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Herrold's San Jose Radio Station

Herrold's San Jose Radio Station

Image creditPhotograph published with Charles D. Herrold's article on ground antennas, 1919 (photo c. 1912)
Public domain ↗

Herrold's San Jose Radio Station

Year
1909
Creator
Charles Herrold, Sybil Herrold
Company
Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering (station later licensed as KQW)
Location
Garden City Bank Building, First and San Fernando Streets, San Jose, California

Description

Charles Herrold opened a wireless school and an experimental radio station in downtown San Jose on January 1, 1909. His arc transmitter sent speech and music from the roof of the Garden City Bank Building, and the photograph shows his laboratory in approximately 1912.

Importance

Herrold sent programs on a schedule to a general audience years before commercial radio started, so historians call his station one of the first broadcasters. Federal Telegraph in Palo Alto sold its arc radios to the Navy, but Herrold used his arc for the public. In 1921 the station received the license KQW, and after CBS bought it in 1949, it became KCBS.

Interesting fact

Sybil Herrold played borrowed phonograph records for young listeners on the station, so some historians call her the first disc jockey in the United States.

Sources

  1. Perham Collection Creator Profile: Charles and Sybil Herrold ↗History San José
  2. The History of KQW and KCBS Radio (San Jose/San Francisco) ↗Bay Area Radio Museum
  3. Site of the World's First Broadcasting Station (California Historical Landmark No. 952) ↗California Office of Historic Preservation · 1983-01-14