I had this on the KOGO thread below, but since we were way off the topic already, I decided to post it here, to get more exposure and make it a new thread.
I was answering a question from Steve, also known as LARadioRewind. He asked if Fred Christisan, who founded KNX radio in 1920 as ham station 6XDZ was the first radio disc jockey. The short answer is no, he was not the first radio DJ. Here's the longer answer.
Yeah, Fred Christian was playing records over his ham station from a back bedroon of his home on Harold Way in Hollywood. That was September of 1920. Also, that was on his ham station, and all amateur radio operators at the time had to take turns on 200 meters, about 1500 kilocycles/khz. on the AM band at the time. Within a couple of years, hams were not allowed to play music on the air anymore and they gradually moved to the shorter wavelengths and perfected long-distance radio communication via amateur radio.
Was Fred Christian the first DJ, or person to play phonograph records over the air? No. First of all, in April of 1920, experimental radio station 6XD was licensed for the Western Radio Electric Company. Their station was broadcasting from 550 South Flower Street in Los Angeles and was on the air several months before 6XDZ. According to an issue of Pacific Radio News that year, 6XD was heard on 920 kilocycles and was broadcasting phonograph records from nearby Richardson's Music Shop, as they furnished the latest Victor Records to the little radio station that put out 2 and a half amps, or about 50 watts. Was there a person announcing the records on the air, or were they simply playing the records and giving station IDs? We don't know the answer and have no evidence to say if the station announced the songs after they were played.
But, we know that 6XD was likely the first experimental radio station on the air in Los Angeles, before ham station 6XDZ. Also,
in December of 1921 6XD became station KZC on 360 meters/833 khz. and in February 1922 changed calls to KOG, the first station call letter change in U.S. broadcasting history. But, 6XD/KZC/KOG went off the air for good in 1923. Fred Christian turned his hobby of playing music on the air into broadcasting station KGC in December of 1921, and it changed calls from KGC to KNX in May of 1922, when the station moved from his Hollywood home to the California Theater at 801 South Main Street in L.A.
So, who was the first to play records on the radio? Other hams also played music and records on the air before 1920. But, Prof. Mike Adams of San Jose State University says 16 year old Ray Newby of Stockton, CA was the first to play records on the radio, as a student of Herrold College of Wireless in San Jose, California in 1909, under the supervision of Charles "Doc" Herrold. Newby appeared on the TV game show "I've Got a Secret" in 1965, as his secret was, "I was the world's first radio D.J."
The radio station where Newby began playing records over the air in 1909 for Herrold had various call signs over the years, but by 1921 it was licensed as KQW and became today's KCBS-740 AM in San Francisco in 1949.
Other folks played records over the air in the 1920s, including an all night radio show on phonograph records on KGFJ-Los Angeles from midnight to 6:30 am in November of 1927, as KGFJ became the first radio station with a regular 24 hour a day schedule.
As for modern disc jockeys, possibly Al Jarvis of KFWB-Hollywood with his Make Believe Ballroom in 1934 on KFWB, as he played records, but made it sound like they were played by live bands and orchestras. An announcer at KMPC in Beverly Hills, Martin Block listened a lot to Jarvis and took the idea to New York, where he copied it and used in on his own show on WNEW with the same name, in 1935. It was about that time that newspaper columnist Walter Winchell became the first to use the term "disc jockey" in print, to refer to these radio announcers who played the records on their stations. But of course, the rise of the radio DJ came with post-war radio after television became big and radio survived with the DJ music programs and Top 40, etc.
Jim
I was answering a question from Steve, also known as LARadioRewind. He asked if Fred Christisan, who founded KNX radio in 1920 as ham station 6XDZ was the first radio disc jockey. The short answer is no, he was not the first radio DJ. Here's the longer answer.
Yeah, Fred Christian was playing records over his ham station from a back bedroon of his home on Harold Way in Hollywood. That was September of 1920. Also, that was on his ham station, and all amateur radio operators at the time had to take turns on 200 meters, about 1500 kilocycles/khz. on the AM band at the time. Within a couple of years, hams were not allowed to play music on the air anymore and they gradually moved to the shorter wavelengths and perfected long-distance radio communication via amateur radio.
Was Fred Christian the first DJ, or person to play phonograph records over the air? No. First of all, in April of 1920, experimental radio station 6XD was licensed for the Western Radio Electric Company. Their station was broadcasting from 550 South Flower Street in Los Angeles and was on the air several months before 6XDZ. According to an issue of Pacific Radio News that year, 6XD was heard on 920 kilocycles and was broadcasting phonograph records from nearby Richardson's Music Shop, as they furnished the latest Victor Records to the little radio station that put out 2 and a half amps, or about 50 watts. Was there a person announcing the records on the air, or were they simply playing the records and giving station IDs? We don't know the answer and have no evidence to say if the station announced the songs after they were played.
But, we know that 6XD was likely the first experimental radio station on the air in Los Angeles, before ham station 6XDZ. Also,
in December of 1921 6XD became station KZC on 360 meters/833 khz. and in February 1922 changed calls to KOG, the first station call letter change in U.S. broadcasting history. But, 6XD/KZC/KOG went off the air for good in 1923. Fred Christian turned his hobby of playing music on the air into broadcasting station KGC in December of 1921, and it changed calls from KGC to KNX in May of 1922, when the station moved from his Hollywood home to the California Theater at 801 South Main Street in L.A.
So, who was the first to play records on the radio? Other hams also played music and records on the air before 1920. But, Prof. Mike Adams of San Jose State University says 16 year old Ray Newby of Stockton, CA was the first to play records on the radio, as a student of Herrold College of Wireless in San Jose, California in 1909, under the supervision of Charles "Doc" Herrold. Newby appeared on the TV game show "I've Got a Secret" in 1965, as his secret was, "I was the world's first radio D.J."
The radio station where Newby began playing records over the air in 1909 for Herrold had various call signs over the years, but by 1921 it was licensed as KQW and became today's KCBS-740 AM in San Francisco in 1949.
Other folks played records over the air in the 1920s, including an all night radio show on phonograph records on KGFJ-Los Angeles from midnight to 6:30 am in November of 1927, as KGFJ became the first radio station with a regular 24 hour a day schedule.
As for modern disc jockeys, possibly Al Jarvis of KFWB-Hollywood with his Make Believe Ballroom in 1934 on KFWB, as he played records, but made it sound like they were played by live bands and orchestras. An announcer at KMPC in Beverly Hills, Martin Block listened a lot to Jarvis and took the idea to New York, where he copied it and used in on his own show on WNEW with the same name, in 1935. It was about that time that newspaper columnist Walter Winchell became the first to use the term "disc jockey" in print, to refer to these radio announcers who played the records on their stations. But of course, the rise of the radio DJ came with post-war radio after television became big and radio survived with the DJ music programs and Top 40, etc.
Jim