Dr. Frank Conrad

Dr. Frank Conrad, the "Father of Radio Broadcasting",  invented the concept of broadcasting and coined the term.  In its infancy radio was point-to-point with one operator communicating directly with only one other operator via Morse code. Fank Conrad added a microphone to his self built radio set to send transmissions to everyone who had a receiver.  He was  was an engineer of electical devices at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh.  As a hobby he built and experimented with a small cystal radio set in 1912 to receive transmissions of time signals from the Naval Observatory.  Wanting to communite to others Conrad  in 1916 built a 75 watt transmitter in his garage on Penn Avenue in Wilkensburg, Pa.   It was licensed by the Department of Commerce with call letters 8XK.  Limited in his skill at Morse code, Conrad added a microphone to his transmitter.

Testing out his microphone Conrad placed a phonograph player in front of his microphone, put on a record, and broadcasted music to his listeners. Amateur ham radio operators around Pittsburgh tuned into hear his broadcasts of music recordings and talk. Word of his broadcasts spread when the Pittsburgh newspapers wrote about his shows.  As his popularity increased Frank aired records on a regular schedule for two hours a day on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.  Listeners wrote to Conrad to request specific songs. Conrad may have also invented "Payola" when he made an arrangement with the Hamilton Music Store to mention the store on the air in exchange for free records.