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In the late nineteenth century, Gugliemo Marconi and others had created devices thatwould soon render the ether useful for human communication. The first uses of the airwaves were benevolent enough, aiding in the navigation of ships though ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication. Soon, however, thousands of people, excited by the marvelous possibilities of wireless communication, began to copy Marconi's inventions for their own entertainment. Amateurs first were content to listen in on naval communications, but within a very few years, fascination with radio had inspired the most obsessed amateurs to begin sending their own signals to sea.(1)
Within 15 years of Marconni's first tests, networks of amateur radio operators existed in every part of the world. The greatest percentage of amateur radio enthusiasts lived in the United States, where radio transmissions originated from every corner. Many operators shared their musical skills and phonograph records with other operators on land and at sea via the airwaves. In the beginning, few of the early radio enthusiasts could have predicted how their hobby would grow to be a global industry. (2)
A world war and countless economic, political, and technological revolutions would pass before the broadcast industry would begin to resemble its present form as an entertainment and advertising medium. By 1920, the essential elements of the broadcast industry were in place, and, by 1936, radio and professional broadcasting permeated every facet of society with instantaneous news and entertainment on demand. Radio eventually influenced American life in ways that Marconi could not have begun to envision.
To understand early radio, one needs only to study WKY, which was one of the first radio broadcasting stations in the United States and the first in Oklahoma (as well as the first west of the Mississippi). WKY, which began as a hobby of amateur radio enthusiast Earl Clemett Hull, generally was on the forefront of all major developments in the broadcast industry throughout its history.
Hull was born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, and built his first amateur station there in 1907. Like other amateurs of the time, Hull spent his idle hours listening to ships at sea and testing his signal with other amateur operators in the area to see how far it would reach. Hull could not have realized then that the wires, tubes, and radio expertise others found so strange would become a life-long vocation for him. (3)
Hull, like most other amateur radio operators in the United States during this period, was pressed into military service at the beginning of World War I. Almost from the time of Marconi's first patent, the U.S. military had realized the potential radio held for defense purposes. The military used Department of Commerce records to locate individuals such as Hull knowledgeable in radio techniques, and drafted all who were of reasonable age into the fledgling Radio Corps. The Navy was the first branch of the military to utilize the infant technology and gave radio the influx of capital needed to boost it to a higher and more usable form. The Army used the newly developed technology as a method of field communication during the war. (4)
The effect World War I had on the development of broadcasting is immeasurable. The war spurred exponential advances in radio technology, and the individuals who served in the Radio Corps gained a wealth of expert knowledge in the field. Before the war, radio had been the preoccupation of a few relatively isolated individuals, but the post-war period gave rise to a full-fledged industry within a matter of a very few years.(5)
Hull ended his tenure in the Army and relocated to Oklahoma City, carrying two bags of tubes and wires--the makings of the state's first radio station. Shortly after Hull's arrival in Oklahoma City, the Department of Commerce freed amateur radio from its wartime restrictions, and radio entered its first boom period. Hull immediately applied for an amateur radio license; in 1919, the Department of Commerce approved Hull's application and assigned him call number 5QP. (6)
Later that year, Hull became acquainted with another Oklahoma City amateur radio station operator, Sherwood Richards. Before World War I, Richards had built his first station in Kansas City, and, like Hull, had honed his radio skills in the Army Radio Corps. Richards and Hull noted the burgeoning interest in amateur radio and decided to open a shop to supply other radio enthusiasts ready-made radio sets and replacement parts. First named the Oklahoma Radio Shop, it operated in Hull's home at 1911 Ash Street in Oklahoma City.(7)
Following the lead of many similar businesses across the country, Hull and Richards operated a broadcast station in connection with their radio shop to present demonstrations to an uninformed, often disbelieving public. The Department of Commerce assigned the new station the call number 5XT and granted its license on January 1, 1920, as an experimental station. The new license gave Hull and Richards permission to send as well as receive signals, only the third such license granted to amateurs in the United States and the first to be granted west of the Mississippi. Hull converted the parlor area of his home into the station's studio and the garage into the power and transmitter plant.(8)
