services wished to use wireless, they were placed on channels around the frequencies devoted to maritime services. Later, when broadcasting came along, it was thought that the frequencies between 300 and 500 kHz would be the best range for broadcasting, but since that would have interfered with the 500 kHz distress frequency broadcasting was placed above the distress frequency.
Military Uses of Wireless Besides peacetime uses, wireless had distinct wartime advantages, as was demonstrated during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Wireless was used by the British Navy for military purposes while journalists from the London Times were using wireless to send information back to their newspaper. 38 During the same years the United States Navy was exploring the use of wireless equipment on its own, but it was not until World War I that military wireless was to be fully demonstrated to the American people. So great was the government's interest in military wireless that the day following the declaration of war in April 1917, President Wilson ordered the Navy to take control of all wireless stations in the United States. Throughout the war, control over wire less remained with the federal government.
The military, particularly the navy, was so delighted with the effectiveness of wireless that it was instrumental in having the Alexander Bill introduced into Congress in 1918. This bill would have given the government monopoly control over wireless had it not failed because of massive lobbying. The National Wire less Association was an important part of the lobby opposing the bill. Because of lobby pressure the bill was tabled in January 1919. 4. Although the Alexander Bill failed, it was not until February 1920 that the government relinquished its control over wireless.'" The defeat of the Alexander Bill foreshadowed the future of wireless. Had the bill passed, radio in the United States might have developed in a way much like radio in England. There, the government retains control over much of radio, including broadcasting by radio and television, although in recent years the English government has given up some of this control. But since the Alexander Bill was defeated, it opened the way for private ownership of radio transmitters. Consequently, the first broadcast stations were privately owned by such companies as Westinghouse and AT&T. After the defeat of the Alexander Bill the government was never able to reassert its control over wire less, and broadcasting developed as a privately owned, advertiser supported system. The beginnings of broadcasting were rooted in the massive American company that bought out the American Marconi Company.
AN AMERICAN RADIO CORPORATION IS FORMED
As the United States emerged from World War 1, American Marconi was the dominant wireless company in the United States. Over the years American Marconi had constructed some fifty-three coastal stations for communicating with Marconi equipment on board some 370 sea-going ships and 170 coastal vessels. Although Marconi had near monopoly control, it lacked two important elements. First, it did not have the patent for the alternator which was held by GE. Second, American Marconi was not an American owned company and the United States Navy had expressed grave concern over a foreign company controlling wireless, which was so important to any naval effort.
Since Congress had effectively blocked a governmental takeover of wire less, the Navy suggests that an American owned company be established to control wireless manufacture and marketing in the nation. The motivation to create an American owned company became particularly desirable when it was heard that American Macroni had approached GE about buying rights to the Alexanderson Alternator during March 1919. 43 Under the suggestion of Admiral Bullard, the Naval officer who encouraged the formation of an American Company, Owen D. Young, a young corporate attorney at GE, began the necessary planning and negotiation that led to the creation of a fully American owned company-to be named Radio Corporation of American (RCA). Young's idea was to form a monopoly that would control wireless in the United States by using the patents that GE held, purchasing American Marconi, and by writing cross licensing agreements with other United States companies that had important patents. The cross licensing agreements were commitments on the part of each company to share the use of its patents among all of the RCA partners. Thus each company would have ac cess to enough patents to build the radio equipment authorized to it by the agreement.
The first step was purchasing American Marconi. Members of the Marconi company realized that they were in a weak position when both government and private industry wanted wireless controlled by an American company. Consequently, American Marconi stockholders agreed to sell their stock to GE pro vided British Marconi would approve the sale. That approval followed, and in 1919 American Marconi changed hands and RCA became the owner of properties and patents held by American Marconi. RCA, of course was largely owned by GE.
But the holdings of RCA were inadequate to create the monopoly envisioned by Young. To make the company complete he negotiated agreements with AT&T, Westinghouse, and their affiliates. Including the affiliates the new consortium consisted not only of GE, Westinghouse, RCA, and AT&T, but of Western Electric, United Fruit Company, Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company, and International Radio Telephone Company as well." The new group of corporate partners brought together the patents for the alternator, the audion, and patents for several important circuits in addition to the shore equipment held by the defunct American Marconi. In negotiating the agreement each of the partners was given the right to engage in certain aspects of the newly developing industry. Westinghouse, GE, and RCA (called the radio group) were authorized to manufacture and sell receivers while AT&T and Western Electric, (called the telephone group) retained the right to control telephonic communication by both wire and wireless and to manufacture transmitters. The necessary cross licensing agreements to create this consortium were completed during the years 1919-1921. 46 But the RCA consortium was not without flaw. For example, its monopoly status angered many Americans and the nature of the cross licensing agreements displeased some of the RCA partners. As we shall see later, much was to change.
