Franklin M. Doolittle

Franklin Malcolm Doolittle (June 16, 1893 – March 4, 1979) was an American radio industry pioneer, who founded WDRC, the oldest AM station in Connecticut, in addition to that state's first FM station, WHCN, which was also one of the first FM broadcasters in the United States. In 1924–1925, he conducted the first tests made of stereo radio broadcasts.

Biography

Doolittle was born on June 16, 1893, in New Haven, Connecticut. He had an early interest in radio (then known as "wireless telegraphy") and built his first station in 1906 at the age of 13, using a Ford automobile spark coil as a transmitter, and a coherer receiver. He later built an arc transmitter capable of audio transmissions.

Doolittle operated an amateur radio station, 1AGI, located at his home at 167 Willard Street in New Haven. In 1921, he began broadcasting weekly concerts, and on November 12, 1921, made one of the first broadcasts of a football game, between Yale and Princeton universities, when he repeated sideline commentary by New Haven Register reporter Dan Mulvey, that was received by telephone. The Department of Commerce, which regulated U.S. radio at this time, eventually banned entertainment broadcasts by amateur radio stations and issued a regulation requiring that broadcasting stations would now have to hold a Limited Commercial license. On December 2, 1922, a broadcasting station license, with the call sign WPAJ, was issued to the Doolittle Radio Company in New Haven, which made its debut broadcast on December 10, 1922. Although not the first commercially licensed broadcasting station in the state of Connecticut, this station, now WDRC in Hartford, is the state's oldest surviving one.

In 1924, Doolittle was issued U.S. patent 1,513,973 for the use of dual radio transmissions to create stereo (then commonly called "binaural") reception. That same year WPAJ was temporarily authorized to concurrently operate a second transmitter, and Doolittle conducted the first reported stereo radio broadcasts, lasting about a year. Left and right audio was distributed to WPAJ's two transmitters by dual microphones, placed about 7 inches (18 cm) apart to match the distance between a person's ears. Doolittle ended the experiments primarily because a lack of available frequencies on the congested AM broadcast band meant that it was not practical for stations to occupy two frequencies,

In 1959, Doolittle sold his radio station holdings and retired. He died on March 4, 1979, at Yale-New Haven Hospital, aged 85.