Henderson history: Local residents began tuning in to radio in 1924

Cameron P. Sugg broke Henderson County’s ice to usher in the radio age but shattered a more dangerous type of ice right before he died.

Radio waves had been sweeping Henderson County for at least 10 years in 1924 but it wasn’t until mid-February that The Gleaner began running advertisements for receiving sets. That was encouraged, no doubt, by the Finke Furniture Co. of Evansville founding WGBF in 1923, which is still on the air.

The city of Henderson had about 50 working radios, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 10, 1924, which focused on Sugg’s pioneering efforts. At that time, a wire strung between two poles served as an antenna, so it was an easy matter to travel the city and count all those wires.

“That (Sugg) could string wires from one pole to another and waylay messages in the air was the height of improbability, it was said, but while the scoffers wagged their heads and prophesied dire results for this daring youth, he kept plugging away.

“And when he began to tell the passer-by of things that had happened in distant cities before the daily press sent the news abroad, sneers of derision gradually changed to smiles of approval that it was a Henderson County boy who was to lead the way for radio development in this section.”

Sugg’s earliest radio signals were received about 1915, according to a Dec. 10, 1939, interview Jack Hudgions did with him. Sugg’s home-made radio used copper wire wound around an oatmeal box, which he would use to pick up Morse code weather reports out of Elgin, Illinois, and post them on a bulletin board near what is now U.S. 60-West.

Local farmers, of course, were very appreciative.

Sugg said a fellow by the name of William Ryan, who no longer lived in Henderson as of 1939, built the first radio in the county in 1914, although it was limited to sending and receiving Morse code signals.

Ryan also taught Jasper Koonce and Frank Marstall how to build radio sets between 1914 and 1916 while they and Sugg were still at Barret Manual Training High School, and the three spent many an hour conversing in Morse code.

In the fall of 1919, according to the 1939 article, Sugg “began to put together his radio pieces and within six weeks … he completed the small set that first received sound in Henderson County.”

The first station he picked up was KDKA out of Pittsburgh, which still operates. He didn’t know at first it was KDKA, however. It took several nights of listening to verify that because the signal kept fading in and out.

“His first machine was demonstrated in Henderson approximately three months later, in February 1920, with that of Herbert Schoepflin, who was experimenting with radio.”

A Dec. 8, 1929, Gleaner article says, “Many Hendersonians will remember that Mr. Schoepflin was the first person in the city to ever own a radio and remember their first radio thrill when they visited his home on Ingram Street and placed the earphones on and heard voices coming through the air.”

Radio’s glory days were before television came on the scene in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was just getting started in Henderson in 1924, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 10.

“The radio here is of such recent installation and development, but has grown with such prodigious bounds, that those not in direct contact fail to realize it. But a stroll around the city reveals the wires above many homes and business houses that establish connection with the waves that convey fugitive words to those prepared to receive them.”

That story also indicated Quinn’s Drug Store was probably the first local merchant to begin selling receiver sets. “Roy Quinn caught the radio fever when they first came out. He has had radio outfits in his home and his store for two years.”

Arthur Raymond, who had a shop in the East End across from Audubon School, and Lambert-Grisham Hardware Co. also were early purveyors of radios in this area. The newest competitor to enter the business was Pardon\'s Bicycle Store, which ran an ad saying its line of radios would be available March 1. (Pardon’s had an unusual window display, according to the March 19 Gleaner, which showed how your radio set could accompany you while camping.)

All four of those businesses ran display advertisements in The Gleaner of Feb. 17, 1924. Prices ranged from $50 to well over $200. The more expensive sets were sold by Lambert-Grisham Hardware.

That company’s ad said, “Radio, like the telephone, has become a permanent feature of every modern home. Its rapid development toward perfection -- the gradual elimination of static – has made people radio enthusiasts almost overnight. And now, during the indoor social season, an up-to-the-minute set is the best home entertainment investment you can make.

“Broadcasting stations are listing the greatest musicians, lecturers, comedians – yes, they even give the latest news of the day – to entertain you.”

Many of you already know that WSON began broadcasting Dec. 17, 1941. Another type of station preceded it, however, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 31, 1930; it was more of a ham radio operation.

The September 1930 issue of QST, a magazine devoted to amateur radio published by the American Radio Relay League since 1915, carried a five-page article about W9BAN, which was the call sign of the station run by George P. Taylor at 728 Second St.

It began operating in October 1926, according to QST, and things went smoothly for two years – until a fire destroyed the station in September 1928. It was rebuilt – better than ever – but then it was struck by lightning a year later.

“A couple of billion volts of concentrated electricity is positively ruthless. It blew everything but the postman’s whistle – tubes, meters, chokes, transformers, condensers, lights, telephone, relay, and made crude but nearly permanent welded joints on the key contacts. As before the station was rebuilt and improved.”

Taylor died in 1935 and no mention of his radio outfit was made in his obituary.

Sugg’s death was the lead story of The Gleaner of Dec. 31, 1960, although it also made no mention of his pioneering work in radio. Instead, it said the 66-year-old former electrician had long been an employee of Lambert-Grisham Hardware.

He still lived at his parents’ farm on U.S. 60-West but at the time of his death was watching the livestock of Howard and Pauline Kennedy on Rudy Lane. (Pauline Kennedy was his cousin.)

The Kennedys returned from vacation the evening of Dec. 29 to find Sugg’s supper on the table, the house unlocked, and the cats unfed. Also, seven hogs were missing. A search revealed Sugg’s cap on the ice of the farm pond.

Deputy Coroner Atmur Stokes “said Sugg still had his glasses on when he was pulled from the icy water. There were tracks leading across the ice to the point where he was found. Five shoats and two sows were also drowned in similar manner in the pond.”

75 YEARS AGO

A dinner with guests from Evansville and Owensboro was held at the Soaper Hotel to begin organizing an Optimists Club here, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 5, 1949.

A quota of 60 members was set for the proposed club. The Gleaner of Feb. 17 said 30 members were inducted at a luncheon at the hotel.

The Henderson Optimists Club no longer exists although I know it was active here through at least the early 1990s. Membership was limited to men up until 1987, when Jillian King was admitted, and the focus was on serving the needs of youth.

50 YEARS AGO

Congressional candidate Carroll Hubbard predicted that a demonstration coal gasification plant would be built in Western Kentucky by the end of the year, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 2, 1974.

Asked for further details, he said, it would be “only appropriate that Gov. Wendell Ford make any further announcements.” That project was proposed on 488 acres on Highland Creek later in 1974 but the federal government rejected the proposal in 1976.

Three other huge synfuel plants were proposed in this area in the early 1980s but the plants never materialized.

25 YEARS AGO

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell began developing a national profile, appearing on television 42 times since Dec. 20, according to an Associated Press story in The Gleaner of Feb. 9, 1999.

“In fact, McConnell has appeared on as many as four networks in a single day.”

“He’s very smart and very focused and very prepared,” said Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Far be it from me to argue with any of that,” McConnell said with a laugh when told of Russert’s remarks.

He insisted he had not solicited any of the appearances. “It’s all sort of come my way in the last few months.”

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at @YesNews42@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: When did radio come to Henderson, Kentucky?