The broadcast on November 2, 1920, of the results of the presidential election between James Cox and Warren G. Harding by Pittsburgh radio station KDKA is generally considered the first commercial U.S. radio broadcast. This milestone event in the development of radio as big business resulted from wide-ranging efforts in the field of wireless communication in the decades that preceded it.
The initial concept of wireless communication came about in 1873, when physicist James Maxwell theorized the existence of electromagnetic waves. Others soon added their work to this initial theory. Heinrich Hertz worked to prove Maxwell's theory, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi made further improvements to Hertz's ideas, and many others made important contributions.
In these initial stages, wireless communication was considered a specialized type of communication that would fill the niche of providing a means of communication in situations where more traditional wired forms of communication were impossible, as in communications between oceangoing vessels and land. It was of great interest to private shippers and quickly caught the interest of the military, which recognized the potential that it provided for communication among rapidly moving military units. In the period preceding World War I, there was a considerable amount of controversy and competition among those seeking to garner patents and create business empires using wireless communication. However, when the United States entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. Navy took over control of wireless operations and facilities in the United States, suspended existing licenses, and asked U.S. companies working on the development of wireless products to cooperate in the war effort rather than compete against one another. The cooperation among entrepreneurs in the field of wireless communication that resulted from the war effort led to a sense of cooperation following the war that was beneficial in the further development of the radio industry.
After the war, reprivatization occurred in the field of radio communication, and a short-lived agreement was reached by the major players in the field on July 1, 1920. According to the terms of this agreement, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) would manufacture radio transmitters, General Electric (GE) and Westinghouse would manufacture radio receivers, and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which was jointly owned by AT&T, Westinghouse, and GE, would serve as the "mixing bowl" for the products and information for the three companies. This agreement, however, was in existence for only a short time because it failed to take into account a new use for radio, that of radio broadcasting.
The early development of radio station KDKA, which is generally recognized as the station providing the first commercial radio broadcast, provides a clear indication of how quickly the conception of radio communication changed from one of communication between a single sender and a single receiver to one of broadcasting to numerous receivers. KDKA was started as an amateur operation by Frank Conrad, an engineer at Westinghouse. On October 17, 1919, Conrad placed a microphone in front of a phonographic machine to broadcast prerecorded sound; as he continued his broadcasts, they increased in popularity when a Pittsburgh department store began promoting Conrad's broadcasts by selling radio receivers to pick up the broadcasts. The popularity of the broadcasts was noticed at Westinghouse, and the company began promoting the sales of its own receivers by establishing its own broadcast station. Westinghouse filed an application for a commercial license for KDKA in October of 1920 and on November 2 began its first commercial broadcast with the results of the presidential election.
