1921 in radio

1921 in radio details the internationally significant events in radio broadcasting for the year 1921.

List of years in radio (table)
… 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

Events

• 2 January – Dr E. J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church makes one of the first religious broadcast on the Pittsburgh station KDKA.
• 3 January – Station 9XM (now WHA), at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, transmits the first spoken weather forecast. The station had been broadcasting weather bulletins in Morse code since 1916.[1]
• 18 February – Warren G. Harding becomes the first U.S. president-elect to be heard on radio when he speaks on KDKA.
• 4 March – The first Presidential inauguration is broadcast from Washington, D.C., by KDKA.
• 10 March – From Pittsburgh's Davis Theater KDKA makes the first broadcast in history of a live opera/theater performance.
• 11 April – The world's first ever sports broadcast is made on KDKA by Florent Gibson of the Pittsburgh Star newspaper. The commentary is of a fight between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee at Motor Square Garden in Pittsburgh.[2]
• 2 July – From Jersey City, New Jersey, KDKA transmits the first ever broadcast of a world heavyweight boxing bout.
• 5 August – The first broadcast of a baseball game is on the air from KDKA as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 8–5 at Forbes Field.
• 20 September – KDKA and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette create the first "news room" and "news department" in broadcast history.
• 25 September – The wireless telegraph station in Sofia makes the first public radio broadcast in Bulgaria: the retransmission of a concert from the German station at Nauen.
• 8 October – The first broadcast of American football is on the air via KDKA as the University of Pittsburgh defeats West Virginia University at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.
• 27 November – U.S. bandleader Vincent Lopez and his group begin making a series of weekly 90-minute music broadcasts on Westinghouse-owned station WJZ in Newark, New Jersey (later WABC New York).

Debuts

• February – WQAM is launched in Miami, Florida by the W.W. Luce of the Electrical Equipment Company.
• 26 July – Experimental station 8ACS (later WHK) is launched in Cleveland, Ohio, by Warren C. Cox/Cox Mfg. Co.
• 19 September – The first commercially licensed radio broadcasting station in the United States, WBZ, is launched by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• 1 October – WJZ is launched by Westinghouse in Newark, New Jersey.
• 11 November – KYW is launched by Westinghouse in Chicago.

Births

• 25 February – Patricia Ryan, English-born American child actress, continues performing on radio until her death (d. 1949)[3]
• 21 March – Antony Hopkins, British composer, pianist, conductor and music broadcaster (d. 2014)
• 1 April – Steve Race, English pianist-composer and radio presenter (d. 2009)
• 23 May – Humphrey Lyttelton, English jazz trumpeter and radio presenter (d. 2008)
• 19 July – Harold Camping, American religious broadcaster (d. 2013)
• 21 September – Jimmy Young, English singer and broadcaster (d. 2016)
• 19 October – Bern Bennett, American radio and television announcer (d. 2014)
• 24 December – Jimmy Clitheroe, English comic entertainer (d. 1973)

References

1. "History of Radio in Relation to the Work of the Weather Bureau" by E. B. Calvert, Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 51, No. 1, January 1923, page 9.
2. The Shell Book of Firsts, 1983. p. 149
3. DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-2834-2. p. 235.

• List of firsts by KDKA-AM

See also

• List of oldest radio stations