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#1
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The oldest radio station in the world?
And another item on
memories. Back several weeks ago, we presented the story here in Wavescan of what could be the oldest radio station in the world, station KUOA in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. The program producer at this station, Matt Reddin, discovered the script of this program on a website, radiodx, in New Zealand and he made contact with us, requesting a live 20 minute interview over the phone. As a result of these events, radio station KUOA is seeking registration as a Heritage Site, as the oldest radio station in the world (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Feb 29 via John Norfolk, DXLD) (I thought it was a station in the UK, anyone able to clarify this? Mike) |
#2
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Mike Terry wrote:
And another item on memories. Back several weeks ago, we presented the story here in Wavescan of what could be the oldest radio station in the world, station KUOA in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. The program producer at this station, Matt Reddin, discovered the script of this program on a website, radiodx, in New Zealand and he made contact with us, requesting a live 20 minute interview over the phone. As a result of these events, radio station KUOA is seeking registration as a Heritage Site, as the oldest radio station in the world (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Feb 29 via John Norfolk, DXLD) Hmmm... I've heard of a lot of stations (KDKA, WHA, KCBS, WWJ, CFCF, various European stations) claiming to be first, but this is the first time I've heard KUOA stake that claim. It depends on what you consider to be a "radio station". From context, one can generally assume people mean "first broadcasting station" - that the early spark-gap experiments of Heinrich Hertz don't count. A number of stations experimented with broadcasting in the years before 1920. Some of the earliest operated before radio licenses were required. (predecessors of KCBS) Others operated under amateur or experimental licenses. (WHA and WWJ IIRC) Evidence strongly suggests KDKA was the first station to take out a license for the express purpose of broadcasting. Even then, KDKA's license wasn't a broadcasting license - it was a "limited commercial" license. It seems that "broadcasting" licenses weren't issued until some time in 1922. -- Doug Smith W9WI Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66 http://www.w9wi.com |
#3
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Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
Mike Terry wrote: And another item on memories. Back several weeks ago, we presented the story here in Wavescan of what could be the oldest radio station in the world, station KUOA in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. The program producer at this station, Matt Reddin, discovered the script of this program on a website, radiodx, in New Zealand and he made contact with us, requesting a live 20 minute interview over the phone. As a result of these events, radio station KUOA is seeking registration as a Heritage Site, as the oldest radio station in the world (Adrian Michael Peterson, AWR Wavescan Feb 29 via John Norfolk, DXLD) Hmmm... I've heard of a lot of stations (KDKA, WHA, KCBS, WWJ, CFCF, various European stations) claiming to be first, but this is the first time I've heard KUOA stake that claim. It depends on what you consider to be a "radio station". From context, one can generally assume people mean "first broadcasting station" - that the early spark-gap experiments of Heinrich Hertz don't count. A number of stations experimented with broadcasting in the years before 1920. Some of the earliest operated before radio licenses were required. (predecessors of KCBS) Others operated under amateur or experimental licenses. (WHA and WWJ IIRC) From what I've read, the first radio station in America at least to broadcast on a regular schedule was Charles Herrold's transmitter in San Jose, California-the station that eventually became KCBS. This was in 1909 IIRC, before any licensing requirements of any kind existed. Herrold ID'ed by announcing the address of his small, private engineering college and the location of the transmitter. If you want the first voice transmission of any kind, that was done in Massachusetts in I think 1906, and was directed to ships at sea. It was a one time only event, and although it was repeated several more times the MA station never broadcasted on a regular schedule. Before that all radio transmissions were in Morse code because radio was thought of as a "wireless telegraph". Evidence strongly suggests KDKA was the first station to take out a license for the express purpose of broadcasting. Even then, KDKA's license wasn't a broadcasting license - it was a "limited commercial" license. It seems that "broadcasting" licenses weren't issued until some time in 1922. Before the law that legalized commercial broadcasting, all radio stations were licensed as amateurs. The callsigns didn't look like they do today-they had a zone number followed by two letters. (For example, Herrold was licensed as 6FI or 6FN (I can't remember exactly) 6 being the zone number for California and FI being his station.) KDKA was licensed as an extension of the laws for ship radios-KDKA simply got the spot between KDJZ and KDKB, although I can't remember the ship names. When a ship sank its call would be assigned to a land station-superstitious sailors didn't want the "jinxed" calls. |
#4
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WLW is/was the *station of it's Time* hence the "nations Stations.' I could
hear it down in the basement in my grandpas bed with no radio. Now beat that. ;-) Oh the days of driving out to that beautiful area outside of Pisgah and all those towers with the lights on it, "The V.O.A." I know I told this story in here before, but what the hey. My Dad would pull by the V.O.A. towers and him and Mom would explain to me what it was for(I was fascinated) and all he had was the stock AM radio in is car, and he'd tune it (I guess he knew where) and there I'd hear that booming voice "THIS pause is the Voice of America." It gave me chills, I didn't want to leave the place...lol. Now it's just a freekin' park, how sad. :-( Bethany gone. I guess the power of the VOA relay overloaded the car radio, hence hearing shortwave on a regular car radio. I had no idea then that it'd grow to be my hobby today. |
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