© Mark Ollig
The future for delivering printed newspapers inside people’s homes is by using wireless facsimile transmissions over a local radio station’s airwaves.
At least this is what many folks thought during the 1930s.
It began with a local radio station sending news bulletins over their airwaves directly into a newspaper office. A facsimile machine inside the newspaper office tuned to the radio station’s frequency printed the announcements onto paper.
It may surprise you that this method was used 83 years ago by city radio stations and newspaper outlets – including one from Minnesota.
I recently obtained a copy of the April 1934 Radio-Craft magazine, and read an article titled “Radio Set Prints Newspaper!” written by Hugo Gernsback, the editor of Radio-Craft.
In his piece, Gernsback described a “radio newspaper.”
“The idea of using your radio set in your own home, to print a complete tabloid newspaper and deliver it to you, is not original with me. The idea has been mentioned by many well-known radio engineers ever since 1925, and perhaps even before that,” Gernsback writes.
His piece included photos of a scanning unit used in the transmission of photographs manufactured by the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA.
The article also contained photographs of an RCA facsimile reception device and radio facsimile receiver from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.
Inventor William G.H. Finch, a radio engineer and an editor with the International News Service, is credited for creating the technology used with wireless facsimile transmission and reception.
Finch proposed using a local radio station’s radio spectrum that went silent when regular on-air programs ended, which occurred during the late-night hours when most Americans were sleeping.
The first experimental tests of his radio facsimile system took place in 1933 over station W10XDF, transmitting from the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
Radio stations became very interested in Finch’s idea of using wireless radio frequencies to send news information and photographs directly to newspaper offices.
Many newspaper outlets were receptive to the idea – but not all.
During 1937, RCA manufactured the wireless facsimile scanner and printer equipment to be used with Finch’s technology.
Radio broadcasters received FCC special license permission to transmit radio facsimile signals between midnight and 6 a.m., starting in September 1937.
The first successful transmissions of radio facsimile printed news were made the week of Oct. 15, 1937, by the Minneapolis-St. Paul area radio station KSTP.
By the end of 1937, Finch had three radio stations testing his “radio printer” system: WGH in Newport News, Virginia; WHO in Des Moines, IA; and KSTP based in St. Paul, MN.
In 1938, St, Louis MO radio station W9XZY, using a facsimile scanner manufactured by RCA, transmitted a news bulletin over its radio frequency to the local St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper.
The newspaper office received a paper hard copy bulletin message from an RCA printer tuned to W9XZY’s transmitting frequency.
The newspaper’s printer and paper expenses were paid by the radio stations, while the local newspaper company would perform the distribution of the news and information.
In 1938, this setting was in operation between radio station W9XWY in St. Louis, MO and the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Eventually, radio stations’ staff began thinking, “Why not bypass the local newspaper and send the news information directly to the home user?”
It would eliminate the radio stations’ printing and distribution costs and directly move those costs to the end-user, who would purchase the printers and paper.
Finch envisions local radio stations delivering news over-the-air directly to customers radio facsimile printers during the overnight hours to homes in the city.
As folks woke up, they would walk over and pull the six pages of typed information from their newspaper printer and take it to the kitchen table to read while having their eggs, toast, and coffee.
The 1938 Finch facsimile radio receiver housed in a 1-foot-square wooden box sold for $125 ($1,900 in today’s dollars). It uses AC power and connects to the speaker of any radio receiver with at least 3 Watts audio output.
Finch also developed a “talking newspaper” process that would produce a soundtrack from newsprint. A subscriber using a “radio newspaper” could have the printed information reproduced and audibly read using specialized equipment in their home.
I consider myself better informed and appreciate having my local town newspaper reporting on the local city news, businesses, sports, and community activities.
A printed newspaper needs no batteries or electricity to operate; it only needs a curious reader flipping through its pages to keep up-to-date with the goings-on in their community.
Sipping freshly-brewed coffee is also a part of my newspaper reading habit.
Finch’s wireless radio facsimile technology for distributing news and information to a device in our home never became popular; however, it may have influenced later inventions, such as the fax machine plugged into a telephone line.
Finch, inventor of the radio facsimile system used by several radio broadcasting stations, and holder of many US patents in radio technology, passed away Nov. 13, 1990, at the age of 93.
According to his family members, Finch was actively working on several new inventions up to his death.
Be safe out there.
William G.H. Finch reads a 'radio newspaper.'
