How did radio broadcasting begin. Part I

     Charles Herrold never graduated from Stanford University – after studying for three years, he was forced, due to poor health, to leave school. But during his studies, the young man managed to be inspired by the ideas of Guglielmo Marconi and realized that the world expects a boom in radio, and if a boom is expected, then there will be a demand for specialists in this field, and in his native San Jose he opened a college of radio communications.

On the roof of the college, Herrold installed a parabolic antenna and, since June 1912, broadcast music that anyone with a receiving device could hear.

So, in fact, the world's first radio station was born, leading regular broadcasts for an unlimited circle of listeners.

This radio brought neither fame nor money to its creator, it was a true hobby for a real gentleman (and Herrold, the author of many inventions, who many years later would end his life in poverty and oblivion, working as cleaners in the docks of San Francisco, was undoubtedly a real gentleman) did not pay much attention to someone's attention – after all, there was absolutely no way with the receiving devices at that time, and this radio station had fewer listeners than fingers on the hand.

For such a method of distributing broadcasts, Herrold even came up with a special word – broadcast, which then meant nothing more than scattering seeds into the ground. For ten years, this image did not say anything to anyone, and it meant nothing more than agricultural work, and it became widespread in the meaning laid down by Herrold already in the 20s.

Charles Herold on his radio station. No, it's not on its own anymore - when the radio boom starts in America, entrepreneurs from San Francisco will buy it, and the studio will move there. Herold himself will die in poverty and obscurity, but his name will be remembered - for several decades the American Association of Radio Broadcasters has been awarding a prize in his name.

   For some reason, the world did not want to understand and accept the fact that radio is able to give the world something more than just communication without wires between two subscribers, in the image and likeness of a phone already known to everyone - although Herrold himself was inspired to his hobby by a fantasy novel that described how music is transmitted in the distant future by phone to several subscribers at once.

But – what to take from science fiction and fantasy writers? The search for traces of at least some discussions in society on the future of radio communication does not lead to anything at all - it is only known that in 1915 in New York, a junior manager of Marconi & Co. wrote a letter to the president of the company that the future is for radio broadcasts, they are waiting for commercial success, and receiving devices (he calls them "music boxes" and provides a link to a suitable patent) will be in demand in millions of copies.

     The name of this junior manager was David Sarnoff, and this 24-year–old boy from a remote Belarusian village, whose career affairs were clearly growing, in principle, listened to, but the time, according to the president of the company, was chosen unsuccessfully - the First World War was going on, and Marconi was littered with military orders. In any case, an official response to the official letter was given.

Fortunately for broadcasting, Sarnov was exactly the kind of person who understands where the money lies and who brings things to an end.

His biography is often cited as an example of a man who "made himself" and as an example of the "American dream". In any case, the story of his life is indeed interesting enough to get acquainted with it at least briefly.

David Sarnov (he called himself Sarnoff - then it was spectacular, but now it sounds anachronistic), the photo was supposedly taken in the 10th of the twentieth century.

     David Sarnov was born in the town of Uzlyany (about 40 km from Minsk), his father was a painter, the family lived half-starved, and his father decided to try his luck in New York, where he first went alone to earn money for a ticket for the family there. He saved up the $ 144 needed for the cheapest tickets for a long 4 years (David spent these 4 years in Borisov, in Hedera, studying the Torah), and when the family arrived in New York, it turned out that the health of the head of the family was finally undermined. So, at the age of 9, David goes to look for work, and the simplest and most obvious earnings turned out to be the sale of newspapers. I must say that, fortunately for the Sarnov family, the boy turned out to be hardworking and enterprising – after a couple of years he already has his own "newspaper exchange": he takes a place in the queue for morning newspapers in the evening, buys up such a part of the circulation that only has enough money and resells newspapers to those who come later – his margin it is minimal, and the resold circulations are large, and this gives more earnings than pestering passers–by in order to sell them a fresh newspaper, and less time is spent on business. And a boy from the very bottom needs time to get at least the most minimal education.

By the age of 14, he already has his own newsstand, but Sarnov does not dwell on this modest success. He is a diligent student of the free programs of the "Educational Alliance" (there is nowhere else to get at least the rudiments of education – studying costs money), where he pays most attention to English and natural sciences. He himself will later say that at the alliance programs he learned the main thing from knowledge – the ability to learn – probably, this is so, in any case, in the future his fate will bring him more than once with brilliant scientists, engineers and inventors, and, as a rule, Sarnov is able to understand them and understand the topic.

At that time, there was already a lot of talk about radio and telegraph, and Sarnov found himself in a company that was at the peak of the most advanced achievements: in 1906, he became an employee of Marconi and Co. He comes to the company as a messenger – this is, in fact, the maximum of what he could get with his educational baggage and his connections (later Sarnov himself would tell that he accidentally made a mistake when looking for a job, then he would tell that he was attracted by new technologies and he refused all other offers, until a place in Marconi has been vacated, he will tell a lot of legends about himself, in general, we will not understand what is true and what is fiction, we will not write a biography, as well as history, winners write, and Sarnov is indeed a winner).

Guillermo Marconi, the man the world considers the inventor of radio.      Here Sarnov wins the trust and attention of Marconi himself, who almost personally teaches him how to use the telegraph key and gives instructions – at first simpler, and then more complex.

Sarnov himself works well for his own image and his persona – in 1911, his name first got into the newspapers in connection with a remotely diagnosed diagnosis (infection of a tooth) to one of the crew members of a fishing vessel by a doctor from the shore. Sarnov's role is not entirely clear (it seems that he installed equipment on the ship and on the shore), but only he himself communicated with the newspapermen. It may be difficult for our contemporaries to understand what sensationalism is here, but in 1911 this was from the category of fiction.

To be continued...