Alfred H. Grebe as portrayed by a student from the Immaculate Conception School of
Jamaica Estates, NY.
My name is Alfred H. Grebe and I was born in Richmond Hill on my family’s farm located at Van Wyck Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue, in 1895. While I was in school I became interested in the new wireless radios. My interest was so intense that according to my science teacher I had surpassed his knowledge of electricity. At the age of 15 I became a licensed commercial radio operator and got a job on a ship and took a three-year journey to India and other foreign countries.
When I returned to Richmond Hill I started a small factory building and selling radios in a shack behind my family’s house. My business grew so fast that by 1914 I put out a radio catalogue. Soon I had to tear down the old farmhouse to build a factory to meet the demands of the public. We were turning out 100,000 radios each year. Today many of these radios are highly valued and command high prices. We had a radio research laboratory and developed radio equipment used by Admiral Richard E. Byrd in his flight over the North Pole. In 1919 I made the front cover of the August issue of the Radio Amateur magazine and features me making a phone call on my car’s Auto Radio Phone while driving through the country.
The factory building also served as a radio station. The first was WAHG using my initials and WBOQ, which stood for Borough of Queens. They were among the first stations in the country.
On November 1, 1926, WAHG became one of the first commercial stations under the name of WABC, The Atlantic Broadcasting System and I served as its president. It operated until 1929 when I sold it to the Columbia Broadcasting System. Eventually CBS changed it to Newsradio 88, an all-news radio program.
My factory and radio station still stands today and located next to Jamaica Hospital.
I would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my beloved wife Stephanie who is living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Today, May 22, 2004 she will be celebrating her 104th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!
Presented May 22, 2004 by The Richmond Hill Historical Society, Maple Grove Cemetery, and The Immaculate Conception School of Jamaica Estates, NY (Dr. Charlene Jaffie, principal).
Copyright © 2004 Carl Ballenas & Nancy Cataldi.
No claim to Old Kew Gardens [.com] color photograph.
No claim to Old Kew Gardens [.com] color photograph.
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