1922

“Minnesota has its first radio station, WLB—later KUOM—at the University of Minnesota.” *

As a background, I cite this article by Rebecca Toov posted January 13, 2016 on the University of Minnesota’s Archivist Blog.

“In 1912, Professor Franklin Springer began experimenting with wireless telegraphy – the sending and receiving of coded messages through electromagnetic waves – in the laboratory of the Department of Electrical Engineering. By 1914, the department offered coursework in “Radio Signaling Apparatus” and “Radio Transmission” and regularly conducted broadcasting experiments using the wireless equipment.

Cyril M. Jansky, Jr. joined the department as an instructor in 1920 and obtained an experimental license to operate a radio station on campus under the call letters of 9XI in March of that year. Engineering students – the station operators – broadcasted daily market and weather reports, musical programs, and play-by-plays of home football games.

On January 13, 1922, the University station was granted a full license to operate under the call letters WLB. In 1925, space was afforded for a radio studio in a newly constructed Electrical Engineering building which was outfitted with furniture and equipment in 1926.” **

I begin this prayer in remembrance of those whom the world owes a debt of gratitude for their pioneering radio research: Guglielmo Marconi, Heinrich Hertz, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Lee de Forest, and Alexander Stepanovich Popov. I include and commend Franklin Springer and Cyril M. Jansky in this list for their impact on the communication of Minnesotans. I thank You today for the inspiration and perspiration of these Your creative children.  I see Your glory in their captivation and curiosity with Your inventions; frequency and the electromagnetic wave.

We thank You for the connections that KUOM provided in this era for Minnesotans. We thank You for this demonstration of the vistas of human relations that are unlocked with this single advancement in technology! Will You bless these men, their generations, and their creativity? Will You bless: the University of Minnesota, its’ Electrical Engineers, and future students inventing technologies for which we currently have no name? 

Receive eminence today in all frequencies! You daily surround us like the atmosphere, with bombarding us with wavelengths of faith, hope, and love. Yet, we have judged You because they are are as imperceptible to us as radio transmissions without a radio. Will you give us the gift of turning our radio on? May the citizens of this State forever tune into You so that we may send and receive Your signals!

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what G-d has prepared for those who love him”… 1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV

* http://www.mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm

**https://www.continuum.umn.edu/2016/01/radio-history/