First Station To Broadcast Weather Reports Now Adds Another Feather To Cap
By Bill Nolan
Twelve years ago – when radio was a playtoy, and a listener was not worried with what he received, the broadcast of market reports was inaugurated over the St. Louis University radio station, WEW. In April, 1921, the first broadcast of a regular scheduled weather report left the studios of WEW to be received by a scattered few sets, which, however, brought the report to the ears of an astonished audience. In August of the same year, when the weather reports had proven to be of great value to shippers and farmers, as well as urban listeners, the market reports were added as an additional service.
During the years past, the market report service was spread out to include reports from the chief market centers of the Midwest. Constantly elaborated, the reports grew in scope until the service furnished was one of the most complete of its type of broadcasts from any station. Livestock quotations, reports from the grain exchanges and dispatches of conditions and activities at the various vegetable markets brought a complete news service to listeners within the area served by WEW.
Nearly twelve years after the beginning of this important extension activity, direct wires were established between the station transmitter and the St. Louis Livestock Exchange headquarters at the National Stockyards in East St. Louis, Illinois, making possible a more complete and up-to-the-minute report of interest from this point. The broadcast from that point, begun August 1, has been handled by Harry A. Powell, secretary of the Exchange and an experienced commentator on market news, conditions and activities.
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment, 8/13/33)