Sept. 29, 1920: Radio Goes Commercial
29th September 2010
1920: The Joseph Horne department store in Pittsburgh advertises ready-made radio receivers that can pick up a local broadcast station. Commercial radio is just weeks away.
Ah, those were the days. A convenient advertisement for Supply Side Economics:
Conrad tested and tweaked his equipment for hours on end in his spare time. But his voice got tired of making constant announcements of his call letters and location, so he started playing gramophone records to give it a rest.
Sure enough, those with their own transmitters started radioing requests for specific music. Those who had only their own scratchy receivers phoned or wrote in. Conrad was radio’s first DJ, and he was building an audience.
Horne’s department store had something new in 1920: the first shipment of ready-to-use radio receivers. Nothing to build, just plug-and-play. The store placed an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Sun heralding the miracle that you could listen to music over the air:
Air concert picked up by radio here. The music was from a Victrola in the home of Frank Conrad. Mr. Conrad is a wireless enthusiast and puts on these wireless concerts periodically for the entertainment of many people in this district who have wireless sets. Amateur wireless sets are on sale here $10 and up.
The signal was building a demand for the hardware. The hardware was marketing itself with the signal.