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Dials and Channels May 2011

Vol. 17, No. 2 www.radiohistory.org May 2011

W hile the title of this article may seem strange,

in fact there is an interesting connection

between bananas and wireless. It involves the history

of the powerful United Fruit Company, and how it

become a major innovator in wireless technology in

the early 20th century.

A smaller firm, the Boston Fruit Company, was the

predecessor of United Fruit. A century ago, United

Fruit was enjoying extremely rapid growth, and soon

became a major U.S. corporation (it became United

Brands in 1970, and more recently Chiquita Brands).

This vertically integrated company established huge

banana plantations in Central American countries

such as Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica,

created a substantial steamship line (dubbed ―The

Great White Fleet‖ for its hull color) to bring the

bananas to the United States (and also carry freight,

passengers, and mail), and made transportation

agreements with railroads and trucking companies to

deliver bananas across the country. United Fruit was

to bananas what John D. Rockefeller was to oil. In

the decade ending in 1922, United Fruit had shipped

284 million bunches of bananas from Central

America to the United States.

Writer O. Henry is credited with coining the phrase

―banana republics.‖ This term came about because,

in addition to buying land for plantations, United

Fruit spent huge sums to ensure that the govern-

ments of the countries in which it operated were

highly supportive of the company. The company’s

officers were well connected politically in

Dials and Channels The Journal of the Radio & Television Museum

2608 Mitchellville Road Bowie, MD 20716-1392 (301) 390-1020

Bananas and Wireless By Brian Belanger

George Schley Davis was United Fruit’s principal radio executive in 1922, serving as General Manager of the Tropical Radio Telegraph Co., President of Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co. (WSA), and a Director of both RCA and WSA.


Washington, D.C., and generous con-

tributions to certain U.S. politicians

helped to ensure that the U.S. State

Department would also not do any-

thing that might undermine United

Fruit’s monopoly.

Of course a monopoly is not all bad.

United Fruit built roads and schools

in their banana republics and hired

tens of thousands of workers, albeit

for low wages, and sometimes appal-

ling working conditions. By provi-

ding fresh fruit as well as sugar to

American consumers at affordable prices, the

company contributed to the general well-being of the

nation.

United Fruit began to build telephone and telegraph

lines to connect their inland plantations to coastal

headquarters operations. The company also advan-

ced the state of the art of wireless technology, and

that is the story to be told here.

Bananas are perishable—put another way, once

picked, they have a very short shelf life. If a ship

carrying bananas is delayed (or even sinks) because

it encounters severe storms without warning, or if it

arrives at a port where there is an unanticipated dock

strike underway, the losses could be appreciable. The

company did not want its empty ships sitting idle, so

efforts were made to time the cutting of bananas

such that the cargo would be waiting at the dock

when the ship tied up. Often this did not work out as

planned.

Very quickly United Fruit realized that 24/7 com-

munication among its remote plantations and its

ships could be extremely valuable in optimizing

logistics. By the early 20th century, a telegraph cable

linked Panama and the U.S., but rapid communi-

cation among Central American countries and the

U.S. was generally not available. United Fruit had no

choice but to build its own system. Of course there

were advantages to having a privately owned com-

munication network so that company information

would stay within the firm.

United Fruit tried building telephone and telegraph

lines, but rights of way had to be hacked through

jungles, over streams, and through swamps, where

construction was expensive and reliability dubious.

And, of course, communication between ships and

shore stations could not use wires. By the early 20th

century the company was well aware of how

successfully Marconi’s company had established

reliable communications between ships and shore

stations. Company managers reasoned that wireless

technology could enhance their bottom line, and

soon jumped on the wireless technology bandwagon.

Because United Fruit held so much capital, it could

afford to build state-of-the-art wireless stations at its

plantations, its U.S. ports of call, and at relay stations

in strategic locations, as well as onboard all of its

ships. According to Mason (see Sources), United

Fruit began experimenting with wireless technology

as early as 1904. Lee de Forest had just reported the

International Yacht Races via wireless, and follow-

ing that demonstration, United Fruit purchased the

equipment de Forest had used and installed it at the

company’s facilities at Bocas del Toro, Panama, and

Port Limon, Costa Rica, and established regular

communication between the two stations in 1905.

United Fruit also began to buy wireless equipment

such as rotary synchronous spark transmitters from

another wireless pioneer, Reginald Fessenden.

The Radio & Television Museum: A cooperative venture between the City of

Bowie and the Radio History Society.

The S. S. Pastores, a ship in United Fruit’s ―Great White Fleet.‖


By 1910 United Fruit was firmly committed to

establishing its own radio telegraphy network. But it

was difficult to find a reliable supplier of wireless

equipment. Small companies would spring up and

then go out of business. Marconi’s company made

good equipment, but Marconi refused to sell

wireless gear, preferring to lease equipment. A well-

established wireless technology firm that had built a

reputation as a leading ―high-tech‖ company of its

day was Wireless Specialty Apparatus (WSA). Like

United Fruit, WSA was also headquartered in

Boston. (See sidebar below.)