Radio was still an alien concept for all but a small minority of hobbyists. Many radio dealers, like Hull and Richards, had to create a demand for their products in order to make their radio shops profitable. Operating their own stations was often a necessity for early radio dealers--it provided the people who bought radios something to which to tune. Programming on 5XT was not extensive or regular in its early days; on most evenings, Hull broadcast air checks to test the range and quality of his signal and to make contact with other operators in the region. To demonstrate radio's abilities, Hull and Richards regularly gathered potential customers in their shop to listen to the programming coming from RCA's stations in the East like KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.(9)
As the broadcasts of 5XT became more frequent, Hull and Richards followed the example of the Eastern stations and included in their early broadcasts news, weather, and market reports. A few newspaper owners disliked radio and actively sought to prevent stations from broadcasting news reports, but many others associated with radio stations immediately. The Daily Oklahoman managing editor, Walter Harrison, shared Hull's and Richards' enthusiasm for radio and encouraged OPUBCO owner E.K. Gaylord--who was reluctant to invest any money in the the fledgling technology--to become involved in radio. Within a year of 5XT's beginning, Gaylord gave Harrison permission to use the OPUBCO newspapers to supply news, weather, and sports reports, and Harrison occasionally acted as an announcer. In exchange, Hull contributed to the radio page for Gaylord's two newspapers. (10)
Early radio programing was rather tentative, and news reports added a legitimacy to radio that it previously had lacked. Radio audiences were so fascinated by the voices coming from the strange wooden boxes that they were not very particular about the types of programs offered. In looking back upon his experiences as a pioneer broadcaster, Hull commented that the early radio fans were very pleased just to hear him talk over the air "about anything or nothing at all." (11) However, this attitude changed quickly as listeners became accustomed to the more varied and sophisticated programs coming from the large Eastern cities.
To help devise more interesting programming, Hull sought the help of the Daily Oklahoman's entertainment editor, Robert Reed, who, in early 1922, began helping locate suitable local talent for use on the air. Some of Reed's early contributions included regular performances by the Bird Jazz Orchestra and a weekly program consisting of the pupils of Miss Merrick's School of Fine Arts.(12)
Hull was a relentless promoter of his station and radio in general. To proselytize the message of radio to the people of central Oklahoma, Hull--with the help of Reed--staged a series of highly publicized stunts during the first few years of the station's existence. One such stunt involved the first radio broadcast from a moving train. Richards arranged for Hull to set up a temporary broadcasting station in a Frisco freight car and, for one week, 5XT was broadcast from a train traveling from Lawton to Oklahoma City. (13)
One of 5XT's notable early programs was a concert by the nationally prominent singer Alma Gluck, who is remembered for having had the very first million-selling record with her version of James Bland's "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny." Gluck's concert was a much-publicized event for Oklahoma City society, and the Daily Oklahoman's society pages carried numerous announcements heralding her upcoming concert.(14)
Although Hull had received permission from the concert's promoter to broadcast Gluck's performance, he had failed to seek permission from the star. It did not occur to Hull that Miss Gluck would have any objection to her performance being broadcast on his radio station and gamely set up his radio equipment, hanging a microphone over the stage. Unknown to Hull, Gluck was hardly a fan of radio; in fact, she believed radio was directly responsible for her recent lackluster record sales. When Gluck learned of Hull's plans to broadcast her performance, she refused to perform unless her manager stopped the impending radio broadcast. (15)
Gluck's manager believed he had carried out the diva's wishes simply by cutting the wires of the microphone, sending it crashing down to the stage floor. The senseless gesture on the part of Gluck's manager made Hull murderously angry, and the ensuing argument between the two barely escaped coming to blows. However, Hull was not easily swayed from his mission. A remote broadcast was a time-consuming event, requiring the complete disassembly of the radio station, then reassembly at the remote site; Hull was not about to leave the auditorium without giving his listeners the promised broadcast. While the argument was raging, an assistant of Hull managed to conceal a microphone behind the curtains on the stage. Despite Gluck's objections to being broadcast, Hull succeeded in presenting her concert to the Oklahoma City radio audience.(16)
