On this day, two months to the day after its first broadcast, KDKA aired the
first religious service in the history of radio. It was undertaken by Westinghouse
to test its ability to do a remote broadcast far from a radio studio. Pittsburgh’s
Calvary Episcopal Church was chosen because one of the Westinghouse
engineers happened to be a member of the choir and made the arrangements.
The junior pastor, Rev. Lewis B. Whittemore, preached because the senior pastor
was leery of the new medium. The technicians (one a Jew, one Catholic) were
outfitted with choir robes in order to keep them from distracting the congregation.