After purchasing WSA equipment and finding it

particularly reliable and well built, in 1912 United

Fruit bought WSA and operated it as a subsidiary to

ensure access to WSA’s state-of-the-art equipment.

United Fruit equipped its ships with WSA equip-

ment and hired the best wireless operators it could

find to staff its ships and shore stations.

Not only did United Fruit use its radio network for

company communications, in some cases it also

offered radiogram services to the public, often

providing the only rapid long distance communi-

cation option. In 1913 United Fruit’s wireless net-

work became a subsidiary, the Tropical Radio and

Telegraph Company, also headquartered in Boston.

Soon Tropical Radio had twenty wireless-equipped

ships and two shore stations, and that number

continued to grow. In 1916 Tropical Radio was

second only to Marconi in number of stations listed

in the U.S. government list of Radio Stations of the

United States.

When the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was

formed in 1919, its management sought the best

technology available. From its earliest days, RCA

was determined to gain access to the most critical

patents needed to produce state-of-the-art radio

equipment. At first, RCA had no factories of its own

with which to produce equipment, other than some

modest production facilities it acquired when it took

over American Marconi. RCA’s strategy was to have

The Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co.

This innovative company was formed in 1907 by

several early wireless pioneers, including Phillip

Farnsworth (WSA’s president) who had been a

patent attorney for American Marconi,

Greenleaf Whittier Pickard (WSA’s chief

engineer), who held a critical crystal detector

patent, and Col. John Firth, formerly with

International Telephone and Telegraph (WSA’s

vice president).

WSA began making receivers and other radio

system components and quickly established

itself as a reputable wireless firm. The company

sold much equipment to the U.S. Army Signal

Corps and the U.S Navy’s Bureau of Steam

Engineering, which procured radio equipment

for the Navy. In 1919 WSA claimed to be the

second largest radio engineering and manufac-

turing organization in the Western Hemisphere.

United Fruit’s wireless station at Port Limon, Costa Rico in the early 1920s. In 1904 the company pur-chased equipment from Lee de Forest to install at this location.

The generator room of United Fruit’s ship S. S. Ulua, early 1920s. This would have been state-of-the-art equipment in its day.


General Electric and Westinghouse, two of its

owners, manufacture radio equipment to be sold

under the RCA name. RCA soon realized that

United Fruit and its subsidiary Wireless Specialty

Apparatus owned the rights to technology that

would be valuable to RCA, so early in 1921 RCA

signed cross-licensing agreements with United Fruit.

Not only did RCA gain access to key patents owned

by United Fruit, it gained the option of having WSA

manufacture equipment with the RCA logo. Eric

Wenaas’ book contains detailed information about

the WSA products that found their way into RCA’s

product line.

WSA produced equipment for commercial rather

than home receivers, but when the entertainment

broadcasting craze took hold in the early 1920s,

RCA asked WSA to provide receiver models

suitable for home use.

The WSA models IP-500 and IP-501, two high

quality commercial grade receivers, were listed in

very early RCA catalogs for the public, but they

were far too expensive for home use. By 1922 when

entertainment broadcasting was catching on with the

public, RCA sought quick entry into the home

receiver market, and contracted with GE, Westing-

house, and WSA to produce home receivers. The

table on the next page lists the 1922 models (and

prices—which in 2011 values would be more than

ten times greater) that WSA produced for RCA.

(Prices of tube-type sets do not include tubes.)

According to Wenass, the WSA model AR-1375 was

the first radio to bear the ―Radiola‖ name, early in

1922, and the term soon became a household word.

WSA used the term ―Radio Concert Receiver‖ for the

sets it made for RCA.

At some point in the 1920s, WSA disappeared from

the scene. The sources I have are silent on exactly

when, how, and why this happened. We’ll leave that

to another radio historian to sort out.

Sources

Bartholomew Lee, ―Swan Island, its Radio History,

including the CIA and the Revenge of United Fruit,‖

United Fruit’s New Orleans wireless station, early 1920s, with its 320-foot steel masts. Its call letters were WNU.

The generator room at the New Orleans station. The radio room on the S.S. Pastores shown on page 2. No doubt much of this apparatus came from WSA.


Sources (Continued)

The AWA Review, Volume 23, 2010, p. 115.

L. S. Howeth, History of Communications-

Electronics in the United States Navy, (Washington:

USGPO, 1963).

Radio Corporation of America, Radio Enters the

Home, (Vestal Press reprint of a 1922 RCA booklet).

Roy Mason, ―A History of the Development of the

United Fruit Company’s Radio Telegraph System,‖

Radio Broadcast, Sept. 1922, p. 377.

