1921 in radio

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

Events

• 2 January: The first religious broadcast is made by Dr. E. J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church on the Pittsburgh station KDKA.
• 3 January: The first vocal weather forecast is made by station 9XM (now WHA), at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They had been broadcasting Morse code weather bulletins since 1917.^[1]
• 18 February: Warren G. Harding becomes the first U.S. president-elect to be heard on radio when he makes an appearance on KDKA.
• 4 March: The first Presidential inauguration is broadcast from Washington, D.C., by KDKA.
• 10 March: The first broadcast of live opera/theater in history is on the air from KDKA at Pittsburgh's Davis Theater.
• 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: The first broadcast of a World Heavyweight bout is on the air from Jersey City, New Jersey, via KDKA.
• 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: The first "news room" and "news department" in broadcast history is created by KDKA and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• 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 & group begins a weekly 90-minute music show 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, continued performing on radio until her death (d. 1949)^[3]
• 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)

References

1. The Shell Book of Firsts, 1983. p. 200
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