91ST Anniversary of Commercial Broadcasting.
July 28, 2013
Today is the 91st anniversary of the first commercial ever broadcast on electronic media! This commercial was aired on WEAF – which is now WFAN. (Accounts of the event indicate that advertisers were concerned with ROI even then.)
“On August 28, 1922, 5-5:30PM, WEAF broadcast its first income-producing program: a ten-minute message to the public from the Queensboro Corporation to promote the sale of apartments in Jackson Heights. The sponsors paid $50 for the broadcast. …. During the following weeks the Queensboro Corporation broadcast four additional afternoon talks at $50 each and an evening talk at $100. Sales of apartments were said to have resulted.”
Erik Barnouw, A Tower in Babel, pp.110, 112.
So, Happy Birthday, commercial broadcasting!
Courtesy of ESPN Deportes