John H. Melville. The Great White Fleet (New York:

Vantage Press, 1976).

Eric Wenaas, Radiola: The Golden Age of RCA,

(Chandler, AZ: Sonoran Publishing, 2007).

Wireless Specialty Apparatus Co., Radio Telegraph

and Telephone Equipment, (1919 catalog reprint in

author’s collection). ■

Radiola Model Type List Price

AA-484 2-tube amplifier $45

AA-1375 Crystal set $40 (or $47.50 with earphones

and antenna kit)

AR-1382 Crystal set $70 (or $85.50 with earphones

and antenna kit)

AA-485 Detector, RF, AF amplifier $160

AG-1380 Loop antenna $25

Table 1. Radiola home receivers manufactured by Wireless Specialty Apparatus for RCA in the early 1920s.

This crystal set, the Radiola ―Concert Receiver‖ Model AR-1375 was manufactured by Wireless Specialty Apparatus for RCA. In RCA’s 1922 catalog Radio Enters the Home, it listed for $40 without an antenna (about $450 in today's dollars). In the same catalog a similar GE-manufactured crystal set, the Model ER-753, was advertised for $18. It is difficult to imagine that the WSA crystal set performed sufficiently better to justify paying more than twice as much for it. Very few were sold.

High quality receivers like this Wireless Specialty Apparatus Model I-P-501 would have been used aboard ships of United Fruit’s Great White Fleet. It was listed in RCA’s 1922 consumer catalog Radio Enters the Home, but with a price tag of $550 ($7,300 in today’s dollars), it is unlikely that any homeowner would have purchased one.


Kitty Brown

Sparks, MD

Brunswick Panatrope radio/phono

Michael Byrnes

Fairfax, VA

Two large boxes of 1920s juvenile

fiction books (Radio Boys,

Radio Girls, etc.)

Jeff Christian

Brentwood, TN

42-inch Panasonic plasma high-

definition flat panel TV set

James DeWald

Baltimore, MD

Material about Jack Wells and

Baltimore radio

Gene Duman

Reston, VA

Radio & TV News magazines, station

WOW newsletters, service literature

Charles Einolf

Mitchellville, MD

~90 vacuum tubes

Peter Eldridge

Alexandria, VA

Seven radio ads

Lary Fitzgerald

Owings, MD

Motorola 56L4 portable radio

Bill Goodwin

Prince Frederick, MD

1924 book – Radio Receivers

Ed Haraway

Crofton, MD

Transmitter tubes

John Henry

Bowie, MD

Box lot—antenna wire,

cassette player, etc.

Robert Hooker

Upper Marlboro, MD

Mercury vapor lamp

Kurt Kobe

Mesa, AZ

Essex transistor radio

Michael Ravnitzky

Silver Spring, MD

32 issues of 1950s National

Radio-TV News

Carol and Robert J. Smalls, Jr.

Silver Spring, MD

Capehart-Farnsworth console

radio/TV/phono

Calvin D. Trowbridge

Martinsburg, WV

New paperback book – Marconi

Irv Wartell

Greenbelt, MD

8-track tapes, Panasonic 8-track player,

Sony boombox, videotapes, small FM

radio, shower radio, Sony Walkman

Current Museum

Hours:

Fridays

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays

1 to 5 p.m.

Other times by

appointment.

Free admission, but

donations appreciated.

Donations to the Museum January – March 2011


D uring the Golden Age of Radio, I particularly

enjoyed the comedy shows, of which there were

many. One of my favorites was Can You Top This?,

on the air from 1940 to 1954 (originally on station

WOR, New York, later on NBC, and for a time on

Mutual and on ABC). Its stars were Ward Wilson,

Peter Donald, ―Senator‖ Ed Ford, Harry Hershfield,

and Joe Laurie, Jr. For a time, announcer Dennis

James was on the program.

Getting the biggest possible laughs from the studio

audience was the goal of the program. Microphones

were installed in the audience with a ―laugh meter‖

connected to them (presumably just a volume-level

decibel meter). Listeners sent in about 3,000 jokes

per week. (No doubt there were duplicates.) A staff

member named Betty North sorted through them,

removing those that were too racy, disrespectful of

religion, or involved physical disabilities such as

stuttering.

When a listener’s joke was selected, he or she would

receive $5 ($10 towards the end of the program run).

Peter Donald would read the joke and the laugh

meter reading noted. (The meter

scale went from zero to 1,000.)

Then Ford, Hershfield, and Laurie

would each have to tell a joke on

the same topic. The laugh meter

readings for each would be noted.

The listener would get another $2

(later $5) each time a panel

member’s joke failed to get a

bigger laugh than the listener’s

joke. Those whose gags were used

on the air also received a record of

Peter Donald telling the joke.

Laugh meter readings of 600 to

800 were common, but fairly often

jokes got readings of 800 to 1,000.

