[ARC5] radio and the Spanish Flu epidermic

Sat Mar 14 22:12:29 EDT 2020

    I didn't mean that KNX and KHJ were Westinghouse stations, 
they were not. I can't remember the original call of KNX or else 
it went off the air and was replaced. Hard to find reliable 
information. KHJ was originally licensed to C.R.Kerulff & 
Company, a very large distributor of electrical products in L.A. 
but in a year or two it was listed as being owned by the Los 
Angeles Times. I don't know if Kerulff built it on spec or built 
it under contract to the Times. In any case the Times sold it to 
Don Lee, the Cadillac distributor in 1927. Don Lee also bought 
KFRC earlier the same year and formed the Don Lee System. This 
was contracted with by CBS to be their first distributor on the 
west coast. A very interesting story of double crossing and 
musical chairs followed when CBS decided to buy KNX and run their 
own network in the West.

On 3/14/2020 6:42 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
> This later became KQW. Was eventually bought by CBS and is now 
> KCBS. The problem with these very early experimental 
> broadcasting stations is that there was no continuum due to the 
> seizure of all "wireless" operations by the U.S.Government 
> after the U.S. joined in WW-1. Wireless was returned to private 
> owners c.1919 and licenses issued for commercial broadcasting 
> shortly after but none of the early stations had a continuous 
> existence. Somewhere on the FCC web site is a list of the 
> earliest stations licensed by the Department of Commerce There 
> were about a dozen issued in about December of 1920. Number one 
> was KDKA but Westinghouse had about five of the first dozen 
> including WJZ in New York (now WABC), WBZ in Boston, KYA in 
> Chicago (later moved to Philadelphia) and a couple of local 
> stations here in Los Angeles. One was a station that later 
> became KNX and another was KHJ. Broadcasting exploded in 1922 
> with a great many stations being licensed, many of which did 
> not survive long and many which were never developed as working 
> stations. It is a fascinating history.
>
> On 3/14/2020 4:39 PM, Scott Robinson wrote:
>> It's well documented that a San Jose station was doing 
>> scheduled music and speech broadcasts in 1912. See
>>
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Herrold>
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> Scott Robinson
>>
>> On 3/14/20 8:32 AM, Bry Carling wrote:
>>> They say that there were hill billy statiopns with preachers 
>>> in the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina 
>>> well before KDKA sent their first official broadcast.
>>>
>>> This is all hear-say!
>>>
>>> Bry AF4K
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>
>>> *From:* arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
>>> <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Rich Post 
>>> <kb8tad at gmail.com>
>>> *Sent:* Monday, March 9, 2020 13:33
>>> *To:* Gordon White <gewhite at crosslink.net>
>>> *Cc:* ARC-5 List <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [ARC5] radio and the Spanish Flu epidermic
>>> Radio receiving was illegal in the US in 1918.  All antennas 
>>> were required to be taken down when the US entered the war. 
>>> All receivers dismantled.  Receiving remained illegal until 
>>> April 1919, well after Armistice and transmitting was illegal 
>>> until mid-October 1919 when the Navy finally relented to 
>>> pressure and gave up  its total monopoly on transmitting. 
>>> However, the Navy needing future operators had begun sending 
>>> code practice to amateurs the prior month and had begun 
>>> transmitting news "broadcasts" (in code) to ships and others 
>>> at that point. But NOTHING in 1918.  Mid October was the 
>>> first monthly amateur record playing on radio that would 
>>> eventually become KDKA.
>>>
>>> Wonderful story Dave.
>>>
>>> Rich KB8TAD
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 7:40 AM Gordon White 
>>> <gewhite at crosslink.net <mailto:gewhite at crosslink.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>>             Just read in a newspaper that "historian Nancy 
>>> Tomes has shown
>>>     that in 1918, since radio broadcasts and newsreels were 
>>> focused on war
>>>     news..." they did not give news of the 1918 Spanish Flu 
>>> epidemic.
>>>
>>>           As KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first broadcast 
>>> station and it
>>>     began
>>>     with results of the Cox-Harding election in November 
>>> 1920, unlikely
>>>     that
>>>     there was ANY radio broadcast news of the flu in 1918.
>>>
>>>        - Gordon Eliot White
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>>     ARC5 mailing list
>>>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
>>>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>>     Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net 
>>> <mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net>
>>>
>>>     This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>>     Please help support this email list: 
>>> https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> ARC5 mailing list
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
>>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>>>
>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>> Please help support this email list: 
>>> https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> ARC5 mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: 
>> https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL