Steel City has rich radio history

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today published the first of a four-part series on the city's radio history. Pittsburgh is the home of KDKA, generally considered to be the first licensed commercial radio station, but as the story points out there is more to the city's radio legacy than that.  Westinghouse, based in the city, helped monetize the growing radio history with its manufacturing of crystal sets.  WHOO went on the air in 1948 featuring various ethnic programming and launched the career of Mary Dee Dudley, the country's first black disk jockey.  Dave Garroway, the first host of NBC's Today show, worked at KDKA in the 1940s.

Online encyclopedias valuable

I recently contributed an essay on Civil War journalism in Alabama to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I always enjoy writing encyclopedia articles because they are written for a general audience.

I just learned about the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, one of a growing number of city encyclopedias in this counry. Among its many outstanding entries are one on printing and publishing and one on the recording industry in the City of Brotherly Love. I certainly knew about Philadelphia's rich publishing history. However, before reading the essay I knew nothing about its interesting recording history.

The history of a pioneering magazine

I'm watching a show about the 80th anniversary of Esquire. The show is on the new Esquire television network and so it is largely celebratory about the magazine that prides itself on taking a skewed look at our culture. However, I've learned a lot from the show, particularly about Esquire's history of great storytelling and its provocative, often controversial, covers.

I read Esquire in my younger years, but I've only picked it up occasionally the last couple of decades.  I can't say the show makes we want to start reading Esquire again regularly, but I certainly appreciate its history even more.  I also have to give a nod to any magazine that can find a way to publish successfully for so long.