----- This man, Owen D. Young, created RCA. (Culver Pictures.)
The Shift from Radiotelegraphy to Radio Telephony The early years of wireless had been dominated by maritime communications using code transmissions, but with the de Forest voice and music transmissions from the Eiffel Tower in 1908 and the Fessenden Brant Rock experiments in 1906 the advent of regular voice transmissions was foreshadowed. In the Eiffel Tower experiments de Forest had used phonograph records, but only two years later de Forest transmitted a program from the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City with Enrico Caruso singing. That broadcast may have been heard by only fifty listeners composed of ship operators and amateurs.'" The experiments of de Forest and Fessenden had been only that--experiments. Neither man attempted to set up regular broadcasts or cultivate an audience for his station. Fessenden's experiments had been with his alternator and de Forest's had been with a spark gap transmitter that created considerable static.
De Forest continued to contribute to the development of voice wireless with his 1916 experiments, using the audion to generate radio waves. His experiments continued until the beginning of World War I when all non-government stations were shut down, but he was successful in transmitting music from phonograph records using the audion.
Another invention, which was to prove invaluable to the development of wireless, was the heterodyne circuit invented by Fessenden in 1905." Al though Fessenden lacked some of the components to perfect his device, he was able to construct a circuit that would make a highly sensitive receiver when manufactured with the triode vacuum tube.
Another scientist, Edwin Armstrong, wrote about the heterodyne circuit in 1916 and further paved the way for the modern receiver. His new circuit innovation was called the superheterodyne and was first tested experimentally in 1918. The invention of the superheterodyne circuit along with improvements in the triode led directly to the rapid development of broadcasting. The superheterodyne circuit made radios so sensitive that outside antennas, which had been used up to that time, were no longer needed. Thus the triode and the superheterodyne provided the basis for a sensitive, inexpensive receiver. In addition, the triode was essential to the construction of reliable voice transmitters.
While development of triodes and related devices continued, Alexanderson was at work on the alternator. His alternator, which was like a giant electric mo tor with a large armature spinning inside some coils and magnets used a wooden armature, but Alexanderson believed that an iron armature would solve some of the problems Fessenden had experienced. The armature was a device that rotated inside the alternator to create the high radio frequencies that resulted from the alternator. Using his method, Alexanderson created a high frequency alternator that was tested in 1907. Alexanderson's alternator was so much better than the Fessenden alternator that Fessenden expressed an interest in it. In the process of working on the alternator Alexanderson developed a method of coupling a microphone to the alternator which gave GE a strong position in later patent negotiations. Although the alternator provided the basis for voice transmission, the device was so bulky that it was replaced with the triode circuit.
All of these circuits and tubes provided the technical basis for radio broadcasting, but an individual was needed to make wireless broadcasting a reality. That imaginative individual was David Sarnoff-the young man who had received communications from the sinking Titanic.
BROADCASTING BECOMES A REALITY
During the early years of wireless, most companies saw radio as a service to assist ships and as a means of communication between businesses on land. Few thought of the new medium as a vast entertainment network serving millions of people throughout the world. The experiments of de Forest anticipated the day when voice broadcasting would become popular, but it was for another person, outside of science, to urge industrial leaders to consider broadcasting.
--------- From receiving distress messages about the sinking
Titanic, David Sarnoff went on to become an important part of RCA and
its movement towards network broadcasting. (Culver Pictures.)
In 1916 David Sarnoff wrote a note to the general manager of American Marconi in which he proposed a radio music box that would become just as much a household appliance as the record player or the piano. Sarnoff suggested that radio stations with a range of twenty-five to fifty miles could be equipped to play music, which could then be picked up at home by those interested in the new service. Sarnoffs memo suggested that the radio music box would be highly profitable-in fact Sarnoff estimated that the number of sets sold would yield a revenue of about $75 million. 52 Thus the sale of radio sets might support the new venture.
While Sarnoff did not anticipate the possibilities of selling commercials over the air, he did see broadcasting-a term he did not use-as a commercially viable enterprise. The programming would consist of public service including concerts, lectures, and recitals. Sarnoffs memo to Edward J. Nally apparently received no action while the company remained American Marconi-indeed it was several years before the first regular broadcasts were to commence. A world war would intervene between Sarnoff s note and the first broadcast of KDKA. Some technical improvements helped bring about the development of broadcasting as envisioned by Sarnoff. Besides those mentioned earlier, A. N. Goldsmith developed his "uncontrolled” receiver that made it easier for the inexperienced to operate the radio. Goldsmith's receiver had only one knob for tuning and one for volume compared to the many knobs of earlier sets, making the radio so simple to operate that anyone could enjoy it without special training. Sarnoff could now urge his company to enter the broadcasting field confident that all Americans were potential purchasers of the simplified radio equipment.
