More than 200 people crowded into the Wilkinsburg Train Station on Saturday to celebrate the 150th birthday of Frank Conrad, the Pittsburgh native and broadcasting pioneer, engineer and innovator who developed the transmitter that launched KDKA Radio’s first broadcast in 1920, just blocks away in his garage.
The crowd included broadcasting veterans, community leaders, and radio and TV fans and supporters of the National Museum of Broadcasting, a nonprofit organization that has plans to honor Frank Conrad and other influential broadcasters and radio and TV stations in its planned museum in East Pittsburgh. Saturday’s fundraiser marked the first start for the National Museum of Broadcasting to raise awareness and the funding to buy a former bank building in Keystone Commons and begin construction so it can display all the artifacts, including Frank Conrad’s dismantled garage, now kept in storage. It will also be a site for education and partnerships.
Jamie and Frank Conrad II, great-grandsons of the broadcasting pioneer, presented the inaugural Frank Conrad Award for Broadcasting and Media Innovation to Jim Cunningham, WQED-FM’s artistic director and longtime radio host. Frank Conrad II lauded Cunningham for his creativity and innovation in taking classical music to a new level and finding crossover with other genres.
Cunningham, who had moderated a panel as part of the day’s festivities, was not told of the award until its presentation. Jamie Conrad, a Pittsburgh native who now works as an attorney and lives in Washington, D.C., said, “Jim’s remarkable career has demonstrated the wide variety of roles that a broadcaster can play: running a radio station, inspiring and educating listeners as a host, building a crucial linkage with the Pittsburgh Symphony, writing for Pittsburgh Magazine, interviewing influential people, [and] teaching. Jim’s career exemplifies innovation.”
The panel of Pittsburgh broadcasting icons featured former KDKA Radio morning host Jack Bogut, retired WTAE-TV news anchorwoman Sally Wiggin, and current host of WPXI-TV’s “Our Region’s Business” Bill Flanagan discussed their broadcasting experiences and the future of broadcast news and programming. They touched on the changes that streaming and AI have already have made and how they will further influence the industry, including how news and information are curated.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.