Radio for Everybody, Austin C. Lescarboura, 1922, pages 39-42:
RADIO-PHONE BROADCASTING--WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT MEANS
"LADIES and gentlemen, we take great pleasure in introducing Mr. Percy Grainger, the famous pianist and composer, who will entertain us this evening with several of his favorite pianoforte selections. After that, please stand by until 9.55 for the re-transmission of the Arlington time signals---"
A concert? No. A vaudeville performance? Hardly. A musicale in the home of a society leader? Not this time.
It is merely a bit of radio-phone service taken at random. Another time it might be Mme. Lydia Lipkovska, court singer to the late Czar of Russia, or Miss Valentina Crispi, violinist, or Miss Sophie Tucker, famous delineator of ethnic and character songs. Again it might be Governor Edward I. Edwards of New Jersey, with his latest message, or Ed. Wynn and the entire company of "The Perfect Fool," representing the first attempt to broadcast an entire theatrical performance; or Walter Camp, foremost authority in American athletics.
THE RADIO VOICE AND ITS AUDIENCE
Still again, at a different hour of the day, it may be the news of the moment, carefully selected and clearly heralded word by word; marine news, weather reports, children's bedtime stories, health talks, business talks, fashion talks, agricultural reports, Babson's statistical service, or the official time signals. For the radio-phone service is unlimited in its scope of subjects, just as it is virtually unlimited in the size of its audience.
But what is the radio-phone service? Where is it obtainable, and how? What does it cost? Why is it free?
Typical questions, these, at a time when radio is at the height of popularity. Only a short while back, the hobby of radio was indulged in by boys and young men, with occasionally a full-grown man, who, perhaps, were more fascinated by the technicalities of the radio art than by the actual feat of communication through space. Yet it is true that these enthusiasts, then as now, were carrying on radio conversations among themselves by means of the dot-and-dash language of the telegraph code; but it was certainly evident that they spent a goodly part of their time arranging and rearranging their radio transmitters and receivers in their insatiable ambition to span greater distances.
Then came the radio-phone service, not as an occasional thing to startle the radio amateurs already engaged in sending and listening to the dot-dash messages, but as a regular established practice. A subsequent development brought about a definite operating schedule and a predetermined program, so that now the person with a radio receiving set knows what is in store for him tonight, tomorrow night, or even next Sunday evening. Radio-phone programs are printed and mailed to persons on the mailing list of the various organizations doing this kind of work.
In various cities throughout the country there are radio-phone broadcasting stations now in operation, which send out all kinds of information, talks, and music. With the proper type of receiving equipment it is now possible for any one to receive the radio-phone service from the nearest station, and, if there are several stations within receiving range, it is often possible to receive several radio-phone services, one by one, with absolute selectivity, although they may be operating simultaneously. That is to say, with the apparatus properly tuned, one station may be heard; then, by slightly altering the tuning, another station may be picked up, and so on. Further tuning may pick up an amateur radio-phone transmitter or a commercial station operating or "talking" in the dot-dash-dot language of the Continental telegraph code, or again a powerful transatlantic station transmitting its messages at an extreme rate of speed, thanks to automatic transmitters at one end and the photographic or phonographic recorders at the receiving end.
Radio-phone broadcasting stations are sharply tuned; in fact, all radio-phone transmitters are sharply tuned; for, as we shall learn further on, this is one of the cardinal points in favor of the continuous wave transmitter, which is the basis of the radio-phone. Thus the utmost selectivity is obtained at the receiving end, and interference is reduced to a minimum. Indeed, the day is not far distant when a broadcasting station will be sending various services simultaneously, ranging all the way from a sermon to a jazz dance piece, and from a talk on economics to a fashion chat. The listener will merely have to tune his or her receiver to any one of several wave lengths in order to obtain the desired service at that time.