KFKX (1923–1933)

In November 1920 the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company began operation of a radio broadcasting station, KDKA, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The company became interested in linking various stations together for simultaneous network programming, but wanted to avoid the expense of leasing long-distance telephone lines.

KFKX made its debut broadcast on November 15, 1923,[5] featuring a mixture of programs received from KDKA, as well as offerings from a locally constructed studio.

[6] In addition to its broadcasts on the standard AM band, KFKX was equipped with a shortwave transmitter, which allowed it to relay KDKA programs for reception as far away as the Pacific coast.

[9] In May 1923, the Department of Commerce, which regulated radio at this time, had set aside a band of "Class B" frequencies for use by high-powered stations with superior programming.

[13] When Westinghouse began operating the experimental shortwave link to KFKX, company engineers identified two main potential benefits over telephone line links: "The costs of construction, maintenance, and operation of a high-frequency system of radio repeating is far below that of wire lines", plus "The performance is also infinitely better from the standpoint of distortion of audio signal transmitted", "thereby greatly improving the quality of transmission".

[6] However, it was ultimately determined the use of shortwave transmissions, which were subject to occasional unreliability, as well as significant fading, was actually inferior to using specially prepared telephone line connections.

[22] On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of a major reallocation resulting from the FRC's General Order 40, KYW-KFKX became the country's only station assigned for operation on the "clear channel" frequency of 1020 kHz.