Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set

K

KCBS/KQW

San Jose, California (later San Francisco) Station

KQW, San Jose, was one of the pioneering radio stations in the United States, the eighth to receive a Department of Commerce license, which was granted on 9 December 1921. But the major significance of KQW was that its owner, Charles Herrold, was the first person to operate a broadcast station. And although being one of the earliest stations to go on the air is important, it is the story of how Herrold got there, beginning in 1909, that makes KQW important. Today KQW is the 50,000-W all-news KCBS in San Francisco.

Charles Herrold, after dropping out of Stanford University in 1899 and spending a decade as a freelance inventor and college instructor, decided to go into business for ...