Passage II

The Birth of Broadcasting

In the early 1900s, radio was not the widespread medium that it is today. Instead, its use was limited to electronics buffs, many of whom built their own wireless sets, as radios were sometimes called in their infancy. On his way to becoming, chairman of the board, of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the visionary David Sarnoff who saw a huge audience for radio.

To create such an audience, Sarnoff believed would require connecting citizens around the nation via radio to a dramatic large-scale popular event with built-in mass appeal. Broadcasting this event from receivers set up in store windows, city parks, and other public spaces to demonstrate that anyone could listen to the wireless, not just people with special skills and hard-to-build equipment.

The determinedly, ambitious Sarnoff latched onto the perfect event. In 1921, he made elaborate plans to broadcast a heavyweight boxing match between American Jack Dempsey with Frenchman Georges Carpentier. (24)Sports enthusiasts around the world were anxiously awaiting the bout between the experienced Dempsey and the popular underdog, Carpentier. When the time came, a transmitter was borrowed from the U. S. Navy and hired Major J. Andrew White to describe the action, at RCA's request, store managers, theater owners, and municipal workers across the country set up loudspeakers.

The match took place in Jersey City on a hot July afternoon. While the athletes battled it out, Major White described the action from ringside. All over the country, people listened in rapt attention. For the first time, they were hearing a distant event as it happened and sharing the experience with millions of others.

During the fourth round, Dempsey defeated Carpentier, just as the Navy's overheated transmitter broke down into a molten mass of wires and tubes. No matter: RCA would soon be offering radios in return for money to a public demanding broadcast music, sports, news, and weather. The era of electronic broadcasting had begun.