Wilkinsburg ceremony to commemorate world's first wireless broadcast

An unassuming, two-story, red brick garage on the border of Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg was the site of an important contribution to broadcast history -- the world’s first wireless voice broadcast on Oct. 17, 1919.

Using bare wires, crackling spark coils and homemade vacuum tubes, Frank Conrad sent a two-hour-long concert of jazz, opera, popular and orchestral music over the airwaves to amateur radio buffs who listened in on crystal radio sets. His broadcast proved so popular that he began sending it over the airwaves every Wednesday and Saturday evening, often reaching listeners a couple hundred miles away. Conrad was assistant chief engineer at Westinghouse’s East Pittsburgh plant. Harry P. Davis, a Westinghouse vice president, was aware of the popularity of the broadcasts but took little interest -- until he saw a newspaper ad for Horne’s department store in September 1920 offering radios for sale to pick up Conrad’s broadcasts. After that, he persuaded others in the company that Westinghouse should set up its own station.