Roaring Twenties

The First Commercial Radio Station: KDKA and Beyond

For most of a century, KDKA Pittsburgh has been called “the first commercial radio station” — a title that has been repeated in books, encyclopedias, and the station’s own promotional material. The claim is partly correct, partly contestable, and partly a work of Westinghouse’s public relations. The full story of how KDKA got the title, who else was vying for it, and what “first” actually means is the subject of this page. For the underlying technology, For the social impact on the American home,

The “First Station” Question

The question of which was the first commercial radio station depends on what you mean by “first.” A number of stations could make plausible claims:

The KDKA claim rests on its being the first to provide regularly scheduled commercial broadcasting service to the general public with a programming format resembling what we would now call a “radio station.” The earlier stations were experimental, low-power, or short-lived. KDKA had a regular schedule, a license, a commercial sponsor, and a clear public service mission.

The Westinghouse Background

KDKA was the creation of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, then one of the largest electrical manufacturers in the United States. Westinghouse’s vice-president Harry P. Davis championed the move into broadcasting as a way to drive sales of radio receivers that Westinghouse was beginning to manufacture.

The immediate antecedent of KDKA was an experimental station operated by Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse engineer. Beginning in 1919, Conrad operated the experimental station 8XK from his home, broadcasting phonograph records (he had none of his own, so he borrowed them) and, eventually, live music and sports results. Conrad’s transmissions were heard by local amateurs, who began asking for more programming. Westinghouse saw the opportunity: a commercial station broadcasting regular programming could drive demand for receivers.

The company applied for a license, and on October 27, 1920, the Department of Commerce issued a license for station KDKA (“K” stations were west of the Mississippi, “W” stations east; the assignment here was before the system was fully standardized, so KDKA retains its “K” prefix). The new station was housed on the rooftop of the Westinghouse plant in the Grant Building in downtown Pittsburgh, with a 100-watt transmitter and a small staff.

The Election Night Broadcast: November 2, 1920

The first scheduled KDKA broadcast was the Harding-Cox presidential election returns on the evening of Tuesday, November 2, 1920. The decision to use the election returns was strategic: the results would be of obvious public interest, would demonstrate the medium’s utility, and would create a documented historical record.

The KDKA staff gathered the returns from the wire services and from the Pittsburgh Post, and Harold W. Arlin — the station’s first staff announcer and a former Westinghouse employee — read the results on the air throughout the evening. The broadcast began around 6:00 p.m. and continued past 1:00 a.m. (the returns were slow in coming in those days). The audience was small — perhaps a few hundred listeners with the necessary receivers — but the broadcast established the model. Newspaper coverage of the new “wireless telephone” was extensive, and the company began selling radio receivers in significant numbers.

The Early Programming

The KDKA schedule in its first months was modest: a few hours of programming per day, including music, news, weather, agricultural reports, and time signals. The early staff included Harold W. Arlin as the first staff announcer and Dr. Peter C. Goldmark (who would later develop the long-playing record and CBS’s color television system). The station’s first professional program was a Sunday church service broadcast in January 1921, and the first remote broadcast was a Pittsburgh Philharmonic concert in 1921.

The “First” Claim

The KDKA claim rests on several considerations: it was the first station licensed to provide regular broadcasting service to the general public, the November 2 broadcast is generally regarded as the first commercial broadcast of a public event, and Westinghouse was meticulous in documenting the station’s history. The claim is not without critics — KQW in San Jose has a longer continuous history of broadcasting (going back to 1909), and 2XG/WEAF in New York was a major commercial broadcaster from 1922. The “first station” question is, in the end, a question about how you define “first.”

The Spread of Stations

Whatever its claim to be the “first,” KDKA was certainly the first to be widely imitated. Within months of the KDKA election broadcast, similar stations were being set up in other cities. By the end of 1920, there were perhaps a dozen licensed stations in the United States. By the end of 1921, perhaps 50. By the end of 1922, more than 500. The “radio craze” of 1922 was the largest single growth of any new communications medium in American history.

The Department of Commerce, under Secretary Herbert Hoover, struggled to manage the new industry. Hoover called a series of National Radio Conferences (1922, 1923, 1924, 1925) to bring together broadcasters, manufacturers, and the public to develop a consensus on how to manage the airwaves. The Conferences produced a set of recommendations that formed the basis of the Radio Act of 1927.

The Call Letters System

The call letters that identify American radio stations — the four-character combinations like KDKA, WEAF, WJZ, WGN — were assigned by the Department of Commerce in the early 1920s. The general rule was:

The system was not fully standardized until 1927, and some early stations (including KDKA) retained their original call letters. The call letters, like Internet domain names, became valuable corporate assets, and the original call letters of major stations are still in use today.

KDKA’s Long History

KDKA has been on the air continuously since November 2, 1920. The station’s major milestones include the first broadcast of a heavyweight boxing match (1924), the first broadcast of the World Series (1925), joining the NBC network in 1927, and the move to 1020 kHz AM in 1935. KDKA is still on the air today at 1020 kHz AM, one of the oldest continuously operating radio stations in the United States. The station’s 100th anniversary was celebrated in November 2020.

The Lesson of KDKA

KDKA’s story is the story of how a new technology was harnessed by a major corporation to create a new industry. Westinghouse saw the commercial potential of broadcasting early, invested in the technology, and built the institution that became the model for the rest of the industry. The fact that the “first” station was created by a manufacturer of radio receivers, and not by a broadcaster, is not an accident. The history of broadcasting has always been intertwined with the history of the technology that made it possible.

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