Categories
Daily post Tech & society

Sports broadcasting is 101 years old

KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA broadcast the first live sporting event on the radio on 11 April 1921.

The sports media market is the US was $23 billion in 2021 for 2022, its projected to hit $24 billion. Media rights are the fees paid to show sports on TV, the internet, and other distribution channels. The market is 101 years old.

KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA became the first licensed radio station on 27 October 1920. It broadcast the first live sporting event on the radio on 11 April 1921. It was a boxing match (Johnny Dundee versus Johnny Ray).

“[Radio] operators were treated to the action of the ring battle with all the realism of each blow and each bit of ring strategy enacted the instant it occurred,” the Associated Press reported about the boxing match. “… [radio] brought the sounds of the conflict, the clang of the gong and the shouts of the fans.”

Pittsburgh Post sports editor Florent Gibson served as the announcer.

No one won of that 10-round match at Pittsburgh’s Motor City Square. “[L]isteners around Pittsburgh, for the first time, enjoyed the wireless broadcast from their radio receiver.”

David Sarnoff had founded Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919 and was “instrumental” in arranging another radio broadcast boxing match on 02 July 1921 in Long Island.

Sports delivered via a radio broadcast turned next to baseball and then college football.

Fifteen years later, the 1936 Berlin Olympics became the world’s first televised sporting event.

#scitech, #society, #media (081/365)
📷 Archive.org
Daily posts, 2022-2023

By Kathy E. Gill

Digital evangelist, speaker, writer, educator. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles! @kegill

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: