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THIS DAY IN HISTORY (TDIH)
JAN-12 <<<< JAN-13 >>>> JAN-14
LOCATION:
New York City, NY USA
WHAT HAPPENED:
Our second webpage source list this as one of the first public
radio broadcast:
The first alleged public radio broadcast occurred today (on Jan. 13, 1910) and is attributed, by many, to Lee De Forest and consisted of performances of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' (most notably featuring, at the time anyway, the world reknown Italian tenor Enrico Caruso) and also Pagliacci, all from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House.
Riccardo Martin also performed as Turridu, Emmy Destinn as Santuzza, and, of course, Enrico Caruso as Canio.
This wireless radio transmission event from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City is regarded by many as the birth of public radio broadcasting.
SEE ALSO:
JAN-01-1902 [WED], Stubblefield,
DEC-25-1906 [TUE], Fessenden.
RESEARCH NOTES:
We're currently looking for some good books on the history of
radio, because (although we believe our current source[1]
is "probably" correct) there is a little controversy as to what
actually constitutes the first public broadcast. The biggest
question being, what constitutes a "public" broadcast, and what
exactly is meant by the word, "public"? Is it that it's just
available to the public, or that there is a sufficient number of
the public who can actually receive the broadcast, in other words
are there enough people who actually own radio receiving sets, and
how many is "enough". First, let's look at the other candidates,
and then you can decide for yourself.
The second webpage source[2] we found, right off the bat, discussed the conflict surrounding the first radio broadcast, and also the candidates for being considered the first. For example:
"Nathan Stubblefield claimed to have made a transmission in 1892. He gave no public demonstration, however, until Jan. 1, 1902, in his home town of Murray, Ky."[2]
Stubblefield is the best candidate, in our opinion, for being considered the first to send a signal out in 1892 so the public can receive it, but unfortunately we haven't found the source documents for this yet, so we can't verify whether it actually happened or not. So far, it's still just an unverified claim. Fortunately, he finally gave a public demonstration in 1902 that (we think) has more documentation behind it. It then, goes on to talk about:
"Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, a Canadian-born electrical wizard, sent a human voice by wireless telephony for hundreds of miles on Christmas night 1906."[2]
It also goes on to mention that, the broadcast "was said to be heard by ships at sea". If true and documented, that puts him up there with Stubblefield. Then, they begin talking about Lee De Forest as also being credited with many early broadcast, including the one mentioned in our "What Happened" section just above this one.
And last, but not least, we come to Charles David Herrold, who did operate an experimental radio station, but there is no indication that he actually broadcasted anything before January 13, 1910:
"Charles David Herrold, in San Jose, Calif., in 1909, established a radio-telephone station for experimental work and as a promotional device for a school of engineering and radio, which he also operated."[2]
And finally some broadcast station trivia:
"Earle Melvin Terry helped found 9XM Madison, Wis., now WHA, still calling itself 'the nation's oldest broadcast station.'"[2]
At the very end of the article, in the comment section, we found the following that we thought was very interesting:
"Most historians accept a paper first published in the Journal of Broadcasting (Volume IV, No. 1 Winter 1959-60 pp 40-55) as the definitive examination of the question. It's called 'Oldest Station in the Nation'? by R. Franklin Smith."Smith offers five characteristics of a broadcasting station:
"1) Wireless transmission
"2) Transmission of telephony rather than telegraphic signals
"3) Content aimed at the public
"4) Continuous program service
"5) Licensed by the government"However, he says the license issue is not a valid base "for verifying historical claims of broadcast primacy."
"Using the other four criteria, he says Fessenden's 1906 hour-long program on Christmas Eve was the first broadcast, but since it was a one-time experiment rather than the start of continuous service, it was not the earliest broadcasting station... "[2]
We also came across somewhere in our research, the question that we mentioned at very the beginning, juat what is considered a public radio broadcast? Being able to be picked up by the public, seems to be a given, and of course someone else has to receive it, to be sure it was actually transmitted properly, but if only a few people have sets to receive it, is that public enough?
It's a tricky question because it relies on the idea that there's enough people actually able to receive the broadcast, rather than it just being available to the public, regardless of how many people can actually receive the broadcast, excepting the person who actually receives the signal to verify that it was sent properly. Which brought us to our next question. Did anyone actually listen to it, or was able to verify that the transmission was sent properly?
We're not 100% sure yet about the answer to that last question, because we still haven't been able to verify that Fessenden's 1906 broadcast was actually heard by ships offshore, but we're still looking.
If you follow the first requirement (enough people had to have sets to receive it), then this date, and what happened, has a better than the average odds to actually be the very first public radio broadcast. Then, the fact that it was publicly reported in the New York Times on January 14, 1910, gives it greater probability that it really was a public radio broadcast, in our opinion.
It doesn't answer the question though, did enough people have sets to receive it, and what is meant by "enough"? Is two enough? Or, do you need more than two, and did anyone actually go and check that these sets actually could receive the broadcast. We believe if two other people heard it, besides the boadcaster, than that would be "enough" for us. In the De Forest case, we'll have to go down to the downtown library here, and go through the hardcopy archive they have there, and look up the actual announcement in the New York Times and see what it says, that someone there had actually received it on a set and heard it, before announcing it. That would be documentation that at least one set received the broadcast. And even though two is a better number, one is still a subset of the public as a whole.
But, that also means Fessenden's 1906 broadcast can't be dismissed either since there were alleged "ships at sea" that were said to have actually received the broadcast and heard it. We're still chasing down the documentation for this one, but if true, it does make it the very first public broadcast that the public actually received and heard, and thus fulfilling the requirement, in our opinion, that "enough" of the public heard the broadcast.
But, if you subscribe to the notion that the only requirement is that the transmission only be available to the public, regardless of how many people can actually receive it, except for the person checking that the transmission was sent properly, then you have to give it to Nathan Stubblefield who claims to have done it in 1892, and that's all it is a "claim", but he did do a public demonstration on Jan. 1, 1902.
The history of radio, we've found, is very complex. We are having a difficult time finding affordable books on the subject, and not just a collection of essays, but an actual year by year account of what happened when and where. We do have our online sources, but we like good old books that are real and don't depend on electricity to read them. Feel free to CONTACT US, if anyone has any information that you'd like to share. Thank you in advance.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SOURCES):
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_public_radio_broadcasting
[2] http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/who1st.txt
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