Updated 11/23/21
It was time for the final Bold New Work at Creative Cauldron. The five year journey was coming to an end, and how in the world could we wrap this endeavor up with a nice bow? We had done an adaptation (Turn of the Screw), Historical Fiction (Monsters), a total original (Kaleidoscope), Contemporary Historical Fiction (WITCH), so what haven’t we done? What haven’t we done that we could possibly do within a year?
I have always been fascinated with the radio, and the power of it. I love it’s meteoric rise to fame, and just as sudden decline as the Television took its place. I love the old radio serials, comedies and dramas alike. I was particularly enamored of the 1938 War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast. I also have a book called We Interrupt This Broadcast that came with an audio CD of recordings to go along with the different chapters. We talked about the possibility of a show that’s constant was the radio, and that’s it - we would change characters, time periods, and locations. That was an intriguing idea. In the end, we didn’t think it could sustain an entire evening, as the only constant the audience could identify with would be a piece of machinery.
Still, I didn’t want to give the radio up. I had printed a whole booklet full of radio stories that I had found, and we took the book to dinner one night. We found the story of Frank and Flora Conrad, who discovered "Mass Broadcasting" (a term they invented) in their unassuming garage in Wilkinsburg, PA in the early teens of the century.
That was it. We were instantly attracted to their story. A couple of innovators who carved their own path and their work gave way to modern media.
Their path was not easy, as a couple, or as innovators. But their persistence gained them the first radio station that played music, and commercials.
Their fostering of radio led to the first big radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA - and the first broadcast was the 1920 Presidential Election. 100 years later, we are here to celebrate them.
This couple delivered the first station of media and were the developers of mass media.
As we celebrate them in 2020, let us remember that their dreams in 1920 are unparalleled in our current climate. Thanks to Frank and Flora for everything that we have now.
That was it. We were instantly attracted to their story. A couple of innovators who carved their own path and their work gave way to modern media.
Their path was not easy, as a couple, or as innovators. But their persistence gained them the first radio station that played music, and commercials.
Their fostering of radio led to the first big radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA - and the first broadcast was the 1920 Presidential Election. 100 years later, we are here to celebrate them.
This couple delivered the first station of media and were the developers of mass media.
As we celebrate them in 2020, let us remember that their dreams in 1920 are unparalleled in our current climate. Thanks to Frank and Flora for everything that we have now.
