A century ago, radio had become a huge business—yet by the middle of 1925 commercial radio was only a little more than four years old. The growth of the industry astounded even the people most involved in it; the only phenomenon of our time that can remotely compare is the growth of the World Wide Web in the 1990s. (And here is a hint to producers of period movies: your mid-1920s backdrops are not complete unless all the buildings are festooned with improvised radio aerials.)

In the June 1925 issue, Radio Age interviewed “the world’s pioneer radio announcer,” H. W. Arlin, who started announcing for KDKA shortly after it began a seven-day broadcasting schedule. In the interview, he describes some of the daily duties that keep an announcer’s job incessantly entertaining. We should remember that, in those early days, a powerful station could be heard across the country, so Mr. Arlin regularly had to answer telephone calls and telegrams from distant places.

We wonder, incidentally, how much of his insistence that he was never tired was publicity puffery. In spite of his celebrity status, Mr. Arlin left the radio business shortly after this interview was published—though it may have been because he was offered a management position in Westinghouse, and the money was too good to pass up. He lived sixty more years, returning to national radio only once, to announce the returns from the Eisenhower-Stevenson election in 1952.

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Trials and Triumphs of an Announcer

Catering to the Whims of a Fickle Audience Is No Child’s Play at KDKA

H. W. Arlin, the World’s Pioneer Announcer, Has Never Tired of the Radio Game; Here are Some of His Reasons

Announcing radio programs might be called the world’s most recent profession, because announcers for broadcasting stations were introduced first about four years ago when KDKA, the world’s pioneer station of the Westinghouse Company at East Pittsburgh, Pa., was started.

H. W. Arlin, the world’s pioneer radio announcer, made his debut early in 1921 and has been continuously “on the air” since. Thus his long service entitles him to the honors of being the veteran of radio announcers.

Mr. Arlin’s studio experiences have been many and varied. Life as a radio announcer is not a drab affair, as there is a necessity of being continually on the “qui vive.”

In the following interview Mr. Arlin tells of some of his studio experiences and some interesting contacts with his radio public.

He Never Tires

“I am often asked the question, ‘Do you become tired of announcing?’ or ‘Does radio work become monotonous?’ My answers to such questions are always in the negative, thanks to an ever-curious and an assisting public. By such an answer, I mean that any motonony which might otherwise tend to creep into the almost continual execution of programs is quickly dispelled by a multitude of extraneous duties with which an announcer is confronted.

“Probably one of the most interesting phases of studio work comes through contact with the public, not entirely by personal association, but also through the telephone and telegraph. No work can become monotonous or tiresome where the public is involved. On the contrary, I have found that a study of the whims and fancies of the public has been an exceedingly interesting one. Paraphrasing the famous expression of Abraham Lincoln, ‘You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’ Not radio, at any extent. This statement could be applied to the view of the public on any one phase of radio entertainment such as music or sports. When applied to all of the phases of radio, it becomes many more times effective. What one person likes, another dislikes, and what one person condemns, another approves; so an announcer is almost justified in concluding that a ‘fifty-fifty break’ with the listening public is fair enough. However, 100 per cent satisfaction is always the goal.

“In telling of the announcer’s contact with the public we may take into consideration only one phase of this contact; that of telephone conversations. The nature of the telephone messages received, together with the conversations that follow, tend to create in one a desire for the study of people. The thoughts and ideas which prompt these many calls are perhaps innumerable; perhaps some one conceives an idea by which radio can be of aid to him in his own personal advancement or the advancement of some pet theory, or possibly some one desires some information which may vary from that of a query regarding what is the proper food to give a sick baby to that of certain details regarding a program to be broadcast several weeks hence.

Some of the Questions

“A few of the seemingly endless number of such questions and requests may be of interest. A confiding interest in our listeners, (this same public) will necessitate the omission of the names of any personalities involved in the following:

“One of our good Canadian friends recently called to tell us about a circular parking station he had invented for automobiles which would handle two hundred cars and which could be operated by one man. Appreciating the need for better parking service and predicting great success for his venture, he requested that we advise the radio public of his invention with full details as to where to purchase these stations.

“A lady calls us and requests that we announce that she has just left a package of pajamas on the street car and would like to have the service of the radio in recovering them. After being informed that we never make local announcements except in cases of robberies, kidnapping, lost persons and such emergencies, she replies, ‘Well, this is an emergency case, because it is the only package I had.’

“An elderly lady, apparently a student of nature, calls and gives us the following important news item: ‘Will you please announce that there is about four inches of snow in my back yard and that I have just seen two cardinal red birds?’ Of course, a very unusual sight for this time of the year.

“No sooner is the telephone receiver on the hook than the bell again rings and an innocent feminine voice pops the following impression: ‘I just heard you announce that you had received a telegram from New York commenting on the program. I would like to know if you are also broadcasting to Ohio tonight, as I would like to request a number for some friends out there who do not have the advantages of a radio.’

“It has also been brought very forcibly to my attention that radio has made a greater impression upon the public than has music. Of the many proofs of this statement, I might cite an occasion on which a program was being presented by the great Fritz Kreisler. The telephone rings and the following question comes from one of our listeners: ‘Do I have to listen to that novice all evening?’ A very provoking question to ask an announcer on such an occasion. He was then asked if he knew who he was listening to and after replying in the negative, he was very politely told that if his set was not working properly or that if he didn’t appreciate the music, he was in no way obligated to keep on listening the rest of the evening. This, apparently, answered his first question satisfactorily, and was an answer which fortunately savored very little of the thoughts that were running through the announcer’s brain.

The Fickle Public

“A lack of appreciation for the success of artists or for the repertoire used by them sometimes results in requests which provoke a smile from the person to whom they are addressed. When presenting a program at KDKA recently, Mrs. Christine Miller Clemson who before her marriage was one of the country’s contraltos and a concert singer with an enviable record, was requested to sing the jazz number ‘Red Hot Mamma.’

“Perhaps one of the most common requests received is that requesting an artist to sing a particular number. In spite of the fact that there are thousands of songs, a good many listeners cannot quite understand why the singer does not have the particular number they request. Song pluggers are requested to sing ‘Arias’ and grand opera stars are requested to sing jazz numbers by the well-meaning audience. It also happens quite often that in spite of the fact that we receive hundreds of requests for numbers during a particular evening, some well meaning individual is at a loss to know why his or her particular request was not granted.

“Oftentimes a party will call and ask the following question or a similar one: ‘I have a five-tube neutrodyne set and cannot hear anything. Will you please tell me what is the matter with my set?’ The opinion seems to be quite prevalent among a good many listeners that the wavelength determines the distance which a station can be heard, and usually the belief prevails that the distance a station can be heard varies directly with its wavelength. This opinion is the cause of some very humorous questions being asked.

“Among the innumerable questions are such questions as these: What time is it? Where is station WXY located? What is the name of the waltz the band played last Saturday night? What is the wavelength of station WXY? How far are you broadcasting tonight? Who is going to give your program on the 2nd of next month?’

“And so the announcer soon finds himself converted into an information bureau from which the dissemination of news adds a very colorful diversion to his vocation.”