U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 8: Communication Technologies

Radios

After wireless telegraphy came other wireless technologies; first the telephone, then the radio, later the television, all the way up to the computer. The RCA and Westinghouse companies started in radio; after World War I they had designs to make the radio “a household utility, in the same sense as the piano or phonograph.” (Pg 283) It was David Sarnoff of RCA who saw the potential for radio in America. Sarnoff believed that most of the profit from developing radio telephony, as a household utility, would come from manufacturing and selling the radio music boxes.

Radio started to really gain popularity immediately after World War I, and people everywhere wanted to be able to listen. At this time amateur radios all over the United States were using vacuum tubes to build transmission facilities in sheds, garages, and attics. In Madison, Wisconsin a professor from the University of Wisconsin was broadcasting weather bulletins and phonograph music from a laboratory. In Hollywood an electrical engineer built a five-watt transmitter in his bedroom; while in Charlotte, North Carolina a transmitter was built by an engineer using parts that he acquired doing work for General Electric. In Detroit, Michigan the first election results to ever be broadcasted over the radio were broadcast out of a newspaper publisher's transmitter that he had set up in his office.

It was soon realized that radio broadcasting held a lot of promise as a commercial success. Westinghouse began construction of a 100-watt transmitter on the roof of one of the factory buildings in East Pittsburgh. They filed an application with the U.S. Department of Commerce, as required by the Radio Act of 1912, and on October 27, 1920 the call letters KDKA were assigned to this first officially sanctioned radio station.

The idea for radio stations spread like a contagious bacteria. In the first half of 1921, the Department of Commerce had issued five new licenses for radio transmission; in the second half of 1921 they issued 23 licenses. In the early part of 1922 they were issuing 24 licenses a month, and by the end of July of that same year they were issuing 72 licenses a month. All over the country amateurs were buying parts for radio receivers and putting them together and selling them to friends and relatives. Publicly, radios were selling like hot cakes. In 1922, $60 million dollars worth of radios were bought; in 1923 $136 million dollars worth of radios were bought.

Cowan does a great job of not only discussing the early technology of radios but also the early business of radios on pages 283 – 289. Consider reading it, there are some interesting reasons why RCA was trumped by Westinghouse.

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