KDKA Experiments with Broadcasting Like other companies interested in radio, Westinghouse had its own engineers and scientists working on the problems of the new medium. Two of these people were Frank Conrad and his friend D. G. Little. Little had been an amateur wireless operator before his association with Westinghouse, and Conrad had become interested in wireless prior to World War I; together they began experimenting with wireless under the license 8XK in April 1920. Conrad wished to develop a successful voice transmitter and, during 1920, experimented with playing records into the microphone of his test transmitter, located in East Pittsburgh. Amateurs in the area became steady listeners to Conrad's experiments and began requesting favorite music selections." There were so many requests that Conrad began scheduling specific hours each week when he would be on the air.
Then in October 1920, the station was relicensed as KDKA and to inaugurate the new station Conrad and executives of Westinghouse decided to air election returns from the Harding-Cox election on November 2, 1920. This date is often cited as the beginning of scheduled radio broadcasting by a station licensed by the federal governments' The election returns carried over KDKA were heard at great distances from East Pittsburgh because there were no other stations on the same channel to interfere with the station. Consequently, KDKA received listener reports from as far as ships off the coast of Virginia. 58 Conrad's experiments had led to music broadcasting, but his supply of records was quickly depleted. The Hamilton Music Store in Willdnsburgh, Pennsylvania, seeing an opportunity to promote itself, offered free records to the station as long as Conrad and his associates would announce that the records could be obtained from the music store-this was undoubtedly the first broadcast tradeout. A tradeout is the exchange of broadcast time for a service or product the station wants.
As an early station, KDKA was the first broadcaster of many events. Some of the firsts of KDKA include the first church service, the first remote broadcast, the first play-by-play baseball and football games, the first boxing match, the first heavyweight championship, and the first world series. KDKA also carried farm services and a barn dance.
Sports formed an important part of KDKA's early broadcasts. The fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier for the heavyweight championship was broadcast on July 2, 1921. In August the station carried the Davis Cup Tennis Matches. And on August 5 the station carried play-by-play coverage of a baseball game from Forbes Field. Of course music remained the station's mainstay, but KDKA made many other important contributions to the evolution of broadcasting.
While KDKA may have the honor of being the first radio broadcasting station, it was not long until other companies such as RCA and GE, as well as newspapers, went into the radio broadcasting business. As Figure 2-1 shows in little over one year a number of new stations went on the air. That number continued to grow through the early years of the 1920s until over 570 stations were on the air at the end of 1925.
The growth of on-the-air radio stations created an assortment of problems for the owners, the most difficult problem being interference. Interference results when two stations are broadcasting on the same or nearly the same frequency and are geographically close enough that the two signals are picked up by a listener's receiver. The listener in such a situation may hear the sounds of the two stations jumbled together or may hear squeals resulting from the two signals competing with each other. Interference was eventually to become so major a problem that the federal government would have to intervene and allot bands of frequencies to stations. In the meantime great changes were occurring for large corporations.
Figure 2-1 Broadcast Stations-1920--1930. Source: Lawrence W. Lichty
and Malachi C. Topping, A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television
(New York: Hastings House, 1975), p. 148.
THE COMING OF TOLL BROADCASTING
------ Early broadcasting stations looked much different from
their modern counterparts, hut they sent out signals that were eagerly
sought by the public. Marconi and E. W. Rice, both early pioneers in
radio, stand before a G. E. station in 1922. (Culver Pictures.)
Sarnoffs 1916 memorandum seemed to suggest that wireless should be sup ported by those who wished to sell receivers. Although this was not specifically stated, it was a popular philosophy in that stations were owned by manufacturers of wireless receivers and by stores that sold them and other items. In Chicago, Sears Roebuck and Company owned WLS (World's Largest Store) and a newspaper owned WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper). This seemed to be a perfectly plausable method for supporting the new medium, but time was to show that the cost of radio was so high that it needed other forms of support.
One early writer proposed that broadcasting be supported by the government through a tax on receivers, but others were quick to point out what they thought were insurmountable problems.'" The biggest problem appeared to be the formation of a large governmental agency to collect the tax. While others were trying to work out a system, one broadcasting company was applying itself to resolving the problem of economics.
