1926 in radio

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Last updated December 23, 2024

The year 1926 saw a number of significant happenings in radio broadcasting history.

Events

1 January – 2RN, the first radio broadcasting station in the Irish Free State, goes on air.^[1]
12 January – Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry in the United States, in which the two white performers portray two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city (it is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy ).^[2]
16 January – A British Broadcasting Company radio play by Ronald Knox about workers' revolution in London causes a panic among those who have not heard the preliminary announcement that it is a satire on broadcasting.^[3]
25/26 February – A majority share in German national broadcaster Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft is taken by the state-owned Reichspost authority.^[4]
18 April – The Polskie Radio company begins regular broadcasts from Warsaw, Poland.
4 May – The British Broadcasting Company broadcasts five news bulletins a day as no newspapers are being published due to the 1926 United Kingdom general strike.
6 May – First radio broadcast of a complete opera – Attilio Parelli's I dispettosi amanti – by the Milan station of the Unione Radiofonica Italiana (URI).
15 May
- American Telephone & Telegraph establishes the Broadcasting Company of America; containing WCAP in Washington, D.C., WEAF in New York, and the mini-network between both stations.
- Radio Zagreb, the first radio station in southeastern Europe, begins broadcasting.
29 May
- The Finnish national broadcasting company Yleisradio is founded.
- VPRO (the Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep) is established in the Netherlands.
12 June – Radio Kaunas begins regular broadcasting in Lithuania.
1 July – American Telephone & Telegraph exits the station ownership realm, selling off WEAF, WCAP, and their mini-network, to RCA. The latter station is merged into time-share WRC (AM) and takes the latter stations' callsign.
13 September – Formation of the National Broadcasting Company by RCA is announced in newspaper advertisements around the country.
7 October – The British Broadcasting Company begins broadcasting a weekly service of Choral Evensong, with the first recorded service being held in Westminster Abbey. Choral Evensong will pass its 95th anniversary in 2021, making it the longest-running regular outside broadcast.
10 November – Unión Radio takes over station EAJ-1 Radio Barcelona, laying the foundation for the creation of Spain's first national radio network.
14 November – The first Geneva Frequency Plan comes into force, halving the number of medium wave frequencies available to countries in Europe.^[5]
18 December – Regular radio broadcasting begins in Estonia.
24 December – The first singing jingle commercial is heard on WCCO, Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[6]

Debuts

12 January – Sam 'n' Henry debuts on WGN in Chicago, Illinois.^[6] Two years later, the creators of the show, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, leave and start the similar show Amos 'n' Andy .
26 February – 1150 AM returns to the air, this time as WJBO in New Orleans.
1 November – Radio Belgique (1924–30) broadcasts the first edition of Le Journal Parlé: "All the world's and all the day's news in thirty minutes".^[7]
15 November – The National Broadcasting Company commences operations on what will later become the NBC Red Network, composed of AT&T's WEAF-WCAP mini-network.
24 November – KVI in Tacoma, Washington, signs on the air for the first time.
13 December – WWVA at Wheeling, West Virginia signs on at 2A.M. from owner John Stroebel's residence.
23 December – KEX in Portland, Oregon begins broadcasting.

Births

22 February – Kenneth Williams, English comic actor (died 1988)
9 March – Joe Franklin, American broadcast media personality (died 2015)
19 May – David Jacobs, British broadcast presenter (died 2013)
23 May – Desmond Carrington, English disc jockey and actor (died 2017)
22 June – Ray Szmanda, American radio and television announcer (died 2018)
27 August – Pat Coombs, English comic stooge (died 2002)
12 September – Peter Dixon "Dix" Davis, American radio and film actor (died 2024)^[8]^[9]^[10]
30 September – Dave Hunt, American Christian apologist and radio commentator (died 2013)
31 October – Jimmy Savile, English disc jockey, television presenter, philanthropist and serial sex offender (died 2011)
14 November – Tom Hatten, American broadcast media personality (died 2019)

Related Research Articles

Amos 'n' Andy was an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago then later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio show was created, written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who played Amos Jones (Gosden), Andrew Hogg Brown (Correll), and George "Kingfish" Stevens (Gosden) as well as incidental characters. On television from 1951 to 1953, black actors took over the majority of the roles; white characters were infrequent.

