Wednesday Open Line


“This program is brought to you by…” Those words, or ones close to them, were heard on this date 91 years ago as what is believed to be the first commercial broadcast on the new medium of radio. Station WEAF in New York City carried that first ad — not for soap or automobiles — but for a group of apartment buildings in Queens. The cost was $100 for 10 minutes of programming. At the time, there were just 30 stations in the whole country, and only 60,000 households had receivers. Now, there are over 14,000 radio stations in the nation, and households have an average of eight radios. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the new America’s Economy mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.