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49-585: Radio News was an American monthly technology magazine published from 1919 to 1971. The magazine was started by Hugo Gernsback as a magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts, but it evolved to cover all the technical aspects to radio and electronics. In 1929, a bankruptcy forced the sale of Gernsback's publishing company to B. A. Mackinnon. In 1938, Ziff-Davis Publishing acquired the magazines. In 1904 Hugo Gernsback established Electro Importing Company to sell radio components and electrical supplies by mail order. The catalogs had detailed instructions on projects like

98-495: A contemptuous crook who stiffed his writers but paid himself $ 100K a year as President of Gernsback Publications) has been clearly established. Jack Williamson , who had to hire an attorney associated with the American Fiction Guild to force Gernsback to pay him, summed up his importance for the genre: At any rate, his main influence in the field was simply to start Amazing and Wonder Stories and get SF out to

147-797: A few months. William B. Ziff, Sr. , the majority owner, was the publisher and Bernard G. Davis was the Editor. In the mid-1940s Davis became the General Manager and Oliver Read was the editor. The great advances in electronics during World War II were finally available to consumers and industry in the late 1940s. These included television, FM radio, tape recording, Hi-Fi audio. Industry saw advanced test equipment, early computers, and improved communication systems. The two leading technical radio magazines changed their names to reflect this. In 1948 Radio-Craft became Radio-Electronics and Radio News became Radio & Television News (August 1948). It

196-1330: A hydraulic fishery ( U.S. patent 2,718,083 ), in 1955. Gernsback published a work entitled Music for the Deaf in The Electrical Experimenter describing the Physiophone, a device which converted audio into electrical impulses that could be detected by humans. He advocated this device as a method for allowing the deaf to experience music. Other patents held by Gernsback are related to: Incandescent Lamp, Electrorheostat Regulator, Electro Adjustable Condenser, Detectorium, Relay, Potentiometer , Electrolytic Interrupter, Rotary Variable Condenser, Luminous Electric Mirror, Transmitter, Postal Card, Telephone Headband, Electromagnetic Sounding Device, Submersible Amusement Device, The Isolator , Apparatus for Landing Flying Machines, Tuned Telephone Receiver, Electric Valve, Detector, Acoustic Apparatus, Electrically Operated Fountain, Cord Terminal, Coil Mounting, Radio Horn, Variable Condenser, Switch, Telephone Receiver, Crystal Detector, Process for Mounting Inductances, Depilator , Code Learner's Instrument. Novels: Short stories: Magazines edited or published: William B. Ziff, Jr. He

245-430: A movement, a social force; this was probably decisive for the subsequent history of the genre. Gernsback created his preferred term for the emerging genre, "scientifiction", in 1916. He is sometimes also credited with coining "science fiction" in 1929 in the preface of the first Science Wonder Stories , although instances of "science-fiction" (mostly, but not always, hyphenated) have been found as far back as 1851, and

294-443: A process that ends with vote by current Convention members. They originated and acquired the "Hugo" nickname during the 1950s and were formally defined as a convention responsibility under the name "Science Fiction Achievement Awards" early in the 1960s. The nickname soon became almost universal and its use legally protected; "Hugo Award(s)" replaced the longer name in all official uses after the 1991 cycle. In 1960 Gernsback received

343-737: A radio station, WRNY, and the world's first magazine about electronics and radio, Modern Electrics . Gernsback died in New York City in 1967. Gernsback was born in 1884 in Luxembourg City , to Berta (Dürlacher), a housewife, and Moritz Gernsbacher, a winemaker. His family was Jewish. Gernsback emigrated to the United States in 1904 and later became a naturalized citizen . He married three times: to Rose Harvey in 1906, Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921, and Mary Hancher (1914–1985) in 1951. In 1925, he founded radio station WRNY , which

392-399: A result, their reviews would often make or break the introduction of new personal computers, modems, or CD-ROM drives. During the rapid-growth genesis of personal computing, Ziff Davis quickly became the dominant computer publishing firm in the world. Ziff had wanted to turn the business over to his sons- Daniel, Dirk and Robert -but they did not desire the responsibility. In 1994, he announced

