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You probably haven't heard of Charles Herrold. In fact, for me, getting to know him was
a way to learn about the power of words and the vulnerability of history.
Like many pioneers of radio, Charles Herrold's contributions faded
into the corners of broadcast history. Though a lot of people consider
Pittsburgh's KDKA one of the pioneers of licensed radio stations, not
many people know about Charles Herrold's own contributions to our wireless
history.
Let's start by putting things in perspective. At the end of the last century and well into
this one, computers have become the primary play things of inventive
young men and women who are into electronics. Entire computer companies
began in the garages of inspired young people, and one of the most
significant developments in music (I'm talking about MP3s and Napster)
started with a young man who wanted to make file sharing easier for
his friends. If it were possible to superimpose the computer skills
of today's young people onto the electronics skills of young people
in the early 1900s, we'd quickly find that back then, wireless radio
was like a the computer. And like Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster,
young men like Charles Herrold were discovering and testing the limits
of that new way of communicating.
During the Internet Boom, Napster and its clones were like virtual laboratories, testing,
defining and redefining the boundaries of a new place called cyberspace.
Though Herrold, or "Doc," as he affectionately came to be known to
his students, wasn't a young man in the early 1900s, he knew that young
people were the ones most eager to build radios in their homes, and
to squeeze their ears into tight-fitting headphones for a chance to
hear a random Morse-code from a ship at sea. Think of how amazing that
must have been the first time they heard it. The sounds of music or
a human voice coming wirelessly through the air.
Encouraged by the interest he saw in his own broadcasting experiments, and after losing
his job with the phone company because of the 1906 earthquake, by 1912
Herrold eventually found himself opening a school in San Jose, the
Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering. There Herrold taught young
men about radio and even developed what many radio historians consider
to be one of the first, if not the first, programmed radio entertainment.
His students would take requests over the phone, and then Herrold would
play the music requests they'd received. Listeners, could tune into
Herrold's programs with their crystal radios, and they could hear him
read the news, and even throw in an occasional contest now and then.
Unfortunately, as with many early radio trailblazers, Herrold's interests had to be set
aside for the Nation's — just five years after he opened his school.
World War I not only interrupted Herrold's place in broadcast history,
it practically eradicated it. During the war, radio technology advanced
quickly — particularly since the US government actively encouraged
the country's top radio engineers to work together — and when
it was over, no one really need crystal radios anymore. The vacuum
tube had taken its hold; the Department of Commerce had already started
licensing radio stations across the country — as with the Internet
Boomers, once their hobby became a tool of the masses, many of the
early radio luminaries faded into the history books.
To learn more about Charles Herrold and his radio programs, visit
http://www.charlesherrold.org/ or
look into a documentary about him at http://www.kteh.org/productions/docs/docherrold.html.
If you are interested in a list of AM and FM stations in the U.S. be sure to check out our
Radio on the Road.
To read more articles, please visit our What's
in the News Archives.
As always, please e-mail me with any comments or
article suggestions you might have. If you have a customer service or technical question,
please send to ccraneco@aol.com or call 1-800-522-8863.
If you are interested in using C. Crane’s articles on your own Web site,
please let me know. I’d be happy to take a look at your Web site and
see what we can do. Good-bye for now, Carlos. About the author.
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