Radio station 2XG, also known as the "Highbridge Station", was an experimental radio station located in New York City and licensed to the De Forest Radio Telephone and Telegraph Company from 1915 to 1917 and 1920 to 1924. In 1916, it became the first radio station employing a vacuum-tube transmitter to make news and entertainment broadcasts on a regular schedule, and, on November 7, 1916, became the first to broadcast U.S. presidential election returns by spoken word instead of by Morse code.
Pre-World War I history
Initially all radio stations used spark transmitters, which could only transmit Morse code messages. In 1904, Valdemar Poulsen invented an "arc-transmitter" capable of transmitting full audio, and in late 1906 Lee de Forest founded the Radio Telephone Company and began producing his own "sparkless" arc-transmitters. Between 1907 and 1910, de Forest made a number of demonstration entertainment broadcasts, and even spoke about developing news and entertainment broadcasting stations, but did not establish a regular service at this time.
In 1914, de Forest established a laboratory at 1391 Sedgwick Avenue in the Highbridge section of the Bronx in New York City. Vacuum-tube transmitters had recently been developed and were found to be superior to arc-transmitters for audio transmissions. The company now concentrated on developing vacuum-tube equipment, including "Oscillion" transmitter tubes. In the summer of 1915, the company received a license for an experimental station located at the Highbridge laboratory, with the callsign 2XG.
De Forest had suspended broadcasting demonstrations in 1910, yet decided to showcase the capabilities of the new vacuum-tube transmitters by introducing a "wireless newspaper" making regular broadcasts of concerts and news bulletins. There were no formal government regulations restricting broadcasting at this time, so the company was free to transmit these programs over 2XG. Arrangements were made with the Columbia Graphophone record company to broadcast phonograph records from their offices at 102 West 38th Street in New York City—the phonograph company supplied records in exchange for the station "announcing the title and 'Columbia Gramophone Company' with each playing". The debut program was aired on October 26, 1916, and it was announced that nightly transmissions of news interspersed with Columbia recordings would be sent from the Highbridge laboratory beginning November 1.
2XG's original audience was mostly amateur radio operators. An early report stated that 2XG was broadcasting on "a wave length of approximately 800 meters" (375 kilohertz). Carl Dreher would later recall: "The quality was quite good, and I used to listen to the station for hours at a time". De Forest initially used these broadcasts to advertise "the products of the De Forest Radio Co., mostly the radio parts, with all the zeal of our catalogue and price list", until comments by Western Electric engineers caused him to eliminate the sales messages.
1916 election night broadcast
Some of the programming was oriented toward a more general audience. On the night of the November 7, 1916 Wilson-Hughes presidential election, 2XG, in conjunction with the New York American, broadcast election returns that for the first time were transmitted in full audio instead of Morse code. This program featured telephoned bulletins supplied by the newspaper—which hailed the effort as "the first time the wireless telephone has been demonstrated as a practical, serviceable carrier of election news and comment"—and read over the air by "unassuming chap" Walter Schare. Also featured were Columbia recordings that included "'The Star Spangled Banner,' 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,' 'Dixie,' 'America' and other airs long loved by Americans". Just before shutting down at 11:00 PM, the station incorrectly announced that Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes had won; however, the next day it was learned that late totals from California had tilted the election in Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson's favor. It was estimated that 7,000 persons received the broadcast.
The concerts continued, with listeners reported as far away at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A "radio dance" held in Morristown, New Jersey, at the end of the year received widespread publicity. However, with the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered shut down, and 2XG was silenced for the duration of the conflict.