441-427: A special Hugo Award as "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction". The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1996, its inaugural class of two deceased and two living persons. Science fiction author Brian W. Aldiss held a contrary view about Gernsback's contributions: "It is easy to argue that Hugo Gernsback ... was one of the worst disasters to hit the science fiction field ... Gernsback himself

490-446: A time when general-interest publications were largely suffering from declining advertising sales. In 1978, Ziff was diagnosed with prostate cancer , with a prognosis of only a few years to live. In 1984, he sold most of the consumer and business magazines for US$ 712.5 million keeping a few computer titles like PC Magazine . His computer magazines pioneered the format of conducting sophisticated technical tests of computer products; as

539-404: A wireless telegraph outfit and were the predecessor of his first magazine, Modern Electrics (April 1908). In May 1913 he started another magazine, The Electrical Experimenter . The magazines would have Gernsback's bold predictions of the future as well as fiction. In 1926, he started the magazine Amazing Stories and coined the term "scientifiction" which became science fiction. Gernsback

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588-574: The Radio News magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts in 1919. He died at Roosevelt Hospital ( Mount Sinai West as of 2020) in New York City on August 19, 1967, at age 83. Gernsback provided a forum for the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories . The inaugural April issue comprised a one-page editorial and reissues of six stories, three less than ten years old and three by Poe , Verne , and Wells . He said he became interested in

637-674: The Wireless Association of America , which had 10,000 members within a year. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. were involved in amateur radio. In 1913, he founded a similar magazine, The Electrical Experimenter , which became Science and Invention in 1920. It was in these magazines that he began including scientific fiction stories alongside science journalism, including his novel Ralph 124C 41+ , which he ran for 12 months from April 1911 in Modern Electrics . Hugo Gernsback started

686-452: The 1920s to experiment themselves to improve the technology. WRNY was often used as a laboratory to see if various radio inventions were worthwhile. Articles that were published about television were also tested in this manner when the radio station was used to send pictures to experimental television receivers in August 1928. The technology, however, required sending sight and sound one after

735-512: The Nations ", for being the rare example among ethnic Germans by providing refuge and risking their lives to save Jews during World War II . They had three sons: Dirk Edward Ziff (b. 1965); Robert D. Ziff (b. 1967); Daniel M. Ziff (b. 1973). His sons are principals of Ziff Brothers Investments , in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut ; they were named on the 2012 Forbes 400 list of

784-508: The Rat". Barry Malzberg has said: Gernsback's venality and corruption, his sleaziness and his utter disregard for the financial rights of authors, have been well documented and discussed in critical and fan literature. That the founder of genre science fiction who gave his name to the field's most prestigious award and who was the Guest of Honor at the 1952 Worldcon was pretty much a crook (and

833-475: The United States and helping to popularize amateur "wireless". In April 1908 he founded Modern Electrics , the world's first magazine about both electronics and radio, called "wireless" at the time. While the cover of the magazine itself states it was a catalog, most historians note that it contained articles, features, and plotlines, qualifying it as a magazine. Under its auspices, in January 1909, he founded

882-590: The accuracy of the science; he also encouraged his writers to elaborate on the scientific details they employed in their stories, comment on the impossibilities in each other's stories, and even offered his readers prize money for identifying scientific errors." He also played an important role in starting science fiction fandom , by organizing the Science Fiction League and by publishing the addresses of people who wrote letters to his magazines. Fans began to organize, and became aware of themselves as

931-506: The capital for a new publishing company. He created new set of magazines to compete with his previous ones. Radio-Craft was competing with Radio News by the July 1929 issue. Radio News new publisher was B. A. MacKinnon and the new company was Experimenter Publications which became Radio-Science Publications in June 1930. Arthur H. Lynch dropped the forecasting of things to come and provided

980-479: The company toward enthusiast magazines and trade publications, with the acquisition of such titles as Car and Driver , Popular Electronics , PC Magazine , World Aviation Directory and Computer Shopper . By focusing on enthusiast and trade publications, Ziff's salesmen were able to directly target advertisers who wanted to market to a specific audience. His approach was very successful: manufacturers and retailers were eager to advertise in his magazines at

