KDKA or WSAJ: Who Was First?

KDKA or WSAJ: Who Was First?

By Lawrence W. Reed

On November 2, 1920, the few people in western Pennsylvania who owned a newfangled device called a radio listened to KDKA to learn the results of the presidential election. It brought good news: The Harding-Coolidge ticket buried the Cox-Roosevelt ticket in a landslide. It was the first broadcast of the first commercially licensed radio station in the world.

Growing up in nearby Beaver Falls, I began listening to KDKA in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, I was a diehard fan of Jack Bogut’s morning show and Jim Horne’s in the afternoon. They were hilarious. Because of them and the station’s broadcasts of Pittsburgh Pirates games that featured my all-time favorite player, Roberto Clemente, KDKA will always be special to me.

Though KDKA ranks as the first commercially licensed radio station, that November 2 election news was not the first radio broadcast. A place that’s also special to me—my undergraduate alma mater, Grove City College—beat KDKA by a few months.

An historical marker on Broad Street in downtown Grove City (an hour north of Pittsburgh) reads,

Physics Professor H.W. Harmon installed radio equipment in 1913 at Grove City College. On April 26, 1920, the first radio broadcast was beamed over its station WSAJ by President W.C. Ketler to the New Castle Rotary Club. It preceded Pittsburgh’s KDKA broadcast by 6 months.

A 2020 article by Nick Hildebrand explains the run-up to that famous moment in Grove City:

Harmon was experimenting with transmissions as early as 1914 before the government shut down all civilian radio stations during World War I. After the hostilities ended, Harmon secured an experimental call sign—8YV—on Dec. 1, 1918, and made his first experimental transmission on July 25, 1919.

It turns out that Grove City College’s April 1920 radio broadcast ranks as the first verified one from a college or university, but it was not the first time anybody sent a radio transmission through the air. The earliest experimenters with the medium had done so at least as early as 1906.

Today, the college still owns and manages WSAJ-FM, the station that grew out of Harmon’s work so long ago.

Grove City College is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. In 2025, my “Class of ‘75” held its 50th reunion, a weekend I’ll always cherish. And in 2026, the college’s new publishing arm, Faith and Freedom Press, published its very first book, Born of Ideas: How Principles, Faith, and Courage Forged America, by yours truly.

I am frequently asked by parents, “Where should I send my son (or daughter) to school?” or “Is there a school that offers an affordable education and that emphasizes freedom, free markets, and strong character values?” My highest recommendation goes to the one I know best, Grove City College, with its beautiful campus in the hills of my beloved western Pennsylvania.

When I am asked by philanthropists, “Where can I invest in higher education that produces men and women of integrity who love America and its freedoms?” I give the very same answer.

Count me as a very proud Grover!

Sources and Additional Information:

Grove City College website

Grove City College Radio: A Century On Air

Beginnings of Radio in Grove City

KDKA: Broadcasting’s Pioneer Station by Brett Davis

KDKA History by Ed Young