The Alma Gluck and Frisco train broadcasts, had been successful in publicizing 5XT. The publicity from these broadcasts led to profits for the Oklahoma Radio Shop and allowed Hull and Richards to invest the princely sum of $3,000 to enlarge their experimental station to a full-time commercial venture. They applied for and received a Class A commercial radio operator's license and were assigned the call letters WKY. Hundreds of new stations were started across the country in 1922, and hundreds of thousands of people purchased the RCA and GE receivers that had been introduced into the marketplace. Riding the crest of this trend were Hull and Richards who, for a brief period, had an exclusive dealership for the popular RCA Radiola receivers. Because Hull and Richards were far ahead of the trend, the first few years of the Radio Shop were very profitable. (17)
Aspiring local entertainers began to vie for program slots on WKY. Radio seemed to create instant, if only temporary and limited, popularity for those lucky entertainers featured on the station. After receiving favorable reviews in the Daily Oklahoman, one pair of singers--Delma Miliken and Lillian Wilson--secured statewide concert bookings after appearing on WKY. The daily operation of and public interest in WKY created a certain amount of chaos for Hull; his home was regularly filled with performers for the station's daily live concerts. Additionally, Hull faced the constant interruptions to his life caused byfthe talentless masses clamoring for auditions throughout every minute of his day. (18)
It was not only amateur performers who appeared on WKY during this period; it was common practice for popular vaudeville entertainers to appear on local radio stations as well. The vaudeville performers used local radio shows as a method of free publicity for their shows at local theaters such as the Folly, Lyric, Orpheum, Overholser, and Delmar Gardens. Despite their motivation for performing on radio, entertainers played on the radio free by necessity--public pressure prevented radio stations from selling direct advertising time to pay performers until after 1928. (19)
Hull's stated ambition to make WKY one of the finest stations in the country led him to establish a more regular broadcasting schedule. During 1922 and 1923, programming for the station included daily concerts at 2:20 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. In addition to entertainment, news, weather, and market quotes, which were broadcast several times a day, WKY also began to feature sports scores. (20)
Numerous radio stations across the country were experiencing similar successes. However, the boom in broadcasting created chaos on the airwaves. The fledgling broadcast industry was regulated by the Radio Act of 1912 which was intended to protect the radio requirements for shipping. The 1912 legislation contained only modest provisions for amateur radio operators. and relegated all non-shipping broadcasts to one frequency. The result was sometimes as many as 30 stations in the same city crowding the one available frequency. Because it was constrained by the Radio Act of 1912, the Department of Commerce was unable to free the airwaves for the growing interest in radio. Under pressure from General Electric, Radio Corporation of America, and other powerful corporations, held four national radio conferences with the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., from 1922 to 1925 to consider solutions to the overcrowded airwaves. The Department of Commerce was unable to address the situation effectively until President Coolidge charged Congress with the job of remedying the radio problem. The resulting legislation, the Dill-White Radio Act, was not passed until 1927. (21)
The Dill-White Radio Act designated the Amplitude Modulation (AM) frequencies for use by commercial broadcasting stations and created three types of stations to share this bandwidth. A local station was licensed to a frequency intended only for a limited area and broadcast up to 100 watts power. A regional station could broadcast over a greater area and carry up to 5,000 watts; and a clear channel station, intended for broadcasting signals to rural areas not reached by the other two station types, could broadcast up to 50,000 watts. The Dill-White Radio Act also created procedures for licensing stations and created the Federal Radio Commission (later the Federal Communications Commission) to establish and enforce all necessary regulations. (22)
In the meantime, Hull had had enough of broadcasting from his home and moved his operation to Oklahoma City's newly built Masonic Temple. Many of Hull's Masonic brethren had become interested in radio and were enthusiastic about helping. The site was an attractive location for the main studio because the Temple contained a large theater, and its proximity to the Livestock Exchange Building gave Hull a suitable site for WKY's power plant. The Masonic Temple remained WKY's home base while Hull continued to experiment with remote broadcasting. (23)
Hull realized that it often would be easier to take the station to the entertainment rather than to bring the entertainment to the station; thus, necessity called for his continued experiments into remote broadcasting. Previous remote broadcasts, like that of the Gluck concert, had required Hull to dismantle the station completely and reassemble it at the remote site, but advances in technology allowed broadcasters to send remote broadcasts to a main control room from a small remote console via telephone lines. WKY's first remote broadcasts using the new techniques were conducted by Hull at the Springlake Amusement Park for a series of concerts by the nationally prominentCoon Saunders Orchestra. The Springlake concerts increased the access local entertainers had to WKY and the WKY audience to local entertainers. (24)
