Editing RCA (section)

===Broadcasting===
[[File:1921 ad for Playhouse Theater Dempsey-Carpentier radiophone broadcast.jpg|thumb|Advertisement promoting theater attendance to hear the ringside commentary broadcast by RCA's temporary station, WJY (1921)]]
[[File:1922 radio station WDY hexagonal studio.JPEG|thumb|Studio of RCA's first broadcasting station, the short-lived WDY, located at its plant in Roselle Park, New Jersey (1922)]]
[[File:1922 Radio Enters the Home cover.jpg|thumb|The June 1, 1922, cover of RCA's equipment catalog showcased the emerging home market.]]
The introduction of organized radio broadcasting in the early 1920s resulted in a dramatic reorientation and expansion of RCA's business activities. The development of vacuum tube radio transmitters made audio transmissions practical, in contrast with the earlier transmitters which were limited to sending the dits-and-dahs of [[Morse code]]. Since at least 1916, when he was still at American Marconi, David Sarnoff had proposed establishing broadcasting stations, but his memos to management promoting the idea for sales of a "Radio Music Box" had not been followed up at the time.<ref>Archer (1938), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89074767138&view=1up&seq=140 pages 112–113]</ref>

A small number of broadcasting stations began operating, and soon interest in the innovation was spreading nationwide. In the summer of 1921, a [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] employee, Julius Hopp, devised a plan to raise charitable funds by broadcasting, from ringside, the July 2, 1921 [[Jack Dempsey versus Georges Carpentier|Dempsey-Carpentier]] heavyweight championship fight to be held in Jersey City, New Jersey. Hopp recruited theaters and halls as listening locations that would charge admission fees to be used as charitable donations. He also contacted RCA's J. Andrew White, the acting president of the National Amateur Wireless Association (NAWA), an organization originally formed by American Marconi which had been inherited by RCA. White agreed to recruit the NAWA membership for volunteers to provide assistance at the listening sites, and also enlisted David Sarnoff for financial and technical support. RCA was authorized to set up a temporary longwave radio station, located in Hoboken a short distance from the match site, and operating under the call letters [[WJY (Hoboken, New Jersey)|WJY]]. For the broadcast White and Sarnoff telephoned commentary from ringside, which was typed up and then read over the air by J. Owen Smith. The demonstration was a technical success, with a claimed audience of 300,000 listeners throughout the northeast.<ref name="stirring">[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101051572624&view=1up&seq=545 "Voice-Broadcasting the Stirring Progress of the 'Battle of the Century'&nbsp;"], ''The Wireless Age'', August 1921, pages 11–21.</ref>

RCA quickly moved to expand its broadcasting activities. In the fall of 1921, it set up its first full-time broadcasting station, [[WDY]], at the Roselle Park, New Jersey company plant. By 1923, RCA was operating three stations—WJZ (now [[WABC (AM)|WABC]]) and [[WJY (New York City)|WJY]] in New York City, and WRC (now [[WTEM]]) in Washington, D.C. A restriction imposed by AT&T's interpretation of the patent cross-licensing agreements required that the RCA stations remain commercial free, and they were financed by profits from radio equipment sales.