Category Archives: Minnesota History

NPOTA: North Country Scenic Trail, Jay Cooke State Park, MN

Today, I did a National Parks On the Air (NPOTA) activation of the North Country National Scenic Trail, a hiking trail that extends from eastern New York to North Dakota. My operating location was in Jay Cooke State Park, Minnesota, about 25 miles south of Duluth. My operating location is shown here. The radio itself, my Yaesu FT-817, is barely visible propped up by the bright blue canvas bag, in front of the dark blue bag. The 12 volt battery is on top of the bright red bag, and my lunch is inside the dark red bag. The cable going up to my antenna is visible, but the antenna, a 20 meter dipole tied to trees with string, while in the frame, is not visible.

During NPOTA, amateur radio operators set up portable stations at National Park units and make contact with other amateurs at home. The event has been very popular, and there have been hundreds of thousands of contacts made from the parks. Since the event includes all units of the National Park Service, the North Country Trail qualifies as a “National Park,” allowing me to operate from one of the Minnesota state parks crossed by the trail.

During today’s activation, I managed only four contacts, the furthest being Mississippi. According to the Reverse Beacon Network, my signal was getting out. Unfortunately, many chasers don’t bother looking for stations. They wait until they’re spotted on the internet, and then work them. So making that first contact can be a challenge. Since I was only there for a brief stop over lunch, I didn’t bother persisting to make six more contacts. But I’ll be operating from this spot again on June 5 as part of the Light Up The Trail event being done in conjunction with NPOTA. During that event, stations will be set up at various locations along the North Country Trail. I decided to do a trial run today, since I’m in Duluth to present a Continuing Legal Education program on Friday morning, and then serving as a delegate to the Minnesota Republican State Convention on Friday and Saturday.

The swing bridge at Jay Cooke State Park was washed away.

2012 flooding of bridge. USGS photo.

Swinging Bridge prior to 2012 flood. Wikipedia photo.

Jay Cooke State Park was originally created in 1915 by a donation of land from the St. Louis Power Company. It remained undeveloped until the 1930’s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built many of the park’s structures, including the iconic Swinging Bridge over the St. Louis River. The bridge was destroyed by flooding in 2012 but subsequently rebuilt according to the original plans. As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, my operating location was near the bridge and near the River Inn visitor center in the picture shown below, also constructed by the CCC. The North Country Trail passes over the Swinging Bridge, putting my operating location well within the 50 yards from the trail required by the NPOTA rules.

River Inn Visitor Center, Jay Cooke State Park. Wikipedia photo.

This stretch of the St. Louis River consists of a long rapids impossible to traverse by canoe. Therefore, both Native Americans and Europeans portaged around the rapids, and this portage remained in use until the 1870’s.

Starting in the 17th century, the portage was used heavily by fur traders, since it formed part of the route from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River basin. The voyageurs had to traverse the 6.5 mile portage through the area, carrying two or three packs weighing about 90 pounds each. It took three to five days to cross the portage, and the voyageurs doing so would be covered with mud and insect bites. My activation today was not quite so strenuous. It required me to carry my complete station, including battery, radio, and antennas, weighing a total of about 10 pounds, a total of about 100 yards from the parking lot to the picnic area. And even though I got mostly skunked, I bet the voyageurs who traversed the area a few centuries ago would never dream that it would someday be possible to toss a wire into a tree and talk halfway across the continent with a piece of equipment that would have made only a small dent in their 90 pound packs.

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WTCN Minneapolis, 1936

Shown here is a photo of WTCN radio in Minneapolis as it appeared in 1935. The image is from the January 1936 issue of Radex magazine.

The station originally came on the air as WRHM, licensed to Rosedale Hospital at 4429 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. In 1929, it became a CBS affiliate, switching to the NBC Blue Network in 1937.

In 1934, then on 1250 kHz, the station was sold to Twin Cities Newspapers, a partnership of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Tribune, at which time it took the WTCN call letters for “Twin Cities Newspapers”. The transmitter building shown here was near Snelling Avenue and Highway 36 in Roseville, where it remained until 1962. In March 1941, the station moved to 1280 kHz in accordance with NARBA. In 1964, the station took the WWTC call letters.

The WTCN call letters were used two other times in Minnesota broadcast history. The second television station in the area, channel 4, was originally co-owned with WTCN radio, and signed the WTCN-TV call letters. The call was later held by channel 11. The call letters are now gone from the Minnesota airwaves, instead being used by a low power station in Florida.

