November 2021 • Nebraskaland 37
The university had its own radio station in the electrical
engineering building. A telephone wire connected the station
to a remote microphone beside the fi eld. In 1924 the Daily
Nebraskan boasted that the station had a broadcast radius of
300 to 400 miles.
Commercial radio stations soon got involved. In 1925 the
university partnered with the "Nebraska Buick station"
KFAB to broadcast games from a new soundproof booth in
the (unheated) press box. For away games, KFAB "leases a
telegraph wire" to relay the signal to its own studio.
By 1927, fans had grown accustomed to having an
announcer explain the game as it unfolded. That season,
Memorial Stadium added its fi rst public address system
and stadium announcer. Radio, however, was becoming
controversial among athletic departments. In 1928 the Big
Six Conference (the future Big 8, and predecessor of today's
Big XII) discussed banning game broadcasts. Some athletic
directors believed radio hurt attendance. Others thought it
helped by raising interest.
When a few athletic conferences banned broadcasts in
1932, Nebraska's "business manager of athletics" expressed
support. As the Daily Nebraskan put it, "many people who
would otherwise pay their $2.75 to see the game now do not
do so because they can save their money and enjoy the game
almost as much at home."
The Big Six banned broadcasts of conference games
starting with the 1933 season. A letter to the Daily Nebraskan
complained that "untold thousands of true Nebraska grid
fans are to be severed from their 'blood of life.'" In 1935 a
McCook state senator introduced a legislative bill requiring
the university to accept the highest bid for game broadcasts.
Warning of "considerable resentment" in his part of the state,
he argued that taxpayers supported the university and were
therefore entitled to hear the games.
The university responded that the football program
received no tax dollars and that football paid for much of NU's
Nebraska's home fi eld, circa 1920, before Memorial Stadium. The NU-Pitt game, the fi rst Husker game broadcast on radio,
was played at Forbes Field, the baseball park that was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates. History Nebraska RG2758-105-8
