Gettysburg goes audio

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 27, 1950, Robert Smith, an announcer engineer, pushed a button and the miracle of Marconi came to Gettysburg and the surrounding region. Music was transmitted through the air from a location north of Gettysburg into people’s homes miles away. Though radio had been around since the early years of the 20th Century, WGET Radio became Gettysburg’s first commercial radio station. The first thing Gettysburgians heard on their radio station was “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Then Owen Voight, another announcer engineer for the station, stepped up to the microphone in the main studio and said, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is Radio Station WGET signing on its initial broadcasting day WGET transmits on a frequency of 1450 kilocycles, with a power of 280 watts as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission,” the Gettysburg Times Read more…