Leo H. Rosenberg

Inducted 1998

Deceased 

Leo Rosenberg became America's first newscaster when he broadcast the results of the Warren G. Harding-James M. Cox presidential race on November 2, 1920, on America's first commercially licensed radio station-KDKA, in Pittsburgh.  He was 24 years old.

Prior to this first broadcast, ham operators talked to each other at stated times using amateur radio phone stations.  There was no broadcasting, only the relaying of messages back and forth from one ham operator to another.  Officials at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company thought that regularly scheduled broadcasts could become popular if advertised in advance, and they built a transmitter at the Westinghouse plant.

Rosenberg, who worked in public relations for Westinghouse, was sent to the Eighth Naval District headquarters in Detroit to obtain the required license from the Navy Department to inaugurate commercial broadcasting.  On October 27, 1920, Westinghouse received a temporary license-KDKA-that authorized the station to send music and news without calling another operator.

Rosenberg, one of several Westinghouse employees asked to audition for the election night broadcast, was selected to broadcast the results at no extra pay.  On November 2, 1920, just after 6 p.m., he uttered the first words heard on Radio Station KDKA.
 
A single room accommodated transmitting equipment, a record turntable and the first broadcast staff.  Arrangements were made with the morning Pittsburgh Post to get the election returns by telephone.  As the returns came in to the Post they were telephoned to the station, recorded, and handed to Rosenberg for reading into the microphone.  The microphone was the mouth transmitter of a telephone encased in a tube packed with cotton to prevent vibration.  Between the vote tallies and occasional music, Rosenberg solicited the listeners for their reactions to the broadcast.  He remained on the air for four hours that night.

A few weeks later, KDKA began carrying regularly scheduled broadcasts.  Rosenberg continued with the station as manager, announcer, and sportscaster.  He originated the first church service ever broadcast and recreated Pittsburgh Pirates games, using notes run to the station by a courier from Forbes Field. In 1922, he helped Westinghouse put WBZ, now located in Boston, on the air in Springfield, Mass.

Rosenberg left Westinghouse in 1924 to work for a small advertising agency that became Foote, Cone & Belding, where he spent the rest of his working life.  He retired in 1961, but continued as a consultant with the agency until 1976.