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- When
- November 2, 1920
- Where
- KDKA, Pittsburgh
- Broadcast
- Harding–Cox election returns
- Backup plan
- A transmitter in an engineer’s garage
It started as a sales pitch
In 1920, a Pittsburgh department store advertised radio sets for about $10 that could pick up the music an amateur, Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad, was broadcasting from his garage. Westinghouse noticed the ad and saw a market: if people had something to listen to, they would buy radios.
So Westinghouse built a station, KDKA, and put it on the air on election night, November 2, 1920. As results in the Harding–Cox presidential race came in by telephone from a newspaper, announcers read them out live. Listeners heard Warren G. Harding had won before most people could read it in the morning paper. Conrad’s garage transmitter stood by as the backup.
When a message rushes you, slow down
- Check the source another way. If an email or text says to pay, log in, or change bank details, call the company using a number you already have.
- Watch for urgency. “Today only,” “account suspended,” and “pay now” are pressure tactics, not proof.
- Make it a team rule. No payment or bank change goes through on an email alone. A 30-second phone call stops most fraud.
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