WKY Hits Hard Times
After successfully mastering the skill of remote broadcasts, Hull decided to move the main studio to his new home in the Westwood section of Oklahoma City. Soon after this move, a flood severely damaged the broadcasting equipment and caused hundreds of dollars in damage, shutting down the station for several months. The financial disaster caused by the Westwood flood crippled WKY's ability to broadcast regularly for many years. (25)
While Hull and Richards were gathering funds to replace the flood- damaged radio gear, they applied for and received permission from the Department of Commerce to increase WKY's power to 500 watts. Owing to the limitations of the chronically under-capitalized station budget, when WKY went back on the air in February of 1924, it did so only as a 200-watt station. Although doubling the station's power could be viewed as a progressive move, WKY was struggling to keep up with the industry developments. Many stations in the East already were broadcasting with 50,000 watts and, with a limited amount of space on the public airwaves, WKY's 100-watt power increase would not be even the strongest signal in the Oklahoma City area. (26)
The Westwood flood signaled the beginning of several years of instability for WKY. Although the station continued to broadcast some very successful programs featuring locally and nationally prominent entertainers, it did so on an increasingly infrequent basis from 1924 to 1928. WKY's financial situation sometimes caused months to lapse between programs. In addition to the problems caused by the flood, the Radio Shop (now dubbed the WKY Radio Shop) had considerable competition. Having once been the only radio dealer in town, the WKY Radio Shop was forced to compete with the numerous furniture dealers in Oklahoma City who were selling radio sets. However, despite their financial difficulties, Hull and Richards continued to operate WKY. (27)
Competition for listeners also grew with increasing ferocity. Network broadcasting began to develop with the Atwood-Kent Hour, a weekly show sponsored by a radio manufacturer featuring the most popular performers of the day. The Atwood-Kent show aired on a chain of Eastern stations that could be picked up easily in Oklahoma City. To add insult to injury, some Oklahoma City radio dealers advertised their radios as being able to "tune-out" the local stations, so one could "tune into the big city shows you want to hear." Because of the limited space on the available frequencies and the uneven quality of local programing, a faction of Oklahoma City listeners wanted local stations shut down in order to clear the airwaves for better reception of the Eastern stations.(29)
WKY also faced considerable competition locally. During the boom in licensing that occurred between 1919 and 1925, numerous stations sprang up in Oklahoma, two of which were more powerful than WKY. New Department of Commerce rules opened the floodgates for several new stations in Oklahoma. One of the new stations, KFJF, featured 1,000 watts of power, five times more powerful than WKY. Competition between KFJF and WKY was bitter, and for several years, KFJF's owners lobbied the FRC to revoke WKY's license. (30)
To further its problems, WKY's adoptive parent, OPUBCO, ceased to feature WKY program information or a regular radio page in the Daily Oklahoman. In its stead, the Daily Oklahoman printed a column from the Radio Digest that included stations from Tulsa, Detroit, Kansas City, Dallas, and all the Eastern stations but which, for several years, did not mention WKY. One can only speculate about the reason for this apparent boycott, but at least two possibilities exist. First is that WKY never fully recovered from the Westwood flood and afterwards produced programs on such an infrequent basis that it was difficult for the newspaper to continue making announcements. The second possibility is that OPUBCO's chairman, E.K. Gaylord, already had begun to consider buying out Hull and Richards and was trying to force down their price by withholding publicity.( 31)
For local entertainers, opportunities to perform on radio continued to flourish despite the financial instability of local stations. Jazz bands, both local and national, were especially popular among Oklahoma radio listeners and continued to be featured on local stations throughout the 1920s. Although performers benefited from radio, station owners usually faced constant financial difficulties. Hull and Richards' financial situation was so strained after the Westwood flood that WKY's considerably decreased and erratic broadcast schedule put them in danger of losing their license. At the urging of the Daily Oklahoman managing editor Walter Harrison, Hull and Richards organized a group of Oklahoma City radio manufacturers and distributors to sponsor WKY. From 1925 to 1928, the money from the radio manufacturers and distributors, termed "toll accounts," enabled WKY to continue broadcasting, but never with the regularity or panache of its earlier days. It would take serious financial backing to save WKY, and in 1928 this backer would appear in the person of E.K. Gaylord. (32)
Next1. Eric Barnouw, A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States: Volume I (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1966), 3-38.
