BozinSeK --Raritys, Oddities, and other things that make you go Hmmmmmmm

In my preparations for the Sunday Shows at Radio KBOZ, I dig through countless online newspapers looking for interesting stories to share with the listeners. I ran into this one today and thought I'd share it with you.

Exactly one hundred years ago today, at 9 PM, Reginald Fessenden fired up his transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts in order to broadcast a "brief speech". The host of the broadcast was Fessenden. After giving a resume of the program Fessenden played a recording of Handel's "Largo" on an Ediphone thus establishing two records - the first recording of the first broadcast.

Fessenden then dazzled his listeners with his talent as a violinist playing appropriately for the Christmas season, "Oh Holy Night" and actually singing the last verse as he played. Mrs. Helen Fessenden and Fessenden's secretary Miss Bent, had promised to read seasonal passages from the Bible including, "Glory to God in the highest -and on earth peace to men of good will," but when the time came to perform they stood speechless, paralyzed with mike fright. Fessenden took over for them and concluded the broadcast by extending Christmas greetings to his listeners - as well as asking them to write and report to him on the broadcast wherever they were. He also sent out a few other holiday jams and well-wishes to those spending Christmas "onboard US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers."

Fessenden earned more than 500 patents in his lifetime, including credit for the "sonic depth finder, submarine signaling devices, inventor of the wireless telephone, the radio compass, the visible bullet for machine guns, and he also invented the first television set in North America in 1919."

Believe Me, the irony did not escape me, as I considered that a Hundred Years to the the day, I was broadcasting to sixteen countries and four continents from my converted dining room



Quite a motley group of DJ's wouldn't you say

Peace, Love and KBOZ