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Grain Belt “Talking Scoreboard” circa 1965

A few weeks ago, someone posted an interesting photo on the Old Minneapolis page on Facebook. That page is one of the best on Facebook, as every day it includes more fascinating photos. The most interesting photos are invariably of subjects that were mundane when the photo was taken. But with the passage of years, these mundane scenes are the most fascinating. Sometimes, the story behind the photo is included. Other times, the viewer is left to wonder what was going on in the picture and why it was taken.

The photo was of the interior of a North Minneapolis bar, and was apparently taken in 1965. One eagle-eyed netizen noticed behind the bartender a most interesting radio, the Grain Belt Talking Scoreboard, like the one shown at the top of this page. The set measures about 18 inches wide, and consists of a scoreboard brightly backlit with two old style Christmas tree bulbs, on which the bartender could write in the score for each inning with a grease pencil. Inside the case is a radio for pulling in the game for the benefit of the patrons.

The radio itself is a typical “All American Five” (AA5) superhet, using a miniature tube complement consisting of a 50C5, 12AV6, 12BA6, 12BE6, and 35W4. The front panel controls consist of the volume control and tuning capacitor.

A sticker on the back identifies the device as a Talking Scoreboard, and admonishes that “this electronic advertising sign is the property of the Minneapolis Brewing Co. and is loaned with the understanding that it will be prominently displayed.” There’s no indication of who manufactured the set, although from the tube lineup and other parts, it appears to have been manufactured in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. At first I didn’t see them, but the set does have the triangular CONELRAD markings at 640 and 1240 on the tuning dial, as are visible on the closeup here, This places the date of the set’s manufacture at pre-1963 when CONELRAD ended. A likely date for the set would be 1961, when the Twins came to town. However, the set is generic in that it’s not marked with the name of any team. Since Grain Belt was sold in other Midwestern states, it’s likely that it found use in taverns with loyalties to other teams. And apparently another version of the set was available with a football scorecard. You can find more discussion of the set at the antiqueradios.com forum.

The set shown at the top of this page is owned by Chris Manuel of Brookfield, Wisconsin, who graciously gave me permission to use the photo. He reports that the loopstick antenna makes the set more directional than is common for AA5’s, most of which used a larger loop mounted at the back of the set. But presumably, the radio only had to tune one station, namely the one broadcasting the game. So once it was set in a suitable spot, the directional antenna wouldn’t be much of a hindrance. Perhaps the directional antenna even proved useful on occasion for nulling out a noisy neon sign.

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1937 Westinghouse Chairside

This young woman is undoubtedly tuned in to a foreign shortwave broadcast as she shows off her 1937 Westinghouse chairside console. The seven tube set featured a slanted dial panel for easy chairside tuning. The accompanying caption in the November 1937 issue of Radio Retailing notes that the set also featured vertical grille pilasters to add a distinctive note to the cabinet. It tuned 540 kHz to 18 MHz and included a “precision eye” tube.

The magazine didn’t include a model number, and I wasn’t able to track one down. If you have more information on this set, please leave a comment below.

To get some idea of what signals she might have been trying to pull in, the August 21, 1937, issue of Radio Guide gives some ideas. The MacGregor Arctic Expedition was underway aboard the General A.W. Greely, en route to Fort Conger, Ellesmere Island. The NBC network was carrying updates, which originated from W10XAB, a 400 watt transmitter aboard the ship.

Another curious broadcast, which took place on August 17 is somewhat chilling in light of the fact that the Nazis were by then firmly in control of Germany and the stations in question. The German stations DJB and DJD were to “feature a special broadcast to the State of Minnesota. Just seventy-five years ago to this very day, the Sioux Indians made their last assault on New Ulm, Minn., founded by German emigrants from Swabia, from the old town of Ulm, famous for its cathedral. This event and more so, the quick reconstruction of New Ulm, are fine examples of the part which German settlers had in making Minnesota a prosperous and busy state. The station hopes listeners in New Ulm will be particularly interested in tuning in this broadcast.”

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Armistice Day Blizzard 75th Anniversary

Armistice Day Blizzard, Excelsior Blvd., West of Minneapolis. Minn. Historical Society photo, NOAA.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard, a deadly storm that hit Minnesota and surrounding states on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1940. The strom came up suddenly and without warning, and resulted in 145 deaths, including 49 in Minnnesota. The death toll was so high because the day started out unseasonably warm, but quickly and unexpectely turned into a severe blizzard to which many were totally unprepared.

