Abstract

Prior to the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the 1920s, wireless communication was used for a variety of purposes, with the existing scholarship focusing on amateur enthusiasts, the military, entrepreneurs, and large corporations who experimented with the technology. As a supplement to this earlier research, this study focuses on two wireless telegraph stations operated by Wanamaker's department store that were also active during radio's pre-history. The goal of this research is to clarify conflicting historical claims, and also to illustrate how these stations functioned as precedents for later uses of electronic media. Contrary to other scholarship on this early period in radio's evolution, this article concludes that explicitly commercial interests have always influenced the development of American radio. Additionally, this study also highlights some methodological difficulties facing any research into this phase of early electronic media.

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