KDKA: The Radio Station That Started It All
Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
On the night of November second, nineteen twenty, a small team of Westinghouse engineers climbed to a makeshift rooftop studio at the East Pittsburgh Works and flipped on a transmitter. What came out of that antenna was history. Station KDKA broadcast the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election, becoming the world's first licensed commercial radio station.
Before that night, radio was a novelty for hobbyists and ship operators. Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad had been broadcasting music and baseball scores from his garage for months, drawing a surprising number of listeners. The company saw a market, applied for a commercial license, and the election provided the perfect debut event. Within months, KDKA was airing church services, sports, and live concerts. Commercial radio broadcasting as we know it traces its roots back to this hillside in western Pennsylvania.
