700 HERROLD

Greb, "We even had a San Jose music store that supplied us tising. During World War II, he worked as a janitor at the records, of course free of charge, and I think we played them Oakland shipyards. He died in 1948. Until 1958, when his all. We would take the Mercury -Herald in San Jose, and we story was uncovered by San Jose journalism professor Gordon would read headlines and discuss them a little bit, just some- Greb, almost no one outside of northern California had ever thing to yak about and make it interesting at the same time, to heard of Charles Herrold. develop an audience, I would say." A local news story of a typ- MICHAEL H. ADAMS ical Herrold broadcast illustrates the method: See also De Forest, Lee; Fessenden, Reginald; KCBS/KQW For more than two hours they conducted a concert in Mr. Herrold's office, which was heard for many miles Charles D. Herrold. Born in Fulton, Illinois, 16 November around. The music was played on a phonograph fur- 1875. Studied astronomy, Stanford University (no degree), nished by the Wiley B. Allen Music company. Immedi- 1895; head of technical department, Heald's College, ately after the first record was played numerous Stockton, California, 1906 -08; started Herrold College of amateurs from various points in the valley notified (the Wireless and Engineering, San Jose, California, 1909; began a announcer) that they had heard the music distinctly. He regularly scheduled, pre-announced broadcast operation, gave the names of the records he had on hand and asked 1912 -17; invented a wireless radiotelephone and developed those listening to signify their choice (San Jose Mercury - other new products in various fields; broadcast operation Herald, 22 July 1912). licensed as KQW, 19z1; sold airtime for several Bay area radio station, 1925 -30; worked at Oakland Public Schools as media The question remains: if Herrold's was the first broadcast- technician, 1932; worked as janitor at Oakland shipyards ing station, why do not more people know about it? Some of during World War II. Died in Hayward, California, r July the misunderstanding surrounding the "who was first" broad- 1948. casting claims can be traced to an early historian, George Clark. In 1921 Clark, RCA's in -house historian, dismissed the Further Reading claims of all who broadcast before KDKA, because, as he Adams, Michael H., "The Race for Radiotelephone: 1900- wrote, "ordinary citizens" could not buy radios until KDKA, 1920," AWA Review 10 (1996) and therefore men like Herrold and de Forest were not really Adams, Michael H., et al., Broadcasting's Forgotten Father: broadcasters, because their audiences were engineers or ama- The Charles Herrold Story (videorecording), Los Altos, teurs, not "citizens." Still, Herrold was the first to use radio to California: Electronics Museum of the Perham Foundation, broadcast entertainment programs to an audience on a regular 1994 basis. He was not the first to broadcast pre- announced to an Barnouw, Erik, A in the United States, audience-that was Fessenden in 1906; he was not the first to 3 vols., New York: Oxford University Press, 1966 -70; see broadcast election returns -that was de Forest in 1916; he was especially vol. 1, A Tower in Babel: To 1933, 1966 not the first to get a broadcast license -that was Conrad in Greb, Gordon, "The Golden Anniversary of Broadcasting," 192.0. Herrold returned to the air in 1911 licensed as KQW, Journal of Broadcasting 3, no. I (Winter 1958-59) ran the station until 1915, and later specialized in radio adver- The Charles Herrold Historic Site,

Hertz, Heinrich 1857 -1894

German Physicist

In a series of laboratory experiments in 1887 -88, Heinrich Lodge, Guglielmo Marconi, , Sir John Hertz verified James Clerk Maxwell's theory that electromag- Ambrose Fleming, E.F.W. Alexanderson, and Lee de Forest. netic waves, or wireless transmissions, existed, and that these Hertz's research placed the field of electrodynamics on a invisible forms of radiant energy traveled at the speed of light. firm footing, sparked enormous activity among scientists, and Hertz paved the way for the development of wireless radio laid the foundations for the development of wireless telegra- communications by notables such as Edouard Branly, Sir Oliver phy. He showed that electricity could be propagated or trans-