The First Coast-To-Coast World Series Broadcast

Back to 1927

The First Coast-To-Coast World Series Broadcast

Both NBC and CBS were granted permission to air the 1927 World Series:

From The Kalamazoo Gazette, September 28, 1927, page 1

That probably seems odd by today’s standards, but it wasn’t so strange back then. In fact, for a few years starting in 1935, the World Series was broadcast on no fewer than three radio networks.

But the thing that was so special about the 1927 World Series broadcast is the large reach that the NBC and CBS chains had:

From Springfield Evening Union (Springfield, Massachusetts), September 29, 1927, page 1

In fact, it seems that additional networks joined onto the chain right before the series opened:

From The Binghamton Press (New York), October 6, 1927, page 20

I believe that would maket he 1927 the first official coast-to-coast baseball broadcast.

Now, it’s not like the entire country was within reach of those radio waves. In Alabama, for example, it seems that local radio presented a recreated play-by-play account:

From The Birmingham Post, October 4, 1927, page 1

Now, the most fun part about the old days of radio are some of the old radio advertisements:

From The Arizona Republican, September 30, 1927, page 16

From The Paterson Morning Call (New Jersey), September 24, 1927, page 13

Two above advertisements from The Oil City Derrick (Pennsylvania), October 3, 1927, page 7. Oil City, Pennsylvania might be pretty small and obscure today, but it had a population of around 22,000 in 1927.

It was a big deal back then.