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Harold Arlin
Harold Wampler Arlin (December 8, 1895 – March 14, 1986) was an American engineer and foreman and was arguably the world's first full-time and salaried announcer in broadcast radio.
Arlin originally worked as an engineer and later foreman for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company when he was hired as a part-time announcer by KDKA, the nation's first commercially licensed radio station, in Pittsburgh in 1920. On November 2, 1920, Arlin made history as the radio's first announcer when he read over-the-air the returns to the 1920 presidential election between Senator Warren G. Harding and Governor James M. Cox.
Arlin was soon hired full-time at KDKA. During his tenure at KDKA, Arlin became the first to announce radio broadcasts of a baseball game (August 5, 1921), tennis match (August 6, 1921), football game (October 8, 1921), and a boxing match (September 14, 1923).
Arlin also interviewed many celebrities on the air, including Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Lillian Gish and William Jennings Bryan. He spent five years at KDKA, where he was nicknamed the "Voice of America". Listeners on several continents could hear KDKA and Arlin's broadcasts, and The London Times called him "the best known American voice in Europe".
Harold Wampler Arlin was born December 8, 1895, in La Harpe, Illinois to parents Byron Addison Arlin (1862–1918) and Emma (née Wampler) (1865–1944). His father was a farmer. Arlin also had an older sister named Lora. The Arlins moved to Carthage, Missouri, shortly after Harold's birth. Arlin graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of Kansas in 1917 and soon after moved to Pittsburgh where he obtained a job as an electrical engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Company.
KDKA 1020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received its broadcasting license on November 2, 1920, making the station the first commercially licensed radio station in the world. Dr. Frank Conrad, friend and fellow Westinghouse engineer as well as one of the founders of KDKA, invited Arlin and several others engineers from Westinghouse to a tour of the KDKA studios which, at the time, were in a shack on the roof of a Westinghouse plant. Whilst on the roof, another friend invited Arlin to say a few words into a microphone nearby. Arlin did, and because his voice proved clear, crisp, resonant, friendly and appealing, Arlin was hired as a full-time announcer, making him the first radio announcer in the world.
The station's inaugural broadcast was the reading of the returns from the election held earlier that day. Arlin read the results on a makeshift microphone in a shack on the roof atop the K Building of the Westinghouse Electric Company "East Pittsburgh Works" in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.
On August 5, 1921, Arlin became the first person to announce a Major League Baseball game and the game itself was the first baseball game ever broadcast on radio. The teams playing that day were the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies from the historic Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
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Harold Arlin
Harold Wampler Arlin (December 8, 1895 – March 14, 1986) was an American engineer and foreman and was arguably the world's first full-time and salaried announcer in broadcast radio.
Arlin originally worked as an engineer and later foreman for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company when he was hired as a part-time announcer by KDKA, the nation's first commercially licensed radio station, in Pittsburgh in 1920. On November 2, 1920, Arlin made history as the radio's first announcer when he read over-the-air the returns to the 1920 presidential election between Senator Warren G. Harding and Governor James M. Cox.
Arlin was soon hired full-time at KDKA. During his tenure at KDKA, Arlin became the first to announce radio broadcasts of a baseball game (August 5, 1921), tennis match (August 6, 1921), football game (October 8, 1921), and a boxing match (September 14, 1923).
Arlin also interviewed many celebrities on the air, including Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Lillian Gish and William Jennings Bryan. He spent five years at KDKA, where he was nicknamed the "Voice of America". Listeners on several continents could hear KDKA and Arlin's broadcasts, and The London Times called him "the best known American voice in Europe".
Harold Wampler Arlin was born December 8, 1895, in La Harpe, Illinois to parents Byron Addison Arlin (1862–1918) and Emma (née Wampler) (1865–1944). His father was a farmer. Arlin also had an older sister named Lora. The Arlins moved to Carthage, Missouri, shortly after Harold's birth. Arlin graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of Kansas in 1917 and soon after moved to Pittsburgh where he obtained a job as an electrical engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Company.
KDKA 1020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received its broadcasting license on November 2, 1920, making the station the first commercially licensed radio station in the world. Dr. Frank Conrad, friend and fellow Westinghouse engineer as well as one of the founders of KDKA, invited Arlin and several others engineers from Westinghouse to a tour of the KDKA studios which, at the time, were in a shack on the roof of a Westinghouse plant. Whilst on the roof, another friend invited Arlin to say a few words into a microphone nearby. Arlin did, and because his voice proved clear, crisp, resonant, friendly and appealing, Arlin was hired as a full-time announcer, making him the first radio announcer in the world.
The station's inaugural broadcast was the reading of the returns from the election held earlier that day. Arlin read the results on a makeshift microphone in a shack on the roof atop the K Building of the Westinghouse Electric Company "East Pittsburgh Works" in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.
On August 5, 1921, Arlin became the first person to announce a Major League Baseball game and the game itself was the first baseball game ever broadcast on radio. The teams playing that day were the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies from the historic Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.