Commercial 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.
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