Detroit’s 8MK went on the air in August 1920, and National Radio Day, Friday, August 20, 2027, honors the medium it helped launch. Who started the day is unknown.
Tune In on August 20
August 20, each year. Whether by design or chance, it’s also the anniversary of Detroit station 8MK’s first broadcast in 1920.
Detroit, Pittsburgh and the First Stations
WWJ, originally 8MK, went on the air on August 20, 1920, the Detroit Historical Society records. It broadcast from the second floor of the Detroit News building.
The Scripps family, founders of the paper, backed it. William Scripps followed his father, James Scripps, into radio.
Call letters changed twice. They became WBL on October 13, 1921, and then WWJ on March 3, 1922.
Detroit claims a string of firsts for the station. They include the first newspaper-owned station anywhere and the first broadcast of a sporting event.
Pittsburgh’s KDKA
In Pittsburgh, Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad ran amateur station 8XK. On October 17, 1919, he played phonograph records on the air instead of chatting with other hams.
Conrad’s station was first listed in July 1916. During World War I, when most amateurs had to go silent, Westinghouse held special licenses.
His sons pitched in later. Crawford and Francis Conrad announced and played piano on the 1919 programs.
Those weekly tests grew into KDKA. Scheduled programming began on November 2, 1920, with the Harding-Cox presidential election returns.
Coverage ran from 6 p.m. until noon the next day. Leo Rosenburg announced the whole night, reading results phoned in from the Pittsburgh Post newsroom.
KDKA started small, with 100 watts on a 360-meter wavelength. Its studio and transmitter sat in a shed on the roof of a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh.
Why Radio Gets a Day
Early stations like these turned a hobby into a mass medium. Within two years, WWJ was airing concerts, and in 1927 it carried its first Detroit Tigers game.
Pew Research Center marked National Radio Day in 2023 with a roundup of listener data.
Radio still reaches most people. About eight in ten Americans ages 12 and older listen to terrestrial radio in a given week, Nielsen figures compiled by Pew show.
That share has slipped, though. It was 92% in 2009 and 82% in 2022, with a sharp drop when the coronavirus outbreak began.
News is part of the draw. In a summer 2022 Pew survey, 47% of U.S. adults said they get news from radio at least sometimes, but only 7% preferred it.
Podcasts, radio’s younger cousin, keep growing. Some 42% of Americans 12 and older listened to one in the past month in 2023, up from 12% a decade earlier.
Engineers still honor the pioneers. In June 1994, the IEEE placed a milestone plaque for KDKA at Keystone Commons in Pittsburgh.
Radio Ideas for August 20
- Tune to 950 AM in Detroit: WWJ has broadcast on that frequency since 1941.
- Visit the KDKA plaque: it stands at 700 Braddock Avenue in Pittsburgh.
- Catch a ballgame on the radio: Ty Tyson called WWJ’s first Tigers game from Navin Field.
- Find an orchestra broadcast: WWJ’s Detroit Symphony concert of February 10, 1922, was billed as the first heard by radio.
- Read the IEEE milestone page: it details KDKA’s election night hour by hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which station aired election returns first?
Both claim it. Detroit’s historical society credits WWJ with the first national returns, while KDKA’s scheduled service famously opened with them.
Which entertainer made his radio debut on WWJ?
Humorist Will Rogers. Detroit historians count his first radio broadcast among the station’s firsts.
How big is NPR’s broadcast audience?
About 23.5 million listeners a week, below its peak of 30.1 million five years before.