The panelists became known as the

Knights of the Clown Table. Peter

Donald and the other three were

master humorists. (Peter Donald

also played the part of Ajax Cassidy on the Fred

Allen Show.) More about the others later.

A similar gag telling program called Stop Me If

You‟ve Heard This One, hosted by Milton Berle, was

on the air the year before Can You Top This? (on

NBC during the winter of 1939-40). Can You Top

This? stars Ed Ford, Harry Hershfield, and Ward

Wilson also appeared on that predecessor program.

Its format was slightly different, with a joke being

read sans punch line. The panelists were supposed to

interrupt and finish the joke. The show also appeared

briefly in 1947-48 on Mutual.

Ford, Hershfield and Laurie all had experience in

vaudeville, where to succeed, comedy performers

had to have a large repertory of gags. They estimated

that among the three of them, they knew 15,000

jokes. Much of the humor was dialect humor, with

Scots, Irish, Jews, Chinese, Swedes, African-

Americans, and morons being frequent butts of the

jokes. Ford, Hershfield, and Laurie were all skillful

with dialects. Negative stereotypes were often used

Can You Top This? (“That’s 1,000 on the Laugh Meter”)

By Brian Belanger


in a manner that would be considered in bad taste

today. Scots were always stingy, Irish were usually

drunks and fighters, Swedes and African-Americans

were hopelessly naive. The program had no script,

and it was said that the panelists did not know the

joke topics in advance. (Whether that was really true

or not would be hard to prove today.) The panelists

had to be able to modify jokes on the fly to fit the

topic.

Ed Ford once said that in all the years he was on the

program, he never heard a joke from a listener that he

had not heard before. If the topic of the listener’s

joke was a stingy Scot, without much effort, each

panelist could probably come up with a dozen or

more jokes about stingy Scots. Ford’s jokes often

involved standard characters with fanciful names

such as Mrs. Fafoofnick, Ditsy Baumwortle, and

Dopey Dillock.

Much of the humor was oriented toward current

issues of the time. Young people today might not

understand jokes about ration stamps, Roosevelt’s

cabinet officers, or women drivers who don’t roll

down the windows to use proper hand signals. (How

many of our readers are old enough to recall when

automobiles did not have flashing-light turn signals?)

We have several episodes of Can You Top This? in

MP3 format on the hard disc at the museum. When I

listen to these programs, I laugh out loud, but when I

read the same jokes in written form in the book

mentioned in Sources, I don’t find them nearly as

funny. This obviously is a tribute to the story-telling

ability of Ford, Laurie, and Hershfield.

Here are brief bio sketches of Ford, Laurie, and

Hershfield.

Ed Ford: Before turning to humor, Ed Ford held a

number of low level jobs including working in a

machine shop, in an antique shop (Laurie said that’s

where Ford learned his jokes), and selling insurance.

Displaying a talent for art, he was a cartoonist for a

time. He had the gift of gab, and was asked to do

after dinner speeches at venues such as the

Republican Club in New York City. At one such

event, the MC jokingly introduced Ford as ―Senator‖

Ford, and the nickname stuck. He authored a book

about after dinner speeches.

After a stint in vaudeville, he became an actor in the

theater and also on radio, appearing on the La Palina

Hour and some other shows, including predecessor

Stop Me If You‟ve Heard This One, but he is best

known for Can You Top This?

Harry Hershfield: Harry Hershfield’s bio sketch

says that the only thing left of his birthplace in Cedar

Rapids, Iowa, is a Burma Shave sign.

As a young man, Hershfield studied art in Chicago,

and got a job with the Chicago Tribune drawing

cartoons and a comic strip called Homeless Hector.

After a brief stint with the San Francisco Chronicle,

Hershfield returned to Chicago to work for the

American, which led to a move to New York for

work for the New York Evening Journal. There he

did a column called ―Broadway Beat‖ and drew a

cartoon, ―Abe Kabibble.‖

His start in radio came with a theater review

program called One Man‟s Opinion. Like Ed Ford,

he appeared on Milton Berle’s radio program Stop

Me If You Heard This One, which, no doubt. led to

his being asked to be on Can You Top This?

Harry Hershfield


Hershfield said, ―I have so many fine points you can

use me as a hat rack.‖

Joe Laurie, Jr.: Laurie was born in New York, but

never finished grammar school. Like RCA’s David

Sarnoff, his first job was as a newsboy. He claimed to

have held something like 80 different jobs early in

his career (e.g., messenger boy, harvest hand, garter

maker).

His first big break was an acting and writing job for

the musical comedy Over the Top, with Ed Wynn.

Other musical comedies followed. He wrote skits and

blackouts for vaudeville acts. He also wrote for Eddie

Cantor and Al Jolson, and wrote articles for Variety.

While he also authored stage plays, he is probably

best known for his appearances on Can You Top

This?.

Here are samples of the kinds of humor heard on Can

You Top This?

