Old Radio

April 27, 1921: WEW Radio Station in St. Louis was the first radio station that aired broadcast weather on this day. Radio Station WEW, originally was radio station of Saint Louis University. Brother Rueppel, who studied meteorology only by training, began his experiment with radio in 1912. He worked together with other researchers and the U.S. Weather Bureau. His experiments with "radio-telephone" station 9KY made WEW grew and he remained as technical director on WEW for over 25 years through the golden age of radio until his death--that was only one day before WEW made it's first FM broadcast.

April 24, 1949: Dick Powell played the lead in detective drama ‘ Richard Diamond , Private Detective’ on NBC. The drama lasted on radio for four years. In the 1950's  Powell  began to produce his own movies. He also became a well-known actor, singer and studio boss. He died from lymphoma in his fifties.

April 17, 1924: For the first time WLS broadcast the WLS Barn Dance . George D Hay created radio program, titled National Barn Dance and originated from the Eighth Street Theater from 1931. In 1933 NBC took the show and in 1946 the show has been moved to the ABC Radio network and aired until 1952 on Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m. to midnight.

April 11, 1921: The first lightweight boxing match on radio between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee was broadcasted live on this day through KDKA, Pittsburgh with sport writer Florent Gibson as announcer. That was a Radio station KDKA, Pittsburgh completed broadcast of a sport event that happened on April 11, 1921. Florent Gibson, Pittsburgh Post sports editor, presented commentary along ten rounds the fight live on the air from the ringside of Pittsburgh's Motor City Square. Although there was no winner of that match, listeners around Pittsburgh, for the first time, enjoyed the wireless broadcast from their radio receiver. See also: Boxing Matches on Old Radio Cat

March 29, 1932: Jack Benny's radio debut: Jack Benny, who was at the time a newspaper columnist,  made a guest appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on the CBS network. The Jack Benny Radio Program , first aired in May 1932 and was a radio-TV comedy series that broadcast for more than three decades. The show was  regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy. Jack Benny started his career on radio as a guest of Ed Sullivan in 1932 until he has got his own time slot and show later that year in May, 1932.  Jack Benny's radio show was initially sponsored by Canada Dry Ginger Ale —The Canada Dry Program. At the beginning May 2, 1932, the program continued airing on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26. After that the show was moved  to CBS on October 30. Jack Benny's Radio Show aired on CBS until January 26, 1933 with Ted Weems leading the band. Click here for more Jack Benny Radio Nostalgia!

March 21, 1924: On this day, Lowell Thomas was talked about "Man's First Fight Around the World" on KDKA in Pittsburgh,PA. This was his first radio broadcast. Lowell Thomas was a first broadcaster and also a world traveler, a lecturer, and a profile writer. Thomas's started his broadcast career at  KDKA, Pittsburgh. As a start, he hosted an one-hour program about the successful story of the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The War Department asked Thomas to covered event while they fly. The feat was comparable to Magellan’s first circumnavigation by sea.

March 13, 1923: On this day the new improvement of radio receiver was advertised: listening to the radio without headphones! The improvement was on speaker that could eliminated the need for headphones. Headphones were less liked because it heavy and may undermine a good hairdo. The new radio receiver model known has a 'foolproof' design. After several years the radio called superhet became a best selling product. In the early 1920s the superhet  doesn't needed because there was only a few radio stations that run at the time. But after 1920, number of radio station and old time radio shows grew so fast, following that, need of selectable or fine tuning radio receiver became more apparent. Since that many developments has done to improve the radio receiver performance.