AT&T planned to establish two stations in the New York City area so that it could sell advertising on both. Each station was supposed to go on the air with the capability of broadcasting high quality sounds for hire. However, the first station WBAY, which was licensed by the Department of Commerce in 1922, had so many technical problems that it operated only a short while. 63 The second station WEAF, licensed on June 1, 1922, was more successful when it began broadcasting a short time after WBAY went off the air. By August twenty-eighth WEAF had broadcast its first commercial messages for a land development company in the New York area called the Queensboro Corporation. 65 After the successful airing of messages for Queensboro, others began buying time on WEAF. While other companies had been trying to decide how broadcasting should be supported, WEAF had applied a common method of resolving economic needs--sell what you have to others who might want to buy.
By its choice to start a toll station AT&T unknowingly established the pat tern that broadcasting in the United States was to follow. AT&T called their station a toll station because they charged customers a fee for broadcasting commercial messages over the station. Clients were charged a fee or toll based on the number of minutes their commercial message was on the air. What these early business people did not realize was that, because of their sine qua non status, advertisers would eventually have great control over radio and television programming. They were establishing a pattern that would lead to frequent interruptions during all forms of programming so that the sponsors could try to influence viewers and listeners to buy their products.
While not everyone agreed with the new method for supporting broadcasting, it was natural that advertising should develop as the economic base of broadcasting. In 1919 Congress had refused to assume control over radio or provide for the support of the medium, and again in 1922 Congress exhibited an unwillingness to get involved in the new medium. Thus government left the problem of devising a method for supporting radio to the private sector.
AT&T, based on its own previous experience, found toll broadcasting the best solution. For many years AT&T had operated telephone companies (the various Bell companies) on a subscription or toll basis and had supported its long distance telephone calls on a per minute rental. It seemed logical to apply the same philosophy to broadcasting. Therefore, AT&T hoped to rent the different time periods to various sponsors on a per minute basis. AT&T did not intend that WEAF should form the model for all later broadcasting, but with no better plan available and with the public demanding more and more radio programming, sponsored radio seemed the best solution to a growing problem. Two things made the WEAF plan immediately attractive to other broadcasters: (1) when AT&T built WEAF, it used the best possible equipment, making the station the envy of other broadcasters: (2) advertising worked-money, at least some money, was flowing into the station-a claim that other stations were unable to make."
Undoubtedly, advertising did not satisfy everyone and AT&T-along with others who eventually adopted advertising-subjected its advertising to strict standards so as not to offend anyone. For example, early advertisers were not permitted to give prices of products over the air and many personal products could not be promoted. A speech made by President Herbert Hoover in 1924 indicated a real distrust of advertising: I believe that the quickest way to kill broadcasting would be to use it for direct advertising. The reader of the newspaper has an option whether he will read an ad or not, but if a speech by the President is to be used as the meat in a sandwich of two patent medicine advertisements there will be no radio left. The article went on to say that when advertising became the rule only an act of Congress or another Flood could stop it.
NETWORKING BEGINS
Networking, or the connecting of many stations into a chain for simultaneous broadcasting of a program, was the next step in WEAF's development. From AT&T's point of view this seemed a logical step since the potential for renting AT&T programs to WEAF could increase income. Secondly, AT&T had the necessary long distance telephone wires to make the connections between WEAF and affiliated stations. In addition, AT&T was authorized by the RCA agreement to build and operate stations, and AT&T saw networking as merely an extension of this agreement.
On the other hand, networking appealed to stations for several reasons. All stations had large amounts of time and networking provided inexpensive, high quality programming. It was attractive for a station to say it was carrying an important performer live from New York. Also, stations wanted networks because they could carry significant events at the moment they occurred.
AT&T's first network was a two-station hookup between WEAF and WNAC, a Boston station owned by John Shepard III, using telephone lines owned by AT&T. The program consisted of a saxophone solo and a few words." Although this first network broadcast occurred on January 4, 1923, the second network program was not aired until June 7 of the same year." The second program was taken by four stations WEAF, WCY in Schenectady, KDKA in Pittsburgh, and KYW in Chicago. As networks developed, national advertisers became interested because they were able to advertise on many stations at once for a cost below that of buying time on all of the stations separately. A single call between an advertising agency and a network would confirm many stations quickly.
Because of the network's popularity with stations and advertisers, it is not surprising that a second network was started. The new network was set up by RCA, which bought partial, and then full, control of station WJZ in New York City in 1923 and connected it with WGY, Schenectady, New York. WJZ was originally located in Newark, but it was quickly moved to New York City to be closer to sources of talent.
Both of the early networks were started by partners in the RCA consortium.
