Directly involved with two technological revolutions—the introduction of radio broadcasting and the development of sound movies—he observed that "No form of communication was safe from the innovative drive of electronics.

From 1921 to 1923 Dreher worked as an operating engineer at RCA's transatlantic radiotelegraph station located at Riverhead, Long Island.

However, due to the effects of the Great Depression, plus mismanagement and general organizational turmoil, the company went into a bankruptcy receivership that lasted for seven years.

[13] Dreher's writing career dated back to early 1915, when he produced a weekly column, "Wireless for Amateurs", for the Rockville Centre Owl.

[14] Disillusioned by the chaos of the constant and ineffective reorganizations at RKO, in 1936, at the age of forty, he decided to quit his "job you could do only by sabotaging yourself as a human being", to become a full-time freelance writer.

During World War II, he served as a Major with the Army Air Corps, producing and directing training films.