RCA pre-war camera photo

[Dave A]

As a past president of the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers I think I can help with the history. The quick answer is one chapter...Philadelphia. Florida had a chapter but we have not heard from them in years.

The Pioneers used to be a national organization dating from the '50's with local chapters. The national began to fade in the 90's and was re-organized in to the Broadcasters Foundation with a new mission of financial assistance to down-and-out broadcasters with medical bills, etc. They abandoned the Pioneers name to the local chapters.

Philadelphia began re-building in the late 90's with our mission of college scholarships and digital preservation of any media we can get from old broadcasters. The Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers now has a membership above 500. Philadelphia has a lot of broadcasters hanging around. The monthly meetings are open to the public on the third Wednesday of each month. July and August off. You can see us at www.broadcastpioneers.com where the history is endless.

Our last meeting in June was a celebration of KYW television's 85th anniversary. I brought a 95 year old guest who was a college age actor in a 1939 one hour drama broadcast from the Philco plant on W3XE.