100th Anniversary Of First Commercial Radio Broadcast
AC client Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) was part of a celebration commemorating the first commercial radio broadcast. RIDC’s Keystone Commons property, formerly a Westinghouse complex in Pittsburgh, is the original site of KDKA’s 1920 radio shack that made that inaugural broadcast to Americans on Election Night and marked the birth of the broadcast industry.
But the significance of this centennial anniversary goes beyond that. The 1920 presidential election came at a time when, like today, the nation was recovering from a pandemic and experiencing social activism. The Harding-Cox election was the first in which women could vote.
The centennial celebration was covered in several Pittsburgh news outlets, including 90.5 WESA and TribLIVE.
“To commemorate the event, the National Museum of Broadcasting partnered with Westinghouse Service Uniting Retired Employees (SURE) and Duquesne University to re-enact the first commercial radio broadcast that covered the 1920 election between Republican Warren Harding and Democrat James Cox. Duquesne University will live stream the historic results from a re-constructed version of the original radio shack at the Regional Industry Development Corporation (RIDC) Park in Turtle Creek, just like it did 100 years ago.”
