Bay Area Radio

Book excerpt: The San Francisco Bay Area was a key national radio-broadcasting center during the first three decades of commercial radio. In 1909, it was home to the very beginnings of the art and science of broadcasting, when Charles "Doc" Herrold began sending out weekly voice and music programs from his radio school in San Jose. Dozens of other radio pioneers soon followed. In 1926, big broadcasting came to San Francisco when the newly formed National Broadcasting Company (NBC) established its West Coast headquarters on Sutter Street. Other national and regional networks soon set up their own broadcast production centers, and for the next 20 years, thousands of actors, musicians, announcers, and engineers were creating important programs that were heard on the West Coast as well as nationwide. During World War II, San Francisco became the key collection center for Pacific war news, and bulletins received in San Francisco were quickly relayed to an anxious nation. Conversely, powerful shortwave stations broadcast war news and propaganda back to the Pacific and entertained American troops overseas.