KQL

Cover letter prepared by J. F. Dillon, 6th district Radio Inspector for the U.S. Commerce Department, summarizing Arno A. Kluge's application for a radio station license to broadcast "radio telephone concerts and data on a wavelength of 360 meters".[1]

KQL was a radio station, located in Los Angeles, California, that was licensed to Arno A. Kluge from October 13, 1921 to June 9, 1922. This was the first broadcasting station licensed in the state of California,[2] and one of the first in the United States. However, the station was short-lived, because Kluge died just 212 months after it was authorized.

  1. ^ This cover letter is included in the KQL station folder archived in "Deleted broadcast license files (1921–1927), Accession# 52-A-51 - Box 4 of 8" as part of the "United States Department of Commerce: Bureau of Navigation (Radio Division)" holdings. Retrieved from the Washington National Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration.
  2. ^ There had been numerous earlier broadcasts made in California by stations operating under Experimental licenses, most prominently by Charles Herrold in San Jose beginning in 1912, and, beginning in 1920, by Lee de Forest's 6XC in San Francisco. ("Voices Out of the Fog" by John Schneider) However, KQL was the first in the state to match the formal definition of a broadcasting station — a station which had been issued a Limited Commercial license that specified operation on a wavelength of 360 meters — which was adopted by Department of Commerce regulators effective December 1, 1921.