1927 in radio

The year 1927 saw a number of significant happenings in radio broadcasting history.

Events

• 1 January: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) takes over the activities and operations of the fomer British Broadcasting Company (1922–26).
• 1 January: NBC makes the first ever coast-to-coast network radio broadcast of a Rose Bowl Game.
• 2 January: The Reverend Claude Lhande makes the first religious broadcast on French radio, beginning a series of talks on Radio Paris entitled L'Évangile par dessus les Toits.
• 21 January: A performance in Chicago, Illinois, of Faust is the first opera to be broadcast over a national radio network.
• 23 February: The Federal Radio Commission (later to be replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) is created by Calvin Coolidge.
• 4 March: First broadcast from the Wileńskie Biuro Radiotechniczne radio station in Vilnius (then in Poland, now in Lithuania).^[1]
• 11 March: Station PCJJ, based at the Philips Laboratories in Eindhoven, makes the first short-wave broadcasts from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies. PCJJ is thought to be the first distinct short-wave service having its own programming rather than simulcasting a domestic broadcaster.
• 31 March: The Philips company scores a publicity coup when Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands addresses the colonial population via its PCJJ transmitter.^[2]
• 6 May: Türk Telsiz-Telefon Anonim Şirketi ("Turkish Wireless Telephony Ltd") begins radio broadcasting in Istanbul.
• 1 June: Radio Rennes PTT begins regular transmissions in Brittany.
• 1 July: 23 Canadian radio stations combine forces to make the country's first nationwide broadcast, covering celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation.^[3]
• 2 August: Under pressure by the Federal Government on the Ku Klux Klan, which owned and operated WTRC in Brooklyn, New York via their "Twentieth [District] Republican Club," WTRC was relocated to Mount Vernon, Virginia, the call letters were changed to WTFF, and ownership was passed over to The Fellowship Forum, a newspaper published by the Klan. WTRC and WTFF were the origins of current Washington, D.C. station WFED.
• 21 August: The BBC starts high-power medium-wave transmissions to the English Midlands from station 5GB Daventry on 610 kHz.

Debuts

• 1 January: The NBC Blue Network commences operations, on what was the former experimental RCA mini-network of stations. WJZ in New York (today WABC (AM)) serves as the Blue Network's flagship.
• 1 January: The United Independent Broadcasters network is established by New York talent agent Arthur Judson in Chicago, Illinois. The Columbia Phonograph Company (Columbia Records' parent company) surfaces as an investor in April, and the network is named after the company.
• 18 September: The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System is officially launched on 16 stations nationwide.^[4] Cigar manufacturer William S. Paley purchases the company a week later and shortens the name to Columbia Broadcasting System

Closings

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Births

• 24 June – Chuck Niles, (died 2004), only jazz disc jockey to be on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Deaths

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References