Charles James Correll was an American radio comedian, actor and writer, known best for his work in the radio series Amos 'n' Andy with Freeman Gosden. Correll voiced the main character Andy Brown, along with various lesser characters.

Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden was an American radio comedian, actor and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the radio series Amos 'n' Andy.

Sam 'n' Henry was a radio series performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll that aired on Chicago radio station WGN from 1926 through 1928. The ten-minute program is often considered the first situation comedy. Gosden and Correll reworked the premise on a more ambitious scale to create their long-running radio show Amos 'n' Andy.

A terrestrial network is a group of radio stations, television stations, or other electronic media outlets, that form an agreement to air, or broadcast, content from a centralized source. For example, ABCTooltip American Broadcasting Company and NBCTooltip National Broadcasting Company (U.S.), CBC/Radio-CanadaTooltip Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada), the BBCTooltip British Broadcasting Corporation (UK), the ABCTooltip Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia), ARDTooltip ARD (broadcaster) (Germany), PTVTooltip People's Television Network (Philippines), KBSTooltip Korean Broadcasting System, and NHK (Japan) are TV networks that provide programming for local terrestrial television station affiliates to air using signals that can be picked up by the home television sets of local viewers. Networks generally, but not always, operate on a national scale; that is, they cover an entire country.

WFAN is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area, while its 50,000-watt clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the eastern United States and Canada. WFAN's studios are located in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan and its transmitter is located on High Island in the Bronx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Network</span> American radio network (1927–1945)

The Blue Network was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBC Radio Network</span> American radio network (1926–1999)

The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it was one of the first two nationwide networks established in the United States. Its major competitors were the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), founded in 1927, and the Mutual Broadcasting System, founded in 1934. In 1942, NBC was required to divest one of its national networks, so it sold NBC Blue, which was soon renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). After this separation, the Red Network continued as the NBC Radio Network.

The Broadcasting Company of America (BCA) was a short-lived subsidiary of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T). It was formed in May 1926 in order to consolidate AT&T's radio station and network operations into a single organization. However, just two months later AT&T announced that the subsidiary was being sold to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). This sale took place on November 1, 1926, and RCA reorganized the BCA assets to form the core of National Broadcasting Company's (NBC) network operations, including its "Red Network".

WCAP was a short-lived radio station located in Washington, D.C. during the mid-1920s. It was initially licensed in mid-1923 to the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company (C&P), and its call letters were chosen to reflect the station owner. C&P was controlled by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), and the station was the second of two, following WEAF in New York City, that would be established by AT&T. WCAP was high-powered "Class B" station, and it shared time on the 640 AM frequency with WRC, owned by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).

1924 in radio details the internationally significant events in radio broadcasting for the year 1924.

The year 1927 saw a number of significant happenings in radio broadcasting history.

1923 in radio details the internationally significant events in radio broadcasting for the year 1923.

The year 1931 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

The year 1925 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

The Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4, 1923, on WEAF Radio in New York City. As radio's first sponsored network program, it was paid for by the National Carbon Company, which at the time owned Eveready Battery. The host for many years was the banjo-playing vocalist Wendell Hall, "The Red Headed Music Maker", who wrote the popular "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'". Hall was married on The Eveready Hour in 1924.

WJY was an AM radio station located in New York City, licensed to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) from May 1923 to early 1927. It was operated jointly with RCA's primary New York City station, WJZ. After RCA took over operation of a third New York City station, WEAF, WJY was discontinued as being no longer needed.

WMAF, known as "The Voice From Way Down East", was a radio broadcasting station licensed to "Colonel" Ned Green's Round Hills Radio Corporation in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts from September 1922 until 1931. In the summer of 1923 it began rebroadcasting programs originating from station WEAF in New York City, which is generally considered to be first sustained radio network connection in the United States.

