AN ANNIVERSARY – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  Today is the 90th anniversary of the first radio broadcast.  No, Rush wasn't on it:

On August 20, 1920, the radio station WWJ, known then by its call sign 8MK, aired the first public broadcast ever at 8:15 p.m. Using a borrowed phonograph from the Edison Shop, Howard Trumbo placed a record on the turntable. He chose two records for the occasion: “Roses of Picardy,” and “Annie Laurie,” two of the most famous World War I songs. Frank Edwards, one of WWJ’s first operators called into the night on-air “This is 8MK calling,” to the delight of an audience listening on homemade receivers, in perhaps 30 Detroit homes.

COMMENT:  Thirty homes?  CNN would kill for those numbers.

August 20, 2010