The first Presidential radio broadcast was given here seven months earlier, on this very day in 1922, than this December photo picturing President Harding and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, when they took part back in May at the dedication of the memorial before which they stand. Coolidge would build on that use of radio communication in extensive, historic ways after Harding. Coolidge would become, as scholar Jerry Wallace puts it, “our first radio President.” But it was Harding who led the way on May 30, 1922. Photo credit: Library of Congress
President Harding addressing the 50,000 present. Photo credit: Bettman/Getty Images
The Importance of the Obvious 