The Broadcast Century and Beyond, 4th Edition

The Roaring 20s

Promise, Chaos, and Controls

In 1920 radio finally came of age. On November 2 station 8XK (a special Conrad land station), later KDKA, in Pittsburgh broadcast the election returns of the Harding–Cox presidential race and continued its broadcasting thereafter with regularly scheduled programs. Although KDKA is given credit for being the first station on the air to employ a regular schedule of programs, “Doc” Herrold’s San Jose, California, station, ultimately called KQW, which started broadcasting in 1909, did provide a schedule in 1912 to amateurs who had built sets to listen, and music was being broadcast regularly from station 2ZK in New York in 1916. In Detroit William E. Scripps, publisher of the Detroit News, was conducting ...