President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, Heber J. Grant, speaks the first words broadcast over radio in Utah on May 6, 1922. The individuals present at this first broadcast of KZN were, left to right: Nathan O. Fullmer, George Albert Smith (later president of the L.D.S. Church), Mrs. Heber J. Grant, President Grant, C. Clarence Neslen (mayor of Salt Lake), and George J. Cannon.
Utah's First Radio Station BY P E A R L F . J A C O B S O N
Radio broadcasting as we know it today was a product of the first decade of the twentieth century, although the first successful experiments that led to radio were conducted during the late 1860's. In 1866 Mahlon Loomis, a District of Columbia dentist, was successful in sending the first message through the air. In 1888 Henrich Hertz produced electro-magnetic waves. Later, Marconi perfected the experiments of Loomis, Hertz, and others so that by 1901 wireless messages were being sent across the Atlantic. Radio broadcasting was begun in 1907, and some stations were being heard in America regularly by people in the Eastern States during 1920. By the year 1922 radio was becoming popular with the American public, and 14 years later there were over 27 million radio sets in use in the United States with more than 500 stations supplying them with programs. Radio was then "Big Business," for by the end of 1936 the gross receipts Mrs. Jacobson, a school teacher in Richfield, U t a h , is the daughter of N a t h a n O. Fullmer, Deseret News executive given the job of establishing Radio Station K Z N in 1922. Most of the information for this article was taken from the personal files and memoirs of N a t h a n O. Fullmer. Included in these files are personal letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and brochures.
