By Peter Vankevich
On the North Carolina license plate is “First in Flight,” noting the remarkable achievements of the Wright Brothers in the early years of the 20th century.
Could North Carolina also claim the distinction of being “First in broadcasting?”
That’s the question addressed by historian Kevin Duffus in his latest book, published in association with the North Carolina Broadcast History Project, “The Inventor Reginald Fessenden and the Origins of American Radio on North Carolina’s Outer Banks” (Looking Glass Productions 2025).
Duffus’s excellent writing makes this, which might seem to be a dull topic, into a page-turner.
His interest was sparked by a historical marker outside of Buxton that proclaims that “R.A. Fessenden sent the first musical notes ever relayed by radio waves. Received 48 miles north.”
Duffus determined that Fessenden sent his radio waves from Hatteras, not Buxton, and details the story in this book that’s both a semi-biography of a driven man with detailed insights into the early years of radio broadcasting and North Carolina’s significant contributions to this field.
Fessenden was a brilliant but pompous and combative Canadian-born inventor who is often described as the “Father of Radio” for his groundbreaking work in developing the technology for both radio transmission and reception.
Largely self-educated, he had a passion for science and experimentation that led to a frantic life, never staying long in one job or location.
He and his wife, Helen May Trott, moved to New York City with the hope of working with Thomas Edison, who initially refused to hire him because in his job application he wrote that he didn’t know much about electricity but was willing to learn.
Fessenden persisted and eventually was hired in 1888 as an assistant tester for the Edison Machine Works.
He quickly rose to work directly with the inventor. At age 23, he became the head chemist in Edison’s new laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey.
Facing financial difficulties, Edison laid off most of the laboratory employees, including Fessenden, who moved on, working at a series of manufacturing and academic positions.
Around the turn of the century, a major driving force for the need for wireless communications was hurricanes.
At that time, the U.S. Weather Bureau transmitted information by telegraph–carried by wires.
Widely regarded as the most powerful storm to strike the Outer Banks was the 1899 San Ciriaco Hurricane.
Not only did it destroy or severely damage every building on Hatteras Island, but it also blew down all the telegraph poles, isolating the Outer Banks with no way to communicate with the outside world.
Much of the book focuses on 1900 to 1902 when Fessenden accepted a contract with the U.S. Weather Bureau and moved to Manteo on Roanoke Island to develop a system to telegraph wireless weather forecasts and hurricane warnings.
Eventually, he created a whole new system of sending electromagnetic waves that could carry the human voice.
Much of this occurred by use of transmitters on Roanoke and Hatteras islands.
Communications technology at the beginning of the 20th century was of high public interest. Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor, was a household name.
Marconi’s means of wireless communication used what is called spark-gap technology that permitted Morse Code transmission.
Fessenden viewed Marconi as an archrival and believed that he had a much better system for wireless transmissions, sending rapid electromagnetic waves that could include voice and music which Marconi’s spark-gap system could not.
Duffus goes into great detail regarding these two systems and how the popular press regarded them.
Over his lifetime Fessenden, who died in 1932, was granted approximately 500 patents that included radio transmission and others in sonar, radar, television, submarine detection, agricultural engineering, and many electrical and mechanical innovations.
Within this book of Fessenden’s tumultuous life is a love story. His wife stood by him through thick and thin. Perhaps to show a gentler side of Fessenden, Duffus brings out his life-long passion of rescuing and adopting cats.
Duffus takes pride in his reputation as a myth buster or iconoclast.
A much-repeated myth was when Fessenden was 10 years old, he was a neighbor of Alexander Graham Bell in southern Ontario and watched Bell conduct the very first long-distance phone call. Duffus reveals that the two did not know each other.
“These popular writers don’t understand the impact that their fictional versions of history will have on the future, because today we have these major institutions and government websites that parrot or repeat these legends which are not based on fact whatsoever,” he said in a recent interview on WOVV, Ocracoke’s community radio station. “I don’t think North Carolina can call itself first in broadcasting, but we can say that it is the home of the origins of American radio.”
Perhaps to the dismay of Buxton residents who claim he did his transmissions there, Duffus concludes that Hatteras village was the location of Fessenden’s southern transmitter station.
Thoroughly researched, Duffus scoured through thousands of original source materials and hundreds of old news articles producing 259 footnotes and includes many historic photographs and documents.
“Many published sources—good and bad—were also reviewed,” he writes. “Most challenging, innumerable hours were spent working on separating fact from fiction—no easy task.”