KCBS' "100th" Anniversary: Does It Matter?

[DToTheJ]

By now, those of you in the Bay Area (as well as those of you listening to other CBS Radio stations online) are aware that KCBS has been celebrating an unprecedented 100 years of broadcasting.

But the fact of the matter is, they were not a legitimate radio station until December 1921. It was a glorified pirate station for the first dozen years of its existence.

Not trying to be a party pooper, but that's just how I see it.

 

[DavidKaye]

But the fact of the matter is, they were not a legitimate radio station until December 1921. It was a glorified pirate station for the first dozen years of its existence.

There was no regulation of the newfangled thing called radio broadcasting in 1909 and thus it wasn't a pirate. However, in 1912 the Department of Commerce issued a license to the station. Here, you can see a copy for yourself: http://imgsrv.kcbs.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200812/3607329.jpg?1241176585

 

[radioman148]

But the fact of the matter is, they were not a legitimate radio station until December 1921. It was a glorified pirate station for the first dozen years of its existence.

There was no regulation of the newfangled thing called radio broadcasting in 1909 and thus it wasn't a pirate. However, in 1912 the Department of Commerce issued a license to the station. Here, you can see a copy for yourself: http://imgsrv.kcbs.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200812/3607329.jpg?1241176585

The fact is that anything that gives KCBS publicity is good for them.

 

[w9wi]

But the fact of the matter is, they were not a legitimate radio station until December 1921. It was a glorified pirate station for the first dozen years of its existence.

There was no regulation of the newfangled thing called radio broadcasting in 1909 and thus it wasn't a pirate. However, in 1912 the Department of Commerce issued a license to the station. Here, you can see a copy for yourself: http://imgsrv.kcbs.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200812/3607329.jpg?1241176585

I don't think that license (the one in the scan on the link) was issued in 1912. It says it was issued pursuant to an act approved in 1912 (the Radio Act of 1912) but that Act was in effect until the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927. So the license you see could have been issued at any time between August 1912 and 1927. There aren't enough details in the scan to nail it down any closer. I *strongly* suspect it was issued sometime in 1921.

The work of many investigators strongly suggests the first station to take out a license for the explicit purpose of broadcasting was KDKA. Stations that claim to predate KDKA held licenses taken out for experimental purposes; they may well have engaged in broadcasting but that was not the reason a license was obtained.

 

[LKellerIII]

I think it's OK to call it 100 years if the entity that became KCBS can trace it's lineage back that far, FCC license or not.

I'm always seeing "100 year anniversary" announcements for small businesses like San Francisco bars and restaurants. They've usually had 4 different names, 9 different owners, and 2 different locations, but there's usually some tortured and complex explanation of how it deserves the century-mark.

I'm willing to believe. Besides, it often means free beer.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

But the fact of the matter is, they were not a legitimate radio station until December 1921. It was a glorified pirate station for the first dozen years of its existence.

I don't think that license (the one in the scan on the link) was issued in 1912. It says it was issued pursuant to an act approved in 1912 (the Radio Act of 1912) but that Act was in effect until the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927. So the license you see could have been issued at any time between August 1912 and 1927. There aren't enough details in the scan to nail it down any closer. I *strongly* suspect it was issued sometime in 1921.

The work of many investigators strongly suggests the first station to take out a license for the explicit purpose of broadcasting was KDKA. Stations that claim to predate KDKA held licenses taken out for experimental purposes; they may well have engaged in broadcasting but that was not the reason a license was obtained.

Doc Herrold was broadcasting on a regular schedule before 1912. Once the government decided to issue licenses, Herrold obtained one -- in 1912.

KDKA wasn't "broadcasting" -- the station merely popped on the air for a special event, then went silent except for test periods until Westinghouse figured out what other stations were doing and decided to actually begin broadcasting.

Herrold's station had a regular, announced schedule in 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1915. Even in 1921, KDKA did not.

Please note that Charles Lindbergh did not have a license to fly across the Atlantic in the "Spirit of St. Louis." Does that mean that the first pilot who flew across the Atlantic and actually had a license was the true "first," not Lindbergh? Yeah, not so much.

 

[DavidKaye]

Doc Herrold was broadcasting on a regular schedule before 1912. Once the government decided to issue licenses, Herrold obtained one -- in 1912.

KDKA wasn't "broadcasting" -- the station merely popped on the air for a special event, then went silent except for test periods until Westinghouse figured out what other stations were doing and decided to actually begin broadcasting.

Not only that but Herrold actually invented the term "broadcasting", something that even Lee DeForest (an ornery man if there ever was one) admits to. Herrold's father was a farmer in the San Jose area and had made some improvement to a seed broadcaster (a broadcaster is a device that scatters seed in all directions for planting).

Doc Herrold seized on the concepts of narrowcasting and broadcasting for radio. His first antenna invention was unlike the dipole is use at the time (because it was a narrowcaster, I'm sure). His invention was a horizontal antenna that had a central radiating point and wires extending out in all compass directions. That's the kind of antenna he put on the roof of the Garden State bank building in SJ. The idea was to "scatter" the signal everywhere for reception by the general public.

Herrold's radiating antenna concept is still used today, but it's used as a ground under vertical AM towers.

My source is a book on American broadcasting published in the 1950s. I think I have it somewhere but I'm not sure where it is. In it there are transcripts of speeches and various comments by people who were there. This is how I learned that Sybil True was the first DJ and that she was also had the first commercial program, due to trading out records for promo mentions on her show. I think I was probably the first person to bring this to light about 15-18 years ago back on Fidonet. I'm the source for Barry Mishkind's info on that aspect of Herrold's history.

Dang! I wish I could find the book or a reference to it online. I may go over to the Prelinger library on Sunday and see if they have anything in their ephemera collection.

 

[DavidKaye]

Funny what Google turns up. Here's someone else who says the same thing about broadcasting, narrowcasting, seed spreading, and Charles D Herrold:

http://www.dcwstore.com/radios.htm

 

[TVradioguru]

My grandfather who was one of the radio pioneers from Westinghouse left behind a document from 1925 prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce indicating the first licensed commercial broadcast station was actually WBZ Springfield, MA. Granted KDKA was the one of the first licensed stations from 1921 still on the air today, since WBZ moved frequencies and city of license to Boston. According to the document, only 25 stations were licensed in 1921 then 600 licensed in 1922.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Who was the first person to drive an automobile -- the guy who actually did it, or the guy who received a license from the DMV once the government starting issuing driver's licenses?

 

[jprg]

Get the Charles Harrold story on DVD from Mike Adams from San Jose State. Very good and lots of info.

 

[DavidKaye]

My grandfather who was one of the radio pioneers from Westinghouse left behind a document from 1925 prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce indicating the first licensed commercial broadcast station was actually WBZ Springfield, MA. Granted KDKA was the one of the first licensed stations from 1921 still on the air today, since WBZ moved frequencies and city of license to Boston. According to the document, only 25 stations were licensed in 1921 then 600 licensed in 1922.

Nobody is claiming that KCBS was the first licensed station. The KCBS claim and the Charles Herrold claim has always been, "the world's first broadcasting station." It doesn't mean point-to-point; it doesn't mean licensed; it doesn't mean amateur; it doesn't mean the first station with a callsign. It means the first radio station intended to be received by the general public.