Judith Cary Waller was an American broadcasting pioneer. Despite the fact that she knew nothing about radio at the time, she became the first station manager of Chicago radio station WMAQ when it went on the air in 1922. She was one of the first female radio station managers in the United States, along with Eleanor Poehler of WLAG/WCCO in Minneapolis, and Bertha Brainard of WJZ and Vaughn De Leath of WDT in New York City. During her tenure as station manager, Waller was responsible for obtaining broadcast rights for Chicago Cubs home games for WMAQ and for hiring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll as Amos 'n' Andy after they left WGN radio over syndication rights. Waller tried to interest the CBS radio network in the program with no success. NBC brought the program to its Blue Network three years before its purchase of WMAQ in 1931.

This is a list of American television-related events in 1926.

References

↑ RTÉ Libraries and Archives: History of RTÉ
↑ Coleman, Robin R. Means, ed. (1998). African American Viewers and the Black Situation Comedy: Situating Racial Humor (Studies in African American History and Culture). Routledge. p. 384. ISBN 0815331258 . Retrieved 10 October 2010.
↑ "The BBC Radio Panic, 1926". Museum of Hoaxes . Archived from the original on 2015-01-03. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
↑ "Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (RRG)" (PDF). dra.de (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
↑ Radio Rewind
1 2 Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8.
↑ "Le Journal Parlé fête ses 80 ans". Cybercommunauté de la Communauté française. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
↑ "Death Notices: Davis". The Washington Post. January 12, 2024. ProQuest 2914142438. Peter Dixon Davis, 97, of Dorset, Vermont, passed away peacefully on Saturday January 6th, 2024. Peter was born in Beverly Hills, California on September 12th, 1926. Peter was "discovered" as a child and became a star at 5 years old. Peter enjoyed a successful 15-year career as a radio, movie and television actor. He was part of Jack Benny's Gang and was also part of the cast of One Man's Family. He appeared on the Little Rascals, and he worked in film with the likes of William Powell and Shirley Temple.
↑ "'Date With Judy' Is Air Offering". Belvidere Daily Republican. June 30, 1943. p. 5. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
↑ "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGL4-SS5M : Sun Oct 15 14:58:16 UTC 2023), Entry for Dixon Davis and Fredrick Duane Davis, 12 Sep 1926.

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[1] RTÉ Libraries and Archives: History of RTÉ

[2] Coleman, Robin R. Means, ed. (1998). African American Viewers and the Black Situation Comedy: Situating Racial Humor (Studies in African American History and Culture). Routledge. p. 384. ISBN 0815331258 . Retrieved 10 October 2010.

[3] "The BBC Radio Panic, 1926". Museum of Hoaxes . Archived from the original on 2015-01-03. Retrieved 2019-11-03.

[4] "Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (RRG)" (PDF). dra.de (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

[5] Radio Rewind

[coxotd-6] 1 2 Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8.

[7] "Le Journal Parlé fête ses 80 ans". Cybercommunauté de la Communauté française. Retrieved 2019-11-06.

[8] "Death Notices: Davis". The Washington Post. January 12, 2024. ProQuest 2914142438. Peter Dixon Davis, 97, of Dorset, Vermont, passed away peacefully on Saturday January 6th, 2024. Peter was born in Beverly Hills, California on September 12th, 1926. Peter was "discovered" as a child and became a star at 5 years old. Peter enjoyed a successful 15-year career as a radio, movie and television actor. He was part of Jack Benny's Gang and was also part of the cast of One Man's Family. He appeared on the Little Rascals, and he worked in film with the likes of William Powell and Shirley Temple.

[9] "'Date With Judy' Is Air Offering". Belvidere Daily Republican. June 30, 1943. p. 5. Retrieved February 11, 2024.

[10] "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGL4-SS5M : Sun Oct 15 14:58:16 UTC 2023), Entry for Dixon Davis and Fredrick Duane Davis, 12 Sep 1926.

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