Edward Bennett

Edward Bennett (October 26, 1876 – 1951) was an American physicist and electrical engineer born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known for his early contributions to wireless telegraphy and his role in founding one of the nation's earliest radio stations.

Early life and education Bennett was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (then known as the Western University of Pennsylvania) in 1897. His doctoral research focused on spark-gap transmitters and was conducted jointly with William Bradshaw under the supervision of Reginald Fessenden, who at that time held the chair of electrical engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania. Fessenden, later recognized as a pioneer of radio broadcasting, conducted early wireless research at the university with funding from the Westinghouse company.

In 1914, Bennett assembled an amateur wireless telegraphic set on campus and applied to the Department of Commerce for an experimental license. The license assigned Bennett the call sign 9XM—9 for the north central region of the United States, X for experimental, and M for Madison.

Shortly after obtaining the license, physics professor Earle M. Terry approached Bennett and requested to "borrow" the license for experimental wireless telegraph equipment that Terry and his students had begun building. The station 9XM would later be relicensed as WHA, which has been proclaimed "the oldest station in the nation" and remains the flagship of Wisconsin Public Radio. The three are depicted in a mural by John Stella that still hangs in UW-Madison's Radio Hall, showing the Radio Committee members standing behind station manager Earle Terry and program director William Lighty. King subsequently joined Harvard University, where he became the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and a leading authority on antenna theory, supervising 101 doctoral students during his career.