I wrote about it previously, and focused on how amateur radio operators became involved. A couple of names that later became familiar were involved. Stan Burghardt, W9BJV, later W0IT, kept Watertown, South Dakota, in touch with the outside world, and Sherm Booen, W9HRT, who later became known for the World of Aviation program on WCCO-TV, was a key link from Albert Lea.

Broadcast radio also played an important role that day. Booen was also employed by KATE radio in Albert Lea. Even though personal messages were not normally allowed on broadcast stations, an emergency exception was made and some personal messages were broadcast. Also, to establish contact with Mankato, the station broadcast a message and requested that KYSM in Mankato reply on its frequency. A two-way link was established on the broadcast band, and some emergency messages were broadcast. Local phone service was working in Albert Lea, and long-distance service was available in Mankato. Therefore, the on-air link established a lifeline to the outside world.

In Willmar, Minnesota, station KWLM had gone on the air only a month earlier. The station’s application had initially been rejected by the FCC on the grounds that Willmar was too small a community to warrant a station. The blizzard proved this argument wrong, since the station provided an important link for that community as well.

The storm covered much of the Midwest, and in Chicago, it was notable as a severe wind storm. The area was hit with 65 MPH winds, the strongest since 1898. Among the victims was this 357 foot tower of a station then located in Gary, Indiana. The call letters of the station, and the cause of the tower collapse, are revealed on the transmitter building: WIND.

And now, as another Chicago broadcaster would say, you know the rest of the story. 1940WIND

This image is from the November 15, 1940 issue of Broadcasting.

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How To Get Distant Signal TV Basketball, 1950

The reception problem and the final antenna.

In 1950, Richard J. Buchan of Bricelyn, Minnesota, was apparently an avid basketball fan, and enjoyed following the Minneapolis Lakers. And he was apparently tantalyzed by the fact that the Lakers were carried on Channel 4 in the Twin Cities (then WTCN-TV), 105 miles to the north. WTCN also carried the state basketball tournament, and Buchan set out on a quest to pull those signals into his living room.

His quest had actually begun when KSTP came on the air on Channel 5 from St. Paul. Buchan was a ham (W0TJF), and “after studying antenna books and experimental charts put out by the FCC,” he came to the conclusion that KSTP would be putting out, at most, a 2.5 microvolt signal as far away as Bricelyn. He also knew that a 250 microvolt signal would be required for solid reception, a whopping 40 dB of gain. He set out on a yearlong quest to get those 40 dB of gain, and a “small set was purchased and connected up.” He initially began working on Yagi antennas and preamplifiers, and described his experimental quest in detail in an article in the October 1950 issue of Radio News.

Since he lacked any test equipment, he rigged a VTVM up to his television to serve as an S-meter, and set about experimenting. The Yagis and preamplifiers he tested were never enough to give him the elusive 40 dB of gain. In particular, to get sufficient gain from the Yagis, he found that the bandwidth was too narrow. If he maximized the gain for the audio, the video suffered, and vice versa. The problems were compounded by the entrance of Channel 4 to the airwaves with the elusive basketball games. He was soon resigned to the need for four Yagis, tuned for sound and picture on the two channels.

Much to his dismay, WOI-TV in Ames, Iowa, came on the air on Channel 4. Unfortunately, Ames was almost exactly 180 degrees away from Minneapolis, meaning that he now also had to worry about the front-to-back ratio of the Yagi. And by designing it for better front-to-back ratio, he lost gain. (Buchan reported that he made no attempt to tune in WOI, since it didn’t broadcast the elusive basketball games. As far as he was concerned, the Iowa station apparently represented nothing other than interference.)

After some more study, he finally decided to abandon the Yagis and instead go with a Rhombic, which would have a theoretically infinite front-to-back ratio, but still have sufficient gain to pull in the elusive basketball games. Fortunately for Buchan, he had a large field across the road where he could install the antenna, which measured 155 feet in length, pointed toward the Twin Cities. Even though the final rhombic was actually lower than the Yagis, it performed well. Other than “an occasional gurgle in the sound,” the QRM from WOI was eliminated.

Presumably, the antenna continued to function well until the Lakers left Minneapolis in 1959.

Buchan, whose amateur call sign expired in 1998, also published more detailed construction details in Rhombic TV Antennas in 1951.