A fellow says he liked his radio better than

his wife because he gets less interference

from his radio.

One fellow chastised a friend for having

badly wrinkled trousers. The friend replied,

“I can‟t have my pants pressed.” “Why can‟t

you?” asked the other. “Because every place

I go to have my pants pressed has a sign on

the window saying „Pants Pressed on the

Inside‟—and I want mine pressed on the

outside.”

A man went to Coney Island and saw a little

Jewish man from the Bronx sitting on the

beach. “How‟s the water?” he asked.

“Lukewarm,” replied the Bronxman. So, the

fellow dove into the water, but came out

immediately, shivering, shaking, and teeth

chattering. “W-w-what‟s the idea of t-t-

telling me the w-w-water was lukewarm?” he

demanded. “Well,” explained the Bronxman,

“it luked warm to me!”

Two men met in the street, and one had a

terrible toothache. He was suffering. He was

in agony. “What can I do to relieve this

awful pain?” he moaned to his friend. “You

know what I do?” said the other guy

helpfully. “When I have a toothache or a

pain, I go over to my wife, and she puts her

arms around me, and caresses me, and

soothes me until finally I forget all about the

pain.” His friend brightened up immediately.

“Gee, that‟s wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Is

she home now?”

A fellow went into a millinery store. “I‟d like

to buy a big Satan hat for my wife,” he

informed. “You mean satin,” corrected the

saleslady. “Satan is something that looks

like the devil!” “Have you ever seen my

wife?” inquired the fellow.

Three men went fishing in a small boat. A

storm came up and the boat capsized. Two of

the men could swim, but Harold could not

and tried to grab hold of one of the

swimmers. Fearing that Harold would drag

him down, the swimmer cried out, “Harold,

can you float alone?” Harold replied, “Here

I am drowning and you want to talk

business!”

I know why Solomon had a thousand wives—

he figured that when he came home at night

at least one wouldn‟t complain about a

headache.

Can You Top This? became a television show on

ABC beginning in 1950, but lasted only a few

months. The show was revived again in 1970,

featuring Morey Amsterdam, but that show also

lasted only a few months.

To hear a Can You Top This? program, go to the

museum website (www.radiohistory.org), click on

programs, and click on Can You Top This?

Sources

John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-

Time Radio, (New York: Oxford University Press,

1998).

Ed Ford, Harry Hershfield, and Joe Laurie, Jr., Can

You Top This?, (New York: Blue Ribbon Books,

1945). ■


D r. Christopher Sterling, president of the

Museum’s Board of Directors, and a regular

docent at the Museum, has been a professor at the

George Washington University for three decades. He

will retire at the end of this year. On April 11th the

University’s School of Media and Public Affairs held

a special event to honor his career and also celebrate

the 40th anniversary of National Public Radio. The

event was attended by well-known broadcasters such

as NPR’s Audie Cornish, Cokie Roberts, and Susan

Stamberg, as well university officials and RHS

members.

Chris is an extremely well-known and highly respect-

ted historian in the field of broadcast history. He has

written or edited more than 25 scholarly books. Stay

Tuned, A Concise History of American Broadcasting,

which he co-authored with John Kittross, is widely

used as a university textbook for classes in media

history. A recent (2008) book, Sounds of Change: A

History of FM Broadcasting in America, has quickly

become the definitive history of FM broadcasting. Of

course he has also written fine articles for Dials and

Channels, and we trust that will continue.

Chris and fellow board member Mike Freedman have

been responsible for enabling the Museum’s regular

exhibits at the Media and

Public Affairs Building at

the University, and Chris

has been a key designer

of these exhibits.

We congratulate Chris on

his retirement. His

service to the Museum

has been invaluable, and

is greatly appreciated! ■

RHS’s President Chris Sterling is Honored

Upper right: Chris Sterling acknowledges the kudos he received during the special event on April 11th. Lower right: The screen announcing the honorees.


F rom time to time Dials and Channels will

feature a write-up about one of our loyal

museum volunteers. In this issue we focus on Oscar

Ramsey. Oscar has been a volunteer since shortly

after the museum opened. He is usually on duty

Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., skillfully repairing

radios or TVs and has been a mentor to some of our

more recent volunteers who desire to become radio

technicians. He also works with Tony Young at the

tube warehouse on a regular basis.

Oscar became interested in electricity and radio in

high school, and took a National Radio Institute

correspondence course. With a draft number that

ensured early call-up, he decided that enlisting and

getting his choice of specialty areas was preferable

to being drafted and taking his chances about what

he might end up doing. He enlisted in the U.S.

Army, chose the Signal Corps, and was sent to Fort

Gordon, Ga., for training. He then went to radio

repair school and finished highest in his class. For a

time, he was an Army radio instructor. He recalls

plenty of experience with the Army’s famous BC-

610 transmitter.

