Every Wednesday night at 9 pm in San Jose, California, Charles Herrold sat religiously in his cramped office surrounded by records that he displayed before him. Charles broadcast his radio show, playing music and reading news, mostly to college students, who listened on radios they built themselves. Year? 1912.

He is known as the father of broadcasting, sending music and news to listeners before the word “radio” was invented.

Herrold’s “Little Hams Show” was broadcast every week, from San Jose, to a growing audience of young listeners, and on a good night the signal could be picked up 900 miles away. Charles took new and popular records, placed them on a phonograph. and he pointed a microphone towards the music, so that everyone could clearly hear the sound. The show ran from 1912 to 1917. Ironically, however, the San José newspaper criticized the new local outlet, saying it “threatens live entertainment, like the symphony.” or theater.” Radio was new, but it certainly couldn’t replace live theater. In 1994, the mayor of San Jose dedicated September 12 as Charles Herrold Day in honor of his great contribution to society.

Guglielmo Marconi of London had previously had a patent issued to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company on April 26, 1901, which earned Marconi the Patent “for improvements in apparatus for wireless telegraphy”. That is why Marconi is known as the inventor of the radio, that is, the ability to send a wireless signal. Charles Herrold, however, is the father and inventor of broadcasting.