Gather around your digital devices, children, and learn of a time when there were no cell phones, laptops, PC's or televisions --- and radio receivers were few and far between, too.
So back on the evening of June 11, 1924, when Chariton took to the airwaves for the first time, receivers were installed in the Lucas County Courthouse courtroom and the parish hall of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, doors were thrown open and Lucas Countyans who didn't have radios at home were invited to gather and listen.
WHO-Radio, a commercial venture of Bankers Life (now Principal Financial Group), had begun broadcasting just two months earlier, on April 10, 1924, from small studios atop the brand new 12-story Liberty Building, 6th and Grand, in downtown Des Moines. That insurance company's offices were located there, too.
As part of its regular programming, the new radio station allocated hour and a half slots to representatives from Iowa cities far and near --- working to establish the broadest possible listener base.
A delegation of a dozen, mostly amateur musicians, represented Chariton --- A male quartet, a mixed quartet and vocal, piano and vocal soloists gathered around the concert grand in the new WHO studios to perform. There also was a dramatic reading. The keynote address was given by Hunter T. Wilson, at the time district manager for the Southern Iowa Electric Co. who, a year later, would purchase the Westinghouse Electric and Radio Shop on the east side of the square.
It was a grand evening and weather conditions were perfect --- the signal from the new station's modest transmitter was clear and uninterrupted.
Here's how The Herald-Patriot reported the occasion in its edition of Thursday, June 12:
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Chariton talent last evening entertained not only a local audience, but as well "the countless thousands of listeners" who were on the air with the new Bankers' Life station, WHO, at Des Moines.
The local entertainers appeared last evening at the Des Moines station and were heard in a Chariton program from 7:30 to 9 o'clock. The weather conditions for radio reception were unusually good and it is believed the program was heard all over Iowa and in many other states without difficulty.
Locally, arrangements were made for the public to hear the Des Moines program. Receiving sets were installed at the court room and at the Episcopal church basement, at which places a number of people assembled to listen in. Many people with sets in their homes report this morning that the program came in satisfactorily, and that its quality and style made it thoroughly enjoyable.
Those who were heard on the Charition program at the Des Moines station were: Mr. and Mrs. Merrill Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. O.P. Trautwein, Willard Curtis, Mrs. Chas. Weiford, T.D. Ashby, Mrs. F.B. Peterson, H.T. Wilson, Prof. Tom Reid of Phillips University at Enid, Oklahoma, Mrs. Frank Schwartz and Miss Dorothy Curtis.
The address of H.T. Wilson, on "Chariton," was opened with some preliminary remarks on the glories of Iowa state. On the subject of "Chariton" Mr. Wilson spoke as follows:
"Chariton --- spelled C-h-a-r-i-t-o-n --- is the second city in the state of Iowa. Second only to Des Moines because Des Moines has the state capitol and the governor, but Chariton raised Governor Kendall and will always claim him as her own. We feel that Chariton is the best town in the state, and I hope that every person who hears my voice feels that same way about his or her home town.
"The City of Chariton, located in the southern section of the state, some fifty miles due south of Des Moines and midway between the two great rivers, is blessed with not only the advantages enjoyed by the state in general, but also some peculiar to the immediate locality. One of these is the freedom from extremes of temperature. Another is the absence of destructive storms. Another is the abundance of cheap fuel supply. And again it is situated in a most beautiful and picturesque part of the state, with stretches of fertile prairie, grassy meadows, beautifully wooded hillsides, and rippling streams of pure water flowing from ever living springs. The elevation of Chariton is 1,050 feet, and from this great divide the waters flow on one side to the Mississippi and from the other side to the Missouri river.
"Chariton is served by the main line of the C.B. & Q. railway and by the Minneapolis and Kansas City line of the Rock Island railway. It also has a branch of the C. B. & Q. railway leading out to the north to Des Moines and to the south to Kansas City. It has some twenty passenger trains daily, and has excellent freight service. It is a good distributing point for southern Iowa and northern Missouri.
"Chariton is located on the Blue Grass Trail, the Capitol to Capitol Trail, and on the route of the proposed Harding Highway. It has two primary roads --- Nos. 8 and 14. No. 8 primarily, running from Burlington to Council Bluffs, is one of the most important roads in the state and is designated as a federal aid road, and one that shall receive the larger federal aid. It is destined to be one of the first highways paved across the state, as it now has a very heavy traffic and is in large part graded ready for surfacing.
"Chariton is the county seat of Lucas county, which is a fine farming, stock raising and dairying country. The city has a population of 5,400, all English speaking people. It is a trading center for a large section, and is regarded as one of the best commercial towns in southern Iowa. The surrounding territory is underlaid with the greatest coal deposits in the state and has many coal mines. Most of the coal mining employees trade in Chariton and many of them live in the city. They are a good class of people and many of them are home owners. Fuel is cheap and plentiful, electric power is available in any quantity, and Chariton offers every encouragement to industries seeking to locate.
"This is a city of homes and of the best moral atmosphere. Fine churches of most all denominations are found here. Major crimes are almost unknown, the city has one of the best school systems in Iowa, with four grade schools, a junior high school and a new quarter million dollar high school.
"Chariton has a new $50,000 post office, a large court house, twelve miles of paved streets, a fine library with 14,000 volumes and 3,500 patrons, a modern gas plant, an electric power plant serving many towns in several counties, a water system unexcelled by any, a complete sanitary sewer system with septic tank disposal, a very efficient fire department, an excellent band giving weekly free concerts and which is supported by the business firms, a hospital with one of the largest X-Ray equipments in the United States, a tourists' park, a fine municipal park under construction, an ice plant, ice cream factory, two large produce houses, a broom factory, wholesale grocery, greenhouse, two grain elevators, feed mills, two theaters, and three hotels, one of them a new four story building.
"Chariton has three banks with deposits of $2,500,000. It has a Country Club with a sporty nine hole golf course. The Chariton Gun Club, with its thousand members, operates a large dance pavilion, boat house and bathing beach on Crystal Lake adjoining the city. There are three large artificial lakes near town, affording good fishing, duck hunting and water sports. Chariton has a Farm Bureau, Farmers' Union, Womans' Club, Rotary Club, many lodges and other organizations. It has a commerical club that is always boosting for the town, and factional strife is conspicuous only by its absence.
"Chariton's latch string is always out to visitors, and our hospitality has a lasting flavor. The friendly spirit of its citizens will make you feel right at home here and want to come again."
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