With his in-depth knowledge of radio and strong

work ethic, he was recruited for the White House

Communication Team during the Eisenhower

Administration. Oscar notes that his job there was

never dull, and he traveled all over the U.S. and

around the world. He was with White House

Communications from 1959 through 1967, provi-

ding reliable communications for Presidents

Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson.

After leaving the Army, Oscar worked for the

National Security Agency until his retirement. An

Extra Class ham operator (call NV3G), Oscar is also

active in the Anne Arundel Amateur Radio Club.

Keeping vintage electronic gear operating can be

daunting. Oscar and his colleagues who work in the

museum annex building usually have a backlog of

work to keep them busy, but Oscar is never stumped

by challenging service problems.

Thanks, Oscar, for all you do! ■

Museum Volunteer Spotlight: Oscar Ramsey

Here is soldering iron-wielding Oscar Ramsey studying a complex radio undergoing restoration in the Museum’s shop.

The annex building workbench. You will find Oscar and the other volunteers repairing radios and TVs here most Fridays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.


E ach year in May the Radio History Society’s

members vote for candidates for its board of

directors. Terms are staggered such that approx-

imately one third of the board members stand for

election each year. This year there are seven candi-

dates, whose bio sketches are given below. Members

who receive their newsletters via mail will find a

ballot enclosed with the newsletter. Those who

receive their newsletters via email will receive a

separate email containing the ballot.

Ken Mellgren chaired the nominating committee this

year. Camille Bohannon, whose term expires this

year, has chosen not to seek another term. In

addition to the five incumbents who have agreed to

serve again, we are pleased to announce a well

qualified candidate who has not served on the board

previously—James O’Neal.

Brian Belanger, who has served for a number of

years as Museum Director and Curator on a volun-

teer basis, but who has not been a voting member of

the board in recent years, was appointed to the board

at the May board meeting. Brian will be supervising

the new museum manager (see Chris Sterling’s

column on page 14 for details), and the board felt

that it made sense for the new employee’s supervisor

to be an official member of the board. Brian’s

appointment is actually an interim appointment, and

so he will stand for election in this current election.

Criteria for board service include a keen interest or

expertise in, or background in, radio and television

broadcasting and history, or some skill deemed

valuable to the board, e.g., legal expertise,

fundraising know-how, etc., as well as a willingness

to contribute strong support to RHS in one form or

another, (e.g., a commitment of volunteer time, or

expertise, or financial support). RHS board elections

are rarely contested, simply because it is not always

easy to find candidates willing to make the

commitment that is expected. If you meet the criteria

for board membership and would like to be

considered for a future board position, please send a

resume to Ken or one of our other board members.

BALLOTS MUST BE RETURNED BY JUNE 17.

Brian Belanger (Not currently a voting board

member, but served on the board previously.)

Brian is one of the founders of the Radio History

Society. He has served on a volunteer basis as the

Museum’s Director and Curator for the past several

years, and is the editor of Dial and Channels. His

interest in radio began in junior high school when

he got his first ham license (KN0IUX), and enjoyed

ripping apart radios left for the trash pickup. (Today

he is an Extra-class ham with call KB3PRS.) After

receiving a BS in Electrical Engineering from

Caltech and a PhD from the University of Southern

California, Brian worked at the General Electric

R&D center, developing superconducting motors

and generators and cryogenic underground power

cables. He spent most of his career at the National

Institute of Standards and Technology, serving for a

decade as Deputy Director of the Advanced

Technology Program. Since retiring, Brian has

devoted most of his hours to antique radio. Besides

museum activities, he is a director of the Mid-

Atlantic Antique Radio Club and co-edits its

journal. He received the Houck Award for

documentation from the Antique Wireless Associa-

tion for antique radio articles published in a variety

of journals.

Lynn Christian (Incumbent)

Lynn Christian’s distinguished half-century career

in broadcasting—including five in public and

commercial television, three decades in commercial

FM radio, ten in trade association leadership and

five in consulting—began in 1953 at KUHT,

Houston, the nation’s first educational television

station. He helped to make KODA-FM the first 24-

hour stereo station in the nation by the early 1960s.

From 1964 to 1988, he managed FM outlets in

several major markets including Miami, Dallas,

Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, playing

a central role as FM became the dominant radio

medium in the country. Over the next decade, he

was an executive with the National Association of

Broadcasters and then the Radio Advertising

Bureau.

