What was the world’s first broadcasting station?
Radio history cognoscenti know about the claim of Doc Herrold as the inventor of radio broadcasting. Charles David Herrold operated Herrold’s College of Wireless and Engineering in San Jose, Calif., and began broadcasting in 1909.
CBS Radio stations in the San Francisco area noted the 100th anniversary this week.
“It started in 1909: radio/broadcasting/mass communications and the station we now know as KCBS began with the spark of innovation on the corner of First and San Fernando in San Jose,” CBS noted in a press release.
“Initially the station was only identified as ‘San Jose Calling’ and then KQW and then and now KCBS.”
KCBS went to San Jose this week to commemorate that anniversary with a broadcast. (The San Jose Mercury News carried a report.)
Among those who have sought to keep that memory alive is Mike Adams of the California Radio Historical Society, who has written about Herrold in the pages of Radio World and elsewhere. He took part in the festivities.