WEAF and its network were owned by the telephone group, while the second network, headed by WJZ, was owned by the radio group. But AT&T was not at all happy with this arrangement because the company felt that, according to the cross licensing agreement, only AT&T was authorized to engage in broadcasting, and the other partners were to manufacture radio sets.
Because of its resentment toward RCA, AT&T refused to rent long distance lines to WJZ when it began network broadcasting in 1923. These were special telephone lines that had the capability of carrying radio programs over great distances while preserving the necessary sound quality. Consequently, the hookup between WJZ and WGY in Schenectady--an RCA hookup--was made with Western Union wires which were not equipped to carry high quality sounds. Although the connections were inferior, RCA was in the network business. 74 WEAF's network developed into a twenty-two station hookup and by October 1924 included stations as far away as KPO in San Francisco, KGW in Portland, and WGN in Chicago. By 1926 the network was deriving $750,000 annually from its sales to advertisers. Thus, AT&T had developed both a vigorous station and a network from its idea of selling advertising to sponsors.
RCA's network did not grow as rapidly as did AT&T's because of the unwillingness of the telephone company to rent telephone lines for the interconnections that were necessary to make the network work. But by late 1925, the WJZ network had fourteen stations in its hookup. The next year, 1926, major changes which would affect broadcasting occurred in the relationship of AT&T and the other partners in the RCA consortium. That year, AT&T withdrew from the RCA organization. There was a great deal of public resentment against the radio monopoly, which was damaging AT&T's image and, of course, could injure its telephone business. The government was considering taking antitrust action against RCA and its partners. Disagreements between AT&T and the radio group strengthened AT&T's desire to withdraw from RCA and from broadcasting. AT&T sold WEAF and its network to an RCA subsidiary for $1 million on November 1, 1926. 76 This new subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), joined the existing network held by RCA with the new net work and radio station acquired from AT&T. Thus, the new NBC became the owner of two networks that eventually became known as NBC's Red and Blue networks. NBC was owned 50% by RCA, 30% by GE, and 20% by Westinghouse." From its beginning, NBC was in a very good position because of the two networks it owned and the many stations affiliated with each. As part of the agreement revising the arrangement between AT&T and the radio group, AT&T agreed not to engage in broadcasting or networking for seven years and
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Announcing the National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
National radio broadcasting with better programs permanently assured by this important action of the Radio Corporation of America in the interest of the listening public
----------------------------
NBC agreed to use AT&T lines to connect its stations where they were avail able.
About the time NBC was being created, events that would lead to a second national network--Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)--were in progress. A young man who had once been a violinist but had turned to artist management was concerned about how fair large broadcasters would be in their payments to artists. Young Arthur Judson approached David Sarnoff with a proposal in which Judson would provide talent to NBC once it was operating. In return Judson would collect fees from NBC and distribute payments to the artists.
Sarnoff seemed to like the plan; however when NBC was working, Sarnoff failed to contact Judson.
Judson and his new associate, George A. Coats, went to visit Sarnoff to see what he planned to do about Judson's proposal. "Nothing," said Sarnoff. "Then we will organize our own network," declared Judson. Sarnoff reportedly laughed at the proposal. Judson and Coats found others willing to cooperate in their venture. Then they found radio stations willing to affiliate with the new network--a network that promised ten hours of programming and $500 per week to each station that would sign.
United Independent Broadcasters, as the new network was called, had financial difficulties from the very start. It couldn't interest enough sponsors to pay stations their fees or artists their contracts. Then, Columbia Phonograph Record Company brought some of its funds to the new venture on the condition that the network be called Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System. Finally, the network went on the air September 18, 1927.
From the first broadcast the new network had difficulties. One of the early broadcasts was the Deems Taylor-Edna St. Vincent Millay opera The King's Henchman. To give the program status the opera featured Metropolitan Opera artists. But the performance was marred by technical problems. Week after week the network was unable to pay line charges to AT&T or salary to its employees. Columbia Phonograph Records backed out and the network was renamed Columbia Broadcasting System. Other backers invested money, but it seemed that nothing would help.
At the network's darkest moment William S. Paley, the son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer, was persuaded to become president of the young network. Paley brought large sums of money and, more importantly, management skills that turned the network into a money-making operation. In September of 1928 Paley became 50.3 percent owner of the new network.
Both NBC and CBS were to develop into national networks with many radio affiliates. Later, when television developed, both organizations added television and offered programs to television stations. ABC was formed in the early 1940s when a Supreme Court decision forced NBC to sell one of its networks.
NBC sold the Blue network to Edward Noble, who renamed it American Broadcasting Company. Like its sister networks, ABC added a television service in the 1950s. The fourth radio network, Mutual Broadcasting Company, was formed during the 1930s as a loose cooperative of stations that banded together to sell radio time.