Board of Directors Election—2011


Paul Courson (Incumbent)

Paul Courson attended the College of Journalism at

the University of Maryland, where he worked at both

news and engineering at carrier current station

WMUC in the late 1970s. His professional career

started in local radio newsgathering at stations

WLMD, WCBM, and the NBC flagship station

WRC. With a technical background dating to his

teenage years as a hobbyist radio experimenter, his

time at Laurel, Maryland's WLMD included a role as

an assistant engineer. By the late 1980s Paul had

been a Washington-based network anchor and

reporter for UPI and AP Radio, where he rose to the

position of Business Editor. He then moved into

television newsgathering in the early 1990s as a

financial news reporter for Dow Jones Television as

well as its Washington bureau manager. He today is

a Senior Producer at CNN, based in Washington,

where he is both behind and in front of the camera

providing text, photos, video, and on-air reports for

CNN.com, the news outlet's TV networks, and CNN

Radio. His outside interests include boating around

the Chesapeake Bay region, excursions by vintage

automobile, and the pursuit of vintage shortwave

operating as a licensed amateur radio operator with

the call sign WA3VJB. He is the prime mover in the

"rescue" of the beautiful 1940s-era Collins broadcast

transmitter now at the museum annex, where it has

returned to the airwaves on the hobbyist 160-meter

band under a special event call sign W3R. Paul

promotes the hobby's interest in the use of amplitude

modulation (the world's first practical method of

voice communications). Today a devoted group of

AM aficionados, including Paul, showcase that

grand tradition on the shortwave bands by sharing

the good sound and warm glow of vacuum-tube

technology. His writing, photographs, audio and

video on the subject have been published in national

magazines and websites, including Electric Radio,

http://AMFone.net, Popular Communications, QST,

and the broadcast newspaper, Radio World.

Mike Freedman (Incumbent)

Mike Freedman has served on the RHS board in two

eras—before and after a stint in New York as the

head of CBS Radio News (talk about hallowed halls

of history). He was a board member in the 1990s

when RHS was a fledgling organization, and then

again more recently, so he knows the Radio History

Society well. Mike served as The George

Washington University's Vice President for Informa-

tion for a number of years. Before that Mike served

in several management positions at the university. He

is also a full-time faculty member in the School of

Media and Public Affairs. Also, Mike has been

involved in GWU’s production of both radio and TV

shows. For example, a few years ago when XM

Satellite Radio did a program about the museum

narrated by Sam Litzinger, Mike was responsible for

making it happen. He's a long-time collector of old

radio and phonograph equipment, so he is comfort-

able dealing with both hardware and programs.

James O’Neal (New)

James O’Neal currently serves as technology editor

for TV Technology magazine, having assumed this

post shortly after his 2005 retirement from a career in

broadcast television engineering that spanned nearly

37 years. His articles and commentary appear in TV

Technology on a regular basis, and he is also a

frequent contributor of articles to Radio World

magazine's "Roots of Radio" broadcasting history

collection. He is a longtime member of the Antique

Wireless Association and has long form published

articles in that organization's AWA Review. One of

his special topics of interest is Reginald Fessenden

and his celebrated 1906 Christmas Eve "broadcast,"

which O'Neal has shown may not have actually

happened. He collects and restores early consumer

radio and television devices, as well as equipment

used in broadcasting stations. Mr. O'Neal is a life

member of the Society of Broadcasting Engineers,

and is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and

Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of

Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

He is a member of the IEEE's Broadcast Technology

Society administrative committee and serves as

historian for that group. In addition, he is a member

of the SMPTE board of editors. He has been an

invited speaker at national conventions and

conferences of the Society of Motion Picture and

Television Engineers and the National Association of

Broadcasters, and has been an invited lecturer at the

Smithsonian Institution. He is a graduate of the

University of Arkansas and is the holder of both FCC

commercial and amateur radio licenses.

Michael Simons (Incumbent)

Mike Simons is the director of the National

Electronics Museum (NEM) in Linthicum, Maryland,

(Continued on page 14)


Our first employee: By the time you read this, your

museum should have reached a milestone—the hir-

ing of our first employee. For the dozen years we've

been open (since June 1999), our entire operation

has been operated by volunteers, most especially our

executive director/curator, Dr. Brian Belanger. The

board of directors has decided to dip into our ac-

counts to hire, half-time for now, a new person in a

new role—as museum manager. After receiving

more than 50 applications, a committee narrowed

down our choices and interviewed a number of can-

didates. With luck the new person will be on deck

before June. This is a big step—having even a part-

time employee puts us in a new category for many

funders and other agencies, and should help us con-

tinue to grow.

From the board: As a new museum manager joins

us, we sadly lose an active member of our board,

Camille Bohannon. Camille has positively bubbled

with good ideas and a helpful approach, chipping in

for numerous events. But—as with many who are

"retired," she now finds her life simply too full of

conflicting time demands, and the museum will be

the poorer without her good input. She will remain

active as a volunteer as needed. We surely appreciate

the time and ideas she has given us over the past sev-

eral years.

