KDKA (AM)
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Infobox Radio Station KDKA AM is a U.S. class A clear channel AM radio station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that operates on 1020 kHz.
Contents |
History
KDKA started broadcasting on November 2, 1920 as the world's first commerical radio station. It also claims to be the first radio station broadcasting on a regular schedule. That claim is complicated by the fact that radio prior to 1920 was mostly experimental and good records are not kept for all "experimental" signals of contesting stations.
KDKA's roots began with the efforts of Frank Conrad who operated KDKA's predecessor 75 watt 8XK from the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania from 1916. Conrad's musical offerings proved unexpectedly popular and his operations continued until his employer, the Westinghouse Electric Company, realized the potential of this new medium and applied for an official broadcasting license. The KDKA callsign was assigned sequentially from a list maintained for the use of US-registry maritime stations, and on November 2, 1920, KDKA broadcasted the US presidential election returns from a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. There is some indication that the new license had not been received by that date, and the station may have gone online with the experimental call sign of 8ZZ that night. The original broadcast was said to be heard as far away as Canada.
The first broadcast of KDKA was from a shack located on the roof of a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. The radio station continued to broadcast there for many months. The station continued to get upgrades and increased range, and within five years received reception reports from as far away as Australia and Antarctica.
After 75 years of ownership by Westinghouse, KDKA became a CBS owned-and-operated station in 1995, when Westinghouse merged with CBS. Viacom later bought CBS, and KDKA-AM is now part of CBS Radio.
Historical controversy
Although 8XK is widely believed to have been the first radio station in the world to conduct regularly scheduled broadcasts, the issue is disputed. Contenders for initial broadcasts include:
- Charles Herrold of San Jose, California who used several different call signs over time: FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE, and eventually KQW (which would become KCBS)
- Lee De Forest's 2XG in New York
- Harold J. Power's 1XE in Boston, Massachusetts
- 2XN from the City College of New York
- 2ZK in New Rochelle, New York
- 8MK in Detroit, Michigan (now WWJ)
- XWA in Montreal, Canada (now CINW).
Ironically, due to various corporate mergers over the years, KDKA is now a sister station to the other two stations with the strongest claims to be the oldest surviving commercial station--KCBS and WWJ. Despite the common ownership, WWJ and KDKA both still claim to be the world's first commercial radio station.
Today
KDKA became a full-service radio broadcaster, carrying music, news, and sports, a format that continued until 1990.
Today, KDKA is a news and talk radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours per day with 50,000 watts using a non-directional antenna. Its signal can be heard in large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia during the day--including Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland. Under the right conditions, its daytime signal reaches parts of Columbus. At night, it reaches much of the eastern half of North America. Its transmitter is located in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, and residents living near the transmitter report hearing the station on the telephone, in braces, and even from bedsprings.