The Significance of the 1920 Election

 

This is NOT Bob Small, Tony Savino, Jim Campbell and me at WGCH. It's KDKA.

The 1920 presidential election lacked drama.

When it was all over, Warren G. Harding was elected president. He and running mate Calvin Coolidge blasted James Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt, carrying 37 states and taking over 60% of the popular vote.

Save for historians, the election is forgotten.

Radio historians feel differently about it. Whether it's really true or not, the Nov. 2, 1920 broadcast on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh (technically East Pittsburgh) is seen as a watershed moment. True scholars of radio will tell you it's not true, but many believe KDKA was the first radio station.

What they were was the first commercial broadcast license to be issued. As you can read here, that's a huge difference.

You can also read more here and here.

Despite any attempt to say otherwise, there is no recording from that night. What exists is several recreations. I have one on a record that my parents owned. There are also several links to a recreation online. This represents an idea of what it sounded like that night as 8ZZ (which became KDKA) carried the results of the 1920 election.

Of course, KDKA would pioneer other parts of radio, including sports broadcasting, most notably Aug 5, 1921, when the first baseball game was called.

You can be quite sure we'll recognize that next year.

KDKA will recognize the anniversary today.