1029-422: The concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child. His idea of a perfect science fiction story was "75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science". As an editor, he valued the goal of scientific accuracy in science fiction stories: "Not only did Gernsback establish a panel of experts——all reputable professionals from universities, museums, and institutes—to pass judgment on

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1078-510: The consumer audio, radio and television devices used vacuum tubes . These sets required frequent repair so there was a Radio/TV repair shop in every neighborhood. Electronics World had a section devoted to repair and John T. Frye wrote a monthly column, "Mac's Service Shop". A large portion of the advertisements were directed at the service industry. The April 1963 issue has a 6 page article, "Electronics in Banking", that explains in detail how

1127-513: The cover. Hugo and his brother Sydney had a booming empire. In addition to Experimenter Publishing, they had two radio stations and published books. They would use the money from newsstand sales to pay the printers for last month's magazine. On February 20, 1929 an involuntary petition of bankruptcy was filed against Experimenter Publishing and the April 1929 issue of Radio News was the last to feature Hugo Gernsback as editor. Gernsback quickly raised

1176-471: The editor; the format remained the same but the advances in radio and television broadened the topics covered. A common item in all radio magazines was a list of broadcast stations and short wave stations. In 1934 the covers had black-and-white photos. Color illustrations returned in 1936. A sister magazine, Television News was published in 1931–32. The Radio News and Amazing Stories were acquired by Ziff-Davis Publishing in January 1938. The March issue

1225-611: The editorial staff during this time induced many of their authors to start writing for their competitor, Radio-Electronics . In September 1973 Radio Electronics published Don Lancaster 's TV Typewriter , a low cost video display. In July 1974 Radio Electronics published the Mark-8 Personal Minicomputer based on the Intel 8008 processor. The editors of Popular Electronics needed a computer project so they selected Ed Robert's Altair 8800 computer based on

1274-514: The genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists Jules Verne and H. G. Wells , he is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction". In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the " Hugos ". Gernsback emigrated to the U.S. in 1904 and later became a citizen. He was also a significant figure in the electronics and radio industries, even starting

1323-483: The improved Intel 8080 processor. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics had the Altair computer on the cover. Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback ( / ˈ ɡ ɜːr n z b æ k / ; born Hugo Gernsbacher , August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish-American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine , Amazing Stories . His contributions to

1372-533: The largest readership among radio magazines in radio broadcasting's formative years. He edited Radio News until 1929. For a short time he hired John F. Rider to be editor. Rider was a former engineer working with the US Army Signal Corps and a radio engineer for Alfred H. Grebe , a radio manufacturer. However, Rider would soon leave Gernsback and form his own publishing company, John F. Rider Publisher , New York around 1931. Gernsback made use of

1421-516: The magazine business. In 1957, William Ziff, Jr. bought out Davis' minority share. Bernard G. Davis and his son, Joel, formed Davis Publications in August 1957. They acquired Mercury Publications, Inc which published Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Science & Mechanics Publishing which published Radio-TV Experimenter magazine. Science & Mechanics magazine was started by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 and stayed in print until 1972. Ziff-Davis Publishing would develop two categories of magazines;

1470-493: The magazine to promote his interests, including having his radio station's call letters on the cover starting in 1925. WRNY and Radio News were used to cross-promote each other, with programs on his station often used to discuss articles he had published, and articles in the magazine often covering program activities at WRNY. He also advocated for future directions in innovation and regulation of radio. The magazine contained many drawings and diagrams, encouraging radio listeners of

1519-573: The magnetic numbers on the bottom of checks would be read into computers. It also has the first article written by Don Lancaster, "Solid-State 3-Channel Color Organ". By 1970 the experimenter articles in Popular Electronics were at the same level as the articles in Electronics World . Popular Electronics had over twice the readership so in January 1972 Electronics World was merged with Popular Electronics . The changes in

Radio News - Misplaced Pages Continue

1568-402: The other rather than sending both at the same time, as WRNY only broadcast on one channel. Such experiments were expensive, eventually contributing to Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