A hundred years ago today, the May 16, 1924 issue of the Washington Star carried this item. Many listeners had graduated to tube sets, and radio executive Le Roy Mark wanted to see to it that their old crystal sets made it into the hands of the poor and needy of Washington. He had begun an ongoing campaign to collect old crystal sets at Piggly Wiggly and Peoples Drug stores in the District, from whence they would make it into the hands of the needy. 400 names had already been collected, but Mark requested that clergymen and physicians send him the names of others who might benefit.

The Boy Scouts of the District had volunteered to install the sets. The only expense would be the cost of antenna wire, and contributions were being solicited for that purpose.

According to his 1938 obituary, Mark was a pioneer of radio broadcasting in Washington, as well as the insurance industry. The obituary still remembered him as “a leader in the campaign to provide funds to furnish radio sets to all shut-ins, particularly to make available a sufficient number of sets to enable all hospitalized World War veterans to listen to radio programs.”