On display: In addition to our main exhibitions at

Harmel House in Bowie, don't forget that we also

have displays in two other locations at all times—

both on nearby college campuses. At the University

of Maryland in College Park, we have some 25 radio

and television receivers on display at the Library of

American Broadcasting, located on the third floor of

Hornbake Library, open during business hours on

weekdays. And downtown at George Washington

University, in the main floor lobby of the Media and

Public Affairs building on the corner of H and 21st

Streets, NW, we have a large exhibition that changes

twice a year. At the moment--through most of Au-

gust--the display deals with the "Tools of the Trade"

to show changing technologies used in newsgather-

ing on radio and television over the years.

Let us hear from YOU! Our board of directors meets

four times a year . . . but we welcome suggestions

and ideas at ANY time. Do let us hear yours! ■

From The President’s Desk Chris Sterling

the nation’s only museum dedicated to defense

and system electronics. He has a BA in

anthropology from Kent State University, and a

MA from Southern Illinois University where he

focused on Pre-Columbian studies. He spent 15

years conducting field research in exotic

locations around the world. In 2001 he became

the Registrar of the National Museum of Health

and Medicine where he was in charge of moving

several large collections of human and animal

specimens from universities and government

agencies. Since joining NEM, Mike has led a

major rebranding campaign, acquired several

pieces of historic radar, achieved a significant

increase in state funding for the museum, and

helped in a major gallery redesign. In his spare

time Mike plays bass guitar in several area

rockabilly and bluegrass bands and holds

amateur license KB3NQC.

Christopher H. Sterling (Incumbent)

Chris began his service on the board in 1998. He

is a faculty member of the School of Media and

Public Affairs at the George Washington Univer-

sity in D.C., and served as associate dean of

graduate affairs for the arts and sciences from

1994 through 2001. Chris has a doctorate in

Communication from the University of Wiscon-

sin, and is the author of well-known books and

articles on radio and television history, in

particular, Stay Tuned—A History of American

Broadcasting (the third edition of which is

considered a classic in the field and is often used

as a textbook for those studying broadcast

history), and Electronic Media: A Guide to

Trends in Broadcasting and Newer Technol-

ogies, 1920-1983 (1984). His primary teaching

and research interests are in the development and

regulation of electronic media. He is also the

(Continued from page 13)

(Continued on page 16)


Acknowledgements:

The Museum thanks the Maryland Historical Trust for its grant support to enhance the museum’s operations.

RHS Officers, Directors, and Key Volunteer Staff

President Chris Sterling (2011) 4507 Airlie Way

Annandale, VA 22003

(703) 256-9304 [email protected]

Vice President Peter Eldridge (2012) 6641 Wakefield Dr. #205 Alexandria, VA 22307 (703) 765-1569 [email protected]

Treasurer

David Green (2012) 413 Twinbrook Parkway Rockville, MD 20851 301-545-1127

Membership Chair

Tony Young (301) 262-1917 [email protected]

Executive Director and

Newsletter Editor

Brian Belanger 115 Grand Champion Drive

Rockville, MD 20850

(301) 258-0708

[email protected]

Directors

Camille Bohannon (2011) (301) 258-9295 Lynn Christian (2011) (703) 723-7356 Paul Courson (2011) (202) 898-7653 Michael Freedman (2011) (703) 838-0013 William Goodwin (2013) (410) 535-2952 Charles Grant (2012) (301) 871-0540

Directors (continued) Michael Henry (2013) (301) 474-5709 Caryn Mathes (2013) (202) 885-1214 Bill McMahon (2013) (304) 535-1610

Ken Mellgren (2012) (301) 929-1062 Pamela O’Brien (2012) (301) 486-1402 Michael Simons (2011) (301) 698-8230 Otis Thomas (2013) (301) 860-3711

Ed Walker (2012) (301) 229-7060

editor of the multi-volume set, Encyclopedia of

Radio (2003) and was on the editorial board of the

Encyclopedia of Television. Because of his strong

credentials in the history of radio and television,

Chris has been invaluable in making sure the stories

the museum presents to the public are complete and

accurate. Chris has also been a loyal weekend docent

at the museum and serves as an active member of the

museum’s collections/exhibits committee. He has

designed the last two exhibits for the special displays

that the museum presents at the George Washington

University, including the current display, The Role of

Television in Public Affairs. For more, see

www.ChrisSterling.com. ■

(Continued from page 14) Upcoming Events at the Museum

Saturday, June 11 at 2 p.m.: Marconi comes

to the Museum! Well, actually not Guglielmo

Marconi himself, but rather, Cam Trowbridge,

the author of a new book about Marconi, will be

at the museum to sign books and to present a

lecture about this famous radio pioneer. (Some

call Marconi the inventor of radio.)

Saturday, July 16, 2:30 p.m.: RCA History

Lecture. At one time RCA was the world’s

best-known electronics company. Learn about

RCA’s history. Museum Director and Curator

Brian Belanger will present a history of the Ra-

dio Corporation of America at 2:30 p.m. Of

course there are plenty of RCA radios and televi-

sion sets to view after the lecture.

Admission is free, donations encouraged. ■

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