Radio Revisionism: Media Historiography and the KDKA Myth

Abstract

Popular recountings of radio's past tend to begin with KDKA's November 2, 1920 broadcast of the Coolidge-Harding election returns, in effect deligitimizing the complex pre-commercial period in American broadcasting. The effects of this are apparent in the neglect of the pre-commercial period in popular and scholarly histories of radio. In contributing to the bourgeoning body of revisionist work in radio scholarship, this essay reexamines the historical role of KDKA, Pittsburgh. Primarily, I focus on the maintenance and reinforcement of what I call “the KDKA myth” to examine how KDKA has managed its primacy claim throughout the station's history.

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 92^nd NCA Annual Convention on November 18, 2006.

¹ See for example: Randall Davidson, 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006); Susan Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting: 1899–1922 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987); Gordon Greb and Mike Adams, Charles Herrold, Inventor of Radio Broadcasting (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003); Thomas Streeter, Selling the Air: A Critique of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

² While Smith acknowledges radio activity prior to the requirement of licensing established in the Radio Act of 1912, he is resistant to labeling this activity as “broadcasting” (Smith, 43).

³ See “History of Broadcasting and KDKA” (circa 1962), “The History of KDKA and Broadcasting” (1970) and “KDKA Turns 75” (1995); Fanning of the Gazette repeats the “national sensation” claim in his 1980 article.

⁴ I realize that these two publications can hardly be generalized to adequately represent the contemporary national press. However, their coverage of KDKA during this period is telling in regards to the evolution of the KDKA myth.

⁵ At press time, the recording is available on the station's Web site at http://kdkaradio.com/pages/15486.php.

⁶ This difference in character did not prevent the broadcast of phonograph recordings. For early broadcasters, “the usual method of transmitting phonograph music by radio was to place an ordinary microphone in front of an ordinary acoustical phonograph. This practice extended as far back as Lee De Forest's experiments in February 1907, and most descriptions of radio stations through the mid 1920's [sic] indicate this was the method used.” See Biel, 1977, p. 138.

⁷ The I Can Hear it Now recording aurally constructs a newsroom atmosphere with the persistent sound of telegraph signals in the background.

⁸ See John Durham Peters, “Witnessing,” Media, Culture and Society, 23 (2001): 707–723.