Local radio history — The early days

The Madden Hotel on South Street in Glens Falls kept up with the latest technology.

“John Madden, proprietor of Hotel Madden, has installed a radio outfit in the hotel,” The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported on June 15, 1923.

In other early radio news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “The June graduating class of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, of Davenport, Iowa, will have the distinct honor of being the first one from that school and probably the first one in the world whose commencement exercises will be broadcast,” The Post-Star reported on March 21, 1923.

Radio WOC of the Quad Cities was set to broadcast the commencement live.

“Radio fans will hear the program just the same as those sitting in the stadium that evening.”

The broadcast was an example of how radio was introducing a new era of virtual experiences, long before “virtual” became a buzz word in contemporary communications technology.

“Many unusual features have marked the advent of radio,” the report continued. “The marriage ceremony has been performed at a distance of hundreds of miles, uniting the contracting parties. The dead have been buried at sea, and the service read by a chaplain aboard a distant vessel.”

• “Friday evening, May 18, will be National Guernsey Radio Night. On that night Charles L. Hill of Rosendale, Wis., will deliver a lecture on the history of the Guernsey breed from station KDKA of Pittsburgh,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on May 17, 1923. “All local Guernsey men can get in touch with local receiving radios without attending any meetings.”
• “An experiment which may have an important bearing on the future of radio broadcasting was made Thursday night when four stations simultaneously transmitted the same program,” The Post-Star reported on June 13, 1923.

WGY of Schenectady, WEAF of New York City, KDKA of Pittsburgh and KYW of Chicago simulcast from the 46th annual convention of National Electric Light Association at New York City.

“The success with which this experiment has met has been hailed by scientists over the country in marking the dawn of a new era in radio transmission.”

• WHAZ of Troy was set to broadcast a performance of Grosman’s Community Young People’s Orchestra of Corinth, The Post-Star reported on June 6, 1924.

Musicians were as follows: Dorothy Peterson, Rita Buckmonster, Evelyn Shorey and Carl Quito, violins; Forrest Ogden, drums; Mrs. Leon Rozelle, piano; Arthur Grossman, leader and coronet.

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