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Elinor Harriot, Radio Actress

Radio actress and announcer Elinor Harriot is shown here on the cover of Radio Guide 80 years ago today, September 28, 1935.

She was born Eleanor Harriet Hirschfield in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1910. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a Russian Jewish physician who had immigrated to America and 1885 and became a physician in St. Paul before moving to Duluth. Eleanor was interested in acting from an early age, and caught the attention of an agent while performing in a play at Duluth Central High. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she met fellow student Don Ameche, who later encouraged her to a career in radio. She stayed in college for only a year before seeking out an acting career.

By 1932, she was in New York, playing a minor role on Broadway when she was called upon with only an hours notice to fill in for the star, Dorothy Gish. Her performance catapulted her to prominence, and in 1933 she moved to Chicago to take acting jobs in radio.

She worked in a number of daily soap operas and other radio shows, as well as serving as the commercial voice for sponsors such as Old Dutch Cleanser and Munsingwear. She signed with NBC in 1935, and a few months after the picture here appeared, secured her most famous role, that of Ruby Taylor, the wife of Amos, in Amos ‘n’ Andy, as well as other roles. (The issue of Radio Guide in which her picture appeared reported that she was then with CBS.)

Shortly after the production of Amos and Andy was moved to California, she married in 1937 and left radio. She returned, however, to Amos and Andy in 1943. By that time she was the mother of two daughters and was active in the Beverly Hills community. She was later elected to two terms on the Beverly Hills Board of Education, where she acted to eliminate student dress codes, and was known as a strong proponent of racial equality.

She died in California in 2000 at the age of 89.

References

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Radio Keeps a Government Girl Company, 1943

Image via Wikimedia.

By 1944, with able-bodied men off to war, a third of the Civil Service was composed of women, and thousands of “Government Girls” descended on Washington to do their part to win the war by taking jobs in the quickly expanding federal government.

This brought acute housing shortages, and many of them lived in boarding houses. Among them was the young woman shown here in this iconic photograph by government photographer Esther Bubley. Bubley was herself one of those Government Girls. She grew up in Superior Wisconsin. After graduating from high school in the late 1930’s, she attended Superior Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Superior) before studying photography at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design).

“I come in here pretty often, sometimes alone, mostly with another girl, we drink beer, and talk, and of course we keep our eyes open–you’d be surprised at how often nice, lonesome soldiers ask Sue, the waitress, to introduce them to us” Wikimedia.

She moved to Washington in 1942, eventually landing a job as a photographer with the Office of War Information, where she documented the home front, including the lives of her fellow civil servants, such as the one shown above, taken in January 1943, with the caption: “A radio is company for this girl in her boardinghouse room.” Another civil servant is shown in the picture to the left.

The girl in the radio picture is, according to this source, quite likely one of Bubley’s sisters. The boardinghouse project was Bubley’s first in Washington. Even though she started out as a microfilm clerk, the results launched her career as a photographer.

The other star of the photo is, of course, the radio. It can be examined in better detail in the available high resolution scan. There aren’t enough details to positively identify it. I thought that the unusual octagonal tuning dial would make the job easy, but I was wrong.

Stromberg-Carlson did have a number of sets with the distinctive octagonal tuning dial, but this doesn’t appear to be a Stromberg-Carlson. First of all, the set is just too low-end for that company’s line. It has only two controls, and the tuning knob is connected directly to the tuning condenser, with no kind of gearing visible. More importantly, the Stromberg-Carlson name is not visible. It would almost certainly have appeared on the dial itself, but the only markings on this one are “kilocycles” and “meters.”

There is a brand name visible under the speaker, but it’s not possible to make it out. It appears to start with either an M or a W, but it certainly isn’t the same script used by Stromberg-Carlson. Despite the passing resemblance to some of Stromberg-Carlson’s sets, I have to rule it out. If anything, it’s a cheap knockoff of a Stromberg-Carlson.

It’s most likely that the radio had its beginnings in the nebulous radio history of Chicago. There’s a good chance that it was manufactured in a mysterious facility known only as “Plant A,” 1217 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago was the home of many small radio factories, the largest of which was “Plant A.” They were known only by the source given on the label in back, which also recited that they were manufactured under license of the patent holders. And good number of them identified the source as being “Plant A.” Plant A turned out radios under the names of Clinton, Corona, Crusader, Cub, Bostonian, Buckingham, Federal, Harmony, Marshall, Nightengale, Universal, and Westminster. In most cases, these were the house brands of individual stores who contracted with the owners of Plant A.