2. Radio Service, Bureau of the Navy, Department of Commerce, Amateur Radio Stations of the United States 1919 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919).
3. Daily Oklahoman , 30 April 1922, Sec. C, 13; Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6.
4.Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 41-56.
5..Daily Oklahoman, 30 April 1922, Sec. C, 13.
6. QP was the designation for amateur radio licenses, allowed an individual to receive, but not transmit radio signals. Because the amateur radio operators built their own equipment and a great degree of skill was required to construct radio devices, enthusiasts drew status from the distance at which they received signals. Radio Service,Amateur Radio Stations of the United States 1919, 110; Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 288.
7. In the early days of the broadcast industry, the majority of radio stations nationwide were owned and operated by radio and electronics dealers. Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi Topping, eds., American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975), 127; Daily Oklahoman, 30 April 1922, Sec. C, p 13.
8. In 1920, all non-Naval broadcast licenses were designated "experimental stations." Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 8; Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 91; Gene Allen, Speech to Oklahoma Heritage Seminar, 1976, date unspecified, Living Legends Series, Oral History Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.
9. As early as 1920, several Eastern stations were broadcasting regular programs including a great number of live music programs and some cautious excursions into radio drama. Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 41-56, 99-100; Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6.
10.By the early 1920s, radio had enough hobbyists to warrant a special radio page in most large newspapers nationwide. Daily Oklahoman, 30 April 1922, Sec. C, 13; Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6; Walter M. Harrison, Me and My Big Mouth, (Oklahoma City: Privately Printed, 1954), 162-163.
11.Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6.
12.Ibid; Daily Oklahoman , 18 April 1922, Sec. C, 13.
13.Daily Oklahoman, 16 September, 1928, Sec. D, 6.
14. James A. Drake, Martin W. Laforse, Popular Culture and American Life: Selected Topics in the Study of American Popular Culture (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 39; Daily Oklahoman , 18 April 1922, Sec. C, 13.
15. Lichty and Topping, eds., American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television, (New York: Hastings House, 1975), 445; Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6.
16. Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec D, 6.
17. Prior to the availability of the first radio sets manufactured by RCA, radio listeners would have to build their own sets. Nationwide, radio sections of newspapers carried instructions on how to create either an inexpensive crystal receiver or a full-fledged tube set. Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 162, 91, Daily Oklahoman, 16 September 1928, Sec. D, 6.
18. Daily Oklahoman, 4 June 1922, Sec. C, 13; Daily Oklahoman, 16 September, 1928, Sec. D, 6.
19.Lichty and Topping, eds., American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975), 293-314; Earl Overholser, interview by Pen Woods, July 12, 1979, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, tape recording, Living Legends Series, Oral History Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society.
20. Daily Oklahoman, 4 April 1923, Sec. C, 15.
21. Broadcasting and Cable Market Yearbook 1992 (Washington: Reed Publishing, Inc., 1992), xv.
22. Ibid.
23. Daily Oklahoman, 23 December 1923, Sec. D, 5.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid, Daily Oklahoman, 11 November 1928, Sec. G, 3.
26. Radio Service, Bureau of the Navy, Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin, 1 (March 1924), 8; Daily Oklahoman, 3 February 1924, Sec D, 5; Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, 135-162.
27. Gene Allen, Voices On The Wind: Early Radio In Oklahoma, (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 1993), 27-30.
28. Daily Oklahoman, February 10,1924, D-6 June 6, 1924, D-8.
29. KOMA Scrapbook, KOMA Archives; Allen, Voices On the Wind, 28-32.
30. Daily Oklahoman, 15 January 1925, Sec. D, 5, Daily Oklahoman, 28 February 1926, Sec. D, 6-7, Radio Service Bulletin, 1 June 1925, 15, and 31 December 1925, 13; Harrison, Me and My Big Mouth, 162-165.
31. Allen, Voices On The Wind, 19-35.
32. Allen, Voices On The Wind, 26-30, 43-44; Harrison, Me and My Big Mouth, 162.