National Museum of Broadcasting

"This is K-D-K-A"

That person was Harry P. Davis, a vice president of Westinghouse Electric and a friend of Conrad’s. Davis was well aware of the popularity of Conrad’s programs, but when he read a Horne’s department store newspaper ad in September 1920 offering radios for sale to pick up Conrad’s broadcasts, he was inspired to convince others in the company that Westinghouse should set up its own station and use its idled WWI radio manufacturing facilities to produce simple receivers. This was done and on November 2, 1920, Westinghouse station KDKA broadcast the Harding-Cox election returns from Turtle Creek, Pa. in a small wooden shack on top of the "K" Building, the tallest building at the company's East Pittsburgh Works. This event is considered by historians as marking the start of the broadcasting industry.