January 1, 1923: KHJ in Los Angles broadcast the Rose Bowl for the first time.
The Rose Bowl was presented by Vizio for sponsorship purposes. The contest was an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on the 1st of January every year. The broadcast of the game on January 1, 1923, dubbed the East vs West Football game, was confirmed by Jim Hilliker from a contemporary account in the Los Angeles Times. The game was the first game hosted at The Rose Bowl stadium. Previously, Rose Bowl games were hosted at Pasadena's Tournament Park,
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As I've discovered in the last few years, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was also broadcasting results of the Rose Bowl game between Penn State and USC. KDKA was getting results from the Rose Bowl by Western Union wire and teletype news reports, and reading the plays as they got the details. It's also most likely that the KHJ broadcast was not from a play by play announcer at the Rose Bowl, but via a sports writer who telephoned the Times and KHJ, and reported the results via telephone and the announcer at the station gave the plays and scores after getting details from the reporter at the Rose Bowl. The KDKA word description of the Rose Bowl was heard on the East Coast and Midwest. It's unknown how far the KHJ broadcast was heard, aside from Southern California. As it got toward sunset at the end of the game, it is possible KHJ's 500 watt signal was heard via skywave in some western states.
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