Radio - El Paso, Texas

Broadcast radio came to El Paso in the 1920s. The Mine and Smelter Company, under the callsign WDAH, went on the air in 1922. The Federal Government moved the boundary dividing its east-west call signs in 1923, so all subsequent El Paso radio and television stations use K as their call sign. The electronics of early home radios depended on glass vacuum tubes, so they were large, designed to blend with the furniture, and had to be plugged into an electrical socket. Solid state (tubeless) radios appeared in the mid 1950s. Transistor radios were powered by batteries and could be easily carried by an individual. El Paso cartoonist and Austin High graduate Tom Moore depicted the era when teenagers took control of their music in the classic Archie and Jughead comic series.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: EPMH

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History