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 Broadcasting |
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Of
all the modern mass media, the broadcasting station
commands of widest audience and exercises the best effect
on the popular mind. The birthplace of China's broadcasting
service, Shanghai boasted the largest number of radio
stations in old China. The first broadcasting station
opened in the United States in 1906. 17 years later
the people of Shanghai heard the first signal transmitted
from their city's first radio station. That was fully
63 years ago. |
On the night of Jan.23, 1923, the Osborn Radio Station,
installed on the roof of the Dollar Co., began to broadcast
its program which lasted an hour and five minutes and
included overtures, violin solos by a famous Prague violinist,
saxophone solos by George Hall of the Carlton Orchestra,
chamber music by the Golden Gate String Quartet, dance
music, local news, and news from other parts of China,
the U.S. and Europe. At that time there were only a little
over 500 radio sets in the concessions of Shanghai. People
sitting around their radio sets listened in with amazement
to miracle of a broadcast. Even in Tianjin, a city far
from Shanghai, many radio sets received signals transmitted
from the Osborn Radio Station. |
Famous
radio engineer Pan Songzhi debugs the machine at the
radio station
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radio station was founded by an American journalist called
Osborn. While covering news in Japan he made the acquaintance
of a wealthy overseas Chinese surnamed Zhang. Sponsored
by him, Osborn came to Shanghai to form a Chinese radio
broadcasting corporation. At the beginning of its operation,
the Osborn Radio Station had simple and crude equipment
with a wavelength of merely 200 meters and a power of
50 watts, the broadcast lasting no more than an hour each
day. The emergence of this radio station in Shanghai immediately
attracted the attention of our great revolutionary forerunner
Dr. Sun Yat-sen. On the night of Feb.1 , the radio station
broadcast his declaration of Peaceful Unification. However,
the Osborn Radio Station was in operation for only a few
months, due to limited resources rather than lack of endeavor.
He actually hired the roof garden of Wing On Co. in a
last ditch effect, by without success. |
Shanghai
Mayor Wu Guozhen communicating with
the Mayor of San Francisco on the wireless on July 1,
1947
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