Paul Harvey

[Dan.Strassberg]

But didn't some citizens of San Jose and San Francisco just celebrate
radio broadcasting's 100th anniversary, based on the 1909 date when
"Doc" Herrold (I think that was his name) is supposed to have begun
his broadcasts on what eventually became KQW and then KCBS? Until I
did a little googling, I had never thought about the technical feats
involved in modulating the output of a spark-gap transmitter with
audio. That, however, is what Herrold apparently did. If I'm not
mistaken, 8XK (KDKA) didn't emerge until the technology had evolved to
the point where the audio was used to modulate sine-wave carriers.
Whether 8XK used vacuum tubes to generate those carriers in 1920 (did
vacuum tubes even exist yet?) or used an electromechanical device
(something called an Alexanderson alternator, perhaps), I don't know.
But while nobody can deny that radio was still very much in its
infancy in 1920, I think you should agree that it had been born more
than a decade earlier.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@comcast.net>
Cc: "(newsgroup) Boston-Radio-Interest"
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Paul Harvey


> Kevin Vahey wrote:
>> Interesting tidbit from Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune.
>>
>> This is the first week since 1933 going back to the NBC-Blue
>> Network
>> that ABC Radio has not fed a show based in Chicago.
>>
>
> And here's another one, courtesy of the pseudonymous "Jose Fritz" at
> tenwatts.blogspot.com: Paul Harvey was the last remaining air talent
> still working who was older than radio broadcasting itself.
>
> (Assuming, of course, that we accept 1920 as the starting point for
> full-fledged radio broadcasting, which I think I do, even leaving
> KDKA's claims aside.)
>
> s