Wireless Regulation is Demanded
Before broadcasting, there was little need to have a systematic law allowing the government to regulate wireless or to take away licenses. There simply were not enough stations on the air to require close governmental regulation. But as broadcasting became popular, more and more people wanted to go on the air as broadcasters or amateurs. With the growing popularity of the new medium, interference between stations became a real problem.
Yet with all of the problems, government had only two laws specifically written to guide it in regulating radio. The Wireless Ship Act of 1910 required that only certain ships carry wireless equipment. The Radio Act of 1912 gave the government very little additional authority. These two laws remained the only wireless laws created by Congress until 1927.
Each of these laws had inadequacies that were exposed by the courts in the Intercity Company Case (1921) in which the Department of Commerce was in formed that it could not exceed the very narrow limits of the law. 82 This apparently did not give the Secretary of Commerce the right to deny a license.
Thus while the Secretary could award licenses, the department was not free to revoke them. Although the case was appealed, the decision was not reversed.
---------------
MCPHERSON'S RELIGION
The problems of radio regulation faced by Secretary Hoover were often taxing. One incident involved an extremely popular evangelist of the 1920's, Aimee Semple McPherson, who operated a station from her temple in Los Angeles. She transmitted on any frequency that seemed convenient, often wandering up and down the radio band. An engineer of Hoover's took note of her behavior and Hoover ordered that her station be closed. McPherson immediately sent a telegram to Hoover with the following message:
PLEASE ORDER YOUR MINONS OF SATAN TO LEAVE MY STATION ALONE. YOU CANNOT EXPECT THE ALMIGHTY TO ABIDE BY YOUR WAVELENGTH NONSENSE. WHEN I ORDER MY PRAYERS TO HIM, I MUST FIT INTO HIS WAVE RECEPTION. OPEN THIS STATION AT ONCE.
Hoover persuaded McPherson to employ an engineer before reopening the station.
Source: Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 180.
---------------------
Secretary Hoover's authority was further limited in 1926 when a court in Chicago decided in the Zenith Radio decision that he had no authority to create any regulations regarding wireless. 83 As a result of these two decisions radio was left with no structure for handling stations, which interfered with other stations.
During the years between 1922 and 1926 while the courts were exploring the ramifications of the 1910 and 1912 laws, Congress was considering dozens of bills that might lead to a new law to regulate radio. But each year passed without new legislation. In an attempt to stimulate Congress to action, Secretary Hoover called national radio conferences each year between 1922 and 1925. These conferences were attended by representatives of government, industry, education, as well as interested amateurs.
Since each interest group had its own concerns, the first radio conference was somewhat divisive. It did, however, recommend that Congress regulate the technical aspects of radio. Later conferees produced recommendations for Congress regarding copyright and monopoly in radio. Each year these recommendations were forwarded to Congress for action, making it clear that the industry wanted some governmental regulation.
Not until the historic Zenith decision of 1926 did Congress decide to act. Al though interference had been a problem before 1926, after the Zenith decision bedlam reigned and Congress was forced to act. Working from suggestions gleaned from the radio conferences and from previous bills, Congress came up with a new law that was approved by the House of Representatives on January 27, 1927 and the Senate on February 18, 1927. President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill into law on February 23, 1927. 85 The newly created Federal Radio Commission (FRC) came into being on the basis of an important concept. To provide a reason for creating a new agency, Congress reasoned that the public owned the radio waves. This arises from the notion that all people in the United States (according to the Constitution) have a right to enjoy their share of the nation's resources. Thus, everyone has the right to drive down roads, travel on waterways, and use oil. But when a resource is limited-as is the case with radio-then this public ownership authorizes Congress to step in and regulate in the interest of all citizens. Radio was (and still is) a limited resource because it is impossible for everyone to have their own radio station without creating chaos. So Congress passed a law authorizing a commission (FRC) to regulate radio in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity." By passing the Radio Act of 1927, Congress was giving the government ownership of the radio waves so that it could parcel out the different channels to private citizens. These private citizens, it was expected, would broadcast pro grams.
The FRC had many of the recommendations from the four radio conferences incorporated into its legislation. The FRC was authorized to regulate the technical aspects of radio including setting the power a station may use, the number of hours that station may be on the air, and the location of the station. In addition the new agency had the right to write its own regulations, it ....
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RCA BROADCASTS SPORTS ... Early broadcasters often had problems. RCA and its new General Manager David Sarnoff-the young man who had received signals from the sinking Titanic-saw his company moving into broadcasting quickly. He proposed setting up a station in New Jersey to broadcast the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier fight scheduled for July 2, 1921 in Jersey City. Others in the company agreed, but RCA lacked a transmitter. Scouting around, Sarnoff found that GE had a new transmitter that was not yet delivered to a customer.
Sarnoff convinced GE to loan him the transmitter just long enough to air the fight, and moved it into an experimental yard owned by the Lackawanna Railroad. Railroad technicians strung antenna wires around the yard for Sarnoff, and provided a metal shack for the manager to use during the fights, but failed to tell Sarnoff that the shack was used by porters of the railroad. At that time all of the porters were black and no white person had ever entered the shack.
The porters threatened the transmitter with violence and Sarnoff found himself guarding the equipment day and night with firearms.
By the day of the fight the transmitter had been tested and was operating properly. Some of Sarnoffs associates stayed at the transmitter while others went to see the fight that was to be held outside. That August day rain and clouds kept would-be broad casters at the sports arena wet and uncomfortable while, in the transmitter shack, the technician was being blinded by the bright glow of the vacuum tubes. In spite of the weather a blow by blow ac count reached the transmitter, but all was not well. The transmitter had not been intended for continuous operation and as the fight got hotter so did the transmitter. About three-quarters through the fight one tube exploded and the operator grabbed the broken base with his bare hands replacing it with a new one. The new tube got the transmitter through the fight, but sent the operator to the hospital with burned hands. The troubles were not yet over. Almost immediately after the fight the transmitter seemed to disintegrate into a molten mass of glass and wire. RCA was now in the broadcasting business with one borrowed, demolished transmitter, one operator with a burned hand and slightly blinded eyes, and a wet sportscaster. Undaunted, RCA set up new facilities in Roselle Park, New Jersey.
Source: Gleason L. Archer, History of Radio of 1926, (New York: The American Historical Society, 1938), pp. 212-215.
------------------------
... could take stations off the air, and it could modify licenses. To make sure Congress did not overlook anything important the FRC was provided with authority to regulate in other areas such as the public interest, convenience, or necessity might require.
When the FRC was initially formed, Congress gave it total control over radio for only one year. At the end of the year the administrative power of the FRC was to revert to the Secretary of Commerce, however the FRC was to receive applications for licenses and for renewals or modifications of licenses.
Apparently, Congress felt that the need for a strong FRC would vanish when the chaos on the radio waves was cleared up.
As a new commission, the FRC immediately set out to remove the interference resulting from stations operating on the same or adjacent frequencies and audiences quickly noticed a change for the better. It became possible to hear stations quite clearly and broadcasters and listeners alike were pleased with the success the FRC was having in handling technical matters.
In forming the FRC, the government accepted the idea that it had the right to hold radio frequencies for the public. There was no attempt on the part of the government to decide if some other method for regulating radio might be devised, however. One possibility might be for the government to sell radio channels to the highest bidders and to regulate them in much the same way that other property is now regulated. With this approach, private citizens, not the government, would own radio vernment might step in only to protect citizens from excesses.
Of course, there is the other extreme--government might have taken upon itself the task of operating all of the radio stations and only let people come in to broadcast their views. Between these two extremes, one might devise dozens of alternatives. But in the United States, the people, through their government, own the radio waves, and the government loans the use of these frequencies to individuals.
NOTES
1. Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr., Radio's 100 Men of Science (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Li braries Press, 1944), p. 35.
2. Ibid., p. 39.
3. Gleason L. Archer, History of Radio to 1926 (New York: The American Historical Society, 1938), p. 28.
4. Ibid., pp. 28, 29.
5. Ibid., p. 28.
6. Ibid., p. 42.
7. Edwin Emery, The Press and America (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972), p. 330.
8. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 64.
9. Archer, op. cit., pp. 47-49.
10. Ibid., p. 47.
11. Ibid., p. 49; Dunlap, op. cit., p. 85. There is some disagreement on the exact date of the invention of the telephone in that Archer argues for February 14 or 29, 1876 while Dunlap places the date at March 10, 1876. Both authors take note of the February date.
12. Speech at a dinner of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, January 13, 1902 quoted in Dunlap, op. cit., p. 86.
13. Ibid., p. 50. 14. Ibid., p. 66.
15. Ibid.
16. Archer, op. cit., p. 54.
17. Elliot N. Sivowitch, -A Technological Survey of Broadcasting's Prehistory, 1876 1920," Journal of Broadcasting, Vol. XV, No. 1 (Winter 1970-71), pp. 1-20.*
18. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 172.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. "Wireless Signals Across the Ocean," New York Times (December 15, 1901), pp. 1, 2.*
22. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 172.
23. Archer, op. cit., p. 57.
24. "Wireless Signals Across the Ocean," op. cit., pp. 1, 2.
25. Thorn Mayes, "History of the American Marconi Company,'' The Old Timer's Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1972), p. 11.*
26. "Wireless Signals Across the Ocean," op. cit., p. 1.
27. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 174.
28. Ibid, p. 138.
29. Sivowitch, op. cit.
30. Ibid.
31. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 190. 32. Ibid., p. 93.
33. Sivowitch, op. cit.
34. Dunlap, op. cit., p. 166.
35. Ibid., p. 202.
36. Ibid., p. 98.
37. Federal Communications Commission, "Information Bulletin 14-G" (November 1975), p. 1, 2.
38. Archer, op. cit., pp. 74-75.
39. Ibid., p. 137.
40. Ibid., pp. 157, 158.
41. Ibid., p. 158.
42. Mayes, op. cit., p. 11.
43. Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 49.
44. Archer, op. cit., pp. 178-180. 45. Ibid., pp. 178-189, 194, 195.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid., pp. 97, 98.
48. Ibid., p. 89.
49. Edwin H. Armstrong, -The Story of the Super-heterodyne, - Radio Broadcast, (July 1924), p. 198.*
50. Archer, op. cit., p. 116.
51. Dunlap, op. cit., pp. 190-192.
52. Archer, op. cit., pp. 112, 113; Sivowitch, op. cit., pp. 19, 20 places the date of the memo as Sept. 30, 1918.
53. Dunlap, op. cit., pp. 224-226.
54. -History of Broadcasting and KDKA Radio, - Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, undated news release, p. 1.* 55. Ibid.
56. Ibid., p. 2.
57. It should be noted that other stations claim the same honor. WWJ owned by the Detroit News claims to have broadcasted as early as August 31, 1920 with the call letters 8 MK and WBL (see Archer pp. 207, 208). Other stations that claim early broadcasts include KQW in San Jose, California in 1909; 2 ZK in New Rochelle, New York in 1916; and WHA in Madison, Wisconsin. In any event KDKA is, ac cording to Department of Commerce records, the oldest station with appropriate federal license to engage in airing programs for the general public on a regularly scheduled basis.
58. -History of Broadcasting and KDKA Radio, - op. cit., pp. 2-5.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. H. D. Kellogg, Jr. -Who Is to Pay for Broadcasting-and How?- Radio Broadcast (March 1925), pp. 863-866.* 62. Ibid., p. 866.
63. Archer, op. cit., p. 264
64. FCC, -Early History of Network Broadcasting (1923-1926) and the National Broadcasting Company, - Report on Chain Broadcasting (Commission Order No. 37, Docket 5060, May 1941), pp. 5-20.*
65. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping, American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975), pp. 195-196.
66. Ibid., pp. 196, 197.
67. Archer, op. cit., pp. 265, 266.
68. Lichty, op. cit.
69. Ibid., p. 203.
70. Ibid., pp. 187, 286.
71. FCC, -Early History of Network Broadcasting (1923-1926) and the National Broadcasting Company, - op. cit.
72. Ibid., pp. 5, 6.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid.
75. Archer, op. cit., p. 346.
76. FCC, "Early History," op. cit., pp. 5-10.
77. Ibid.
78. FCC, -The Columbia Broadcasting System, - Report on Chain Broadcasting (Com mission Order No. 37, Docket 5060, May 1941), pp. 21, 22.*.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid.
81. John Wallace, "What We Thought of the First Columbia Broadcasting Program," Radio Broadcast, (December 1927), pp. 140,141.
82. Marvin R. Bensman, "Regulation of Broadcasting by the Department of Commerce, 1921-1927, - p. 549.
*In the Intercity Company case, the Department of Commerce refused a commercial radio license to a company on the grounds that unacceptable interference would occur. However, the courts directed Hoover to award the license, saying that Hoover should use only the authority granted the department in the statute. The courts were saying that Hoover and the Department of Commerce could not exceed the specific language of the two radio laws that had been enacted in 1910 and 1912.
83. Ibid., p. 554.
In the Zenith Radio Corporation case, the court told the Department of Commerce that it could not establish any regulations. This in effect prevented Hoover from even assigning a channel or power to a station. Thus while Hoover had been assigning power and frequency to stations after the Intercity case, now all he could do was grant a license. What the licensee did with that license after it got the authorization was up to the license holder.
84. Edward F. Sarno, Jr., The National Radio Conferences, - Journal of Broadcasting, Vol. XIII, No.2 (Spring 1969), pp. 189-202.
85. Bensman, op. cit., p. 547.
*Citations are printed in Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping, American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975).