It’s really not known who the owners of Plant A and the other Chicago plants were. One source lists the owner as being Clinton Mfg. Co., but it’s not entirely clear whether Clinton owned the plant, or whether it was simply one of the brands manufactured there.

In any event, the circumstantial evidence seems strong that the radio came from one of these Chicago plants. Civilian radio production ended on April 22, 1942, and the set resembles the inexpensive four-tube radios that were available in about 1940. For example, the circuit is probably very close to the Tiny Knight from Chicago’s Allied Radio, or the 1940 Aetna Midget from Chicago-based Walgreen’s. Like those sets, the Government Girl probably paid about $7.95 for it at a drug store, tire store, or some other store that contracted with a factory in Chicago to put their name on it.

The closest match I was able to find to the Government Girl’s radio is this Clinton Model 440 4-tube TRF receiver. The general layout is the same, and it’s quite possible that there’s an identical chassis inside. In fact, the Clinton seems to have a permanently attached antenna wire, which is visible in the Government Girl’s window.

Now that we have a good suspicion of what the radio was, I’m sure you’re wondering what station the Government Girl was listening to. The dial pointer is visible in the high resolution photo, but it’s impossible to read the numbers. But the top scale is clearly frequency in kilocycles, and the bottom scale is wavelength in meters. The numbers are closer together at the left on the meter scale, indicating that this is the top of the dial (190 meters, or 1600 kilocycles). With that hint, it’s clear that the dial is set to 250 meters, meaning that the position of the top scale is 1200 kilocycles.

The Winter 1943 issue of White’s Radio Log shows that the most likely station as WOL, on 1260 with 1000 watts. The closest possible other contenders would have been 50,000 watt stations WBAL in Baltimore, on 1090, or WRVA on 1140 in Richmond, but it doesn’t appear that the dial is set low enough for either of those stations. In fact, with the simple 4-tube receiver and dubious window antenna, the signal from the Richmond station would probably have been too weak to keep the set’s owner company.

Incidentally, even though the caption says that the radio was keeping her company, it was turned off when the picture was taken. Even a humble radio such as this one would have had a dial light. The dial light wasn’t there as a convenience for the user; that was just a convenient side-effect. In a radio such as this with the tube filaments wired in series, the dial lamp is in parallel with some of the tubes to limit the current to them. Without the dial light, those tubes would fail prematurely, especially when the set is first turned on. So even the radio that a Government Girl bought at the drug store for $7.95 would have had one.

I would like to thank the QRZ.com members who helped me figure out the mysteries of this radio, in particular KP4SX and KC8VWM. And if anyone has further details, please share them, either by e-mail or in the comments.

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Don Wallace, W6AM, and WCCO Radio

I always knew that reknowned Amateur Radio operator Don Wallace, W6AM, had a background in Minnesota radio history. For example, I knew that he was involved with the University of Minnesota Amateur Radio Club, and I knew that he was involved with the Minnesota Wireless Association, whose antenna was a prominent feature on Minneapolis City Hall in 1915.

But I never knew the role that he played in the founding of WCCO radio. His role is detailed in a profile of WCCO which appeared in the September 1925 issue of Radio in the Home.

An earlier post recounts how WCCO first came on the air in October 1924. Its predecessor, WLAG, first came on the air in 1922. One of the problems encountered by WLAG before its demise was the transmitter location. The 500 watt transmitter was located in the city. When it was on the air, it made listening to more distant stations impossible. But when it was off the air, the listeners with crystal sets weren’t able to get anything. When a major investor in WLAG pulled its support, the station was off the air.

A group called the “Northwest Radio Trade Association” took the lead in getting a new station on the air. Obviously, the lack of a radio station put a dent in radio sales. In particular, without a local station, crystal set owners were left with nothing to listen to.

By this time, Wallace was employed by General Electric. As he recounted in a 1984 interview, when offered a position right out of college, he was offered a salary of $100 per month. He noted that his wife made more than that as a teacher, and that he could make more working as a telegrapher. GE was unwilling to budge very much, but they upped the offer to $125, and also offered him 1% of his department’s sales. Within a few months, he was making more than the company’s president.

