On November 2nd, 1920 at 6:00PM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, KDKA had its first official radio broadcast...ever. KDKA "claims" to have been the world's first commercial radio broadcasting station. Although many other stations have challenged that fact, it looks like KDKA is holding on to their claim. So I'm running with it too.
"This is KDKA, of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We shall now broadcast the election returns."
—Leo Rosenburg, on the very first radio broadcast by KDKA, November 2, 1920.
"KDKA operates on a clear channel and broadcasts a news/talk radio format. News and spoken word programming has been a central feature of its programming from its beginning. Its 50 kilowatt (or 50,000 watt) signal can be heard in large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia during the day. At night, it reaches much of the eastern half of North America. KDKA enjoys grandfathered status as one of four remaining stations east of the Mississippi River that have call letters beginning with K. Two of them are in Pittsburgh, the other being KQV; there are also longtime sister station KYW in Philadelphia (though the KYW callsign has in the past been used in Chicago and Cleveland) and KFIZ in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (Wikipedia, 2011)."
The US presidential election returns were the first ever content to be broadcasted. This historical event took place on the roof of the Westinghouse building located in the eastern part of Pittsburgh.
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