Dickson: How radio gave baseball its voice
From Paul Dickson at The National Pastime Museum on February 26, 2016:
On August 5, 1921, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a 25-year-old studio announcer for radio station KDKA sat in a box seat behind home plate in Forbes Field. Using only a converted telephone as a microphone and some jury-rigged equipment, Harold Arlin broadcast the first Major League Baseball game, calling every play in a game between the Pirates and the Phillies, which the Pirates won 8–5.
Arlin later recalled that this pioneering event was merely an experiment—a “one-off”—and that most of the staff at the station thought that baseball would never be commercially viable on radio.
For the moment the conclusion reached by Arlin and his peers seemed on target. That year’s World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants was broadcast locally, and the broadcast the following year of the 1922 World Series was linked to more than one station, but these were novelties with little impact on the regular baseball season or the consciousness of the fans.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/how-radio-gave-baseball-its-voice
- Related link: Get your free e-book copy of SABR’s Calling the Game: Baseball Broadcasting from 1920 to the Present, by Stuart Shea
Originally published: February 26, 2016. Last Updated: February 26, 2016.