Wallace was also the president of the Northwest Radio Trade Association in 1924, and took the lead in organizing a new station for the Twin Cities. Along with the group’s secretary, H.H. Cory, he proposed a more powerful 5000 watt station about 20 miles away from the Twin Cities. This would result in a signal powerful enough for the crystal set owners, but far enough away so as to allow owners of more powerful sets to pick up distant stations.

The plan met with some initial skepticism, as local businessmen noted that the area couldn’t support 500 watt WLAG, and they were hesitant about investing in a 5000 watt station. But eventually, Washburn-Crosby pledged to buy the station, provided that additional subscriptions of $50,000 per year from both Minneapolis and St. Paul could be secured.

WCCO transmitter site in about 1930.

As proposed by Wallace, the transmitter was located away from both Minneapolis and St. Paul, at its current site in Anoka. Studios were located in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to avoid any rivalries, announcers alternated announcing the location as “Minneapolis-St. Paul” and “St. Paul-Minneapolis.”

WCCO Minneapolis studio, Nicollet Hotel, 1925.

Wallace graduated from high school in 1912. He first became involved in amateur radio in 1910, prior to licensing, and got his first license in about 1912. He is listed in the 1913 call book as 6OC at 1431 Linden Avenue, Long Beach, California.

He served as a radio operator during World War I, and after the war, was assigned to serve as the radio operator for President Wilson at Versailles. He came to Minnesota after the war to attend the University of Minnesota. In Minnesota, he was licensed as 9XAX and 9ZT. In the 1922 call book, he is also listed as 9DR at 1830 Stevens Avenue in Minneapolis.

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Minnesota State Fair

Welcome to OneTubeRadio.com. This blog covers a variety of subjects, including radio history , Minnesota history , World War I , World War II, and scouting.

Minnesota State Fair, 1915.

Jump to 1922 Aeronautical Wedding
Jump to Ye Old Mill at 100 Years
Jump to Radio at the Minnesota State Fair

Today, we offer these images of the Minnesota State Fair as it appeared a hundred years ago in 1915. The scene above is the bandstand. Visible in the background is the dome of the Agriculture Building. A closer images of this building is also shown here, from the fair’s 1915 annual report.

1922 Aeronautical Wedding

Bride, groom, and pilot at 1922 aeronautical wedding at grandstand.

The grandstand, in the 1915 postcard shown below, is immediately recognizable to a modern visitor. As previously reported here, in 1922, the grandstand served as the wedding venue of Edwin Moline and Zelma Olson, who were married aboard an airplane flying above the grandstand. The presiding minister, Rev. E.A. Jordan, at 220 pounds, was too heavy to fit inside the airplane along with the pilot, bride, and groom. Therefore, he officiated from a pagoda within the grandstand, receiving the couple’s vows by a radio which was carried aboard the plane.

Ye Old Mill at 100 Years

Ye Old Mill, 2008. Photo, placeography.org, Licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License v. 3.0.

This year, the “Ye Old Mill” attraction at the Minnesota State Fair celebrates its 100th Anniversary. Many visitors are surprised to learn the nearly identical attractions with the same name at the Iowa State Fair (dating to 1921) and Kansas State Fair (also dating to 1915).

Radio at the Minnesota State Fair

Radio has a long tradition at the Minnesota State Fair. Indeed, the photo of the grandstand shows on the field what certainly appears to be a wireless antenna of some sort, although I don’t have any details of the old image. In 1914, the fair’s governing board considered a proposition made by one Philip Edelman of St. Paul for the installation of a wireless station at an esimated cost of $200. The board decided to continue discussions with Edelman as to whether such an exhibit could be made in a future year at less cost.

The Minneapolis sign of Sterling Electric Company, 1920 state fair exhibitor. Google books.

One of the earliest references I could find to radio at the State Fair was the December 1920 issue of Electrical Contractor Dealer, which detailed the experiences of the Sterling Electric Company of Minneapolis. At the 1920 Fair, the company had a large booth in the Electrical Building which included a wireless station that sent and received messages daily. The company followed up with a Saturday morning class in wireless telegraphy, in which there was considerable interest.

Shortly thereafter, the company, along with the Journal Printing Company, was the licensee of one of the area’s first broadcast stations, WBAD. That license was issued on April 25, 1922, according to the May 1922 issue of Radio World. It is likely, therefore, that the honors for being the first radio station at the fair go to WBAD. Since then, of course, local broadcasters have a long history of broadcasting from the fair. The image below from a WCCO promotional item shows the station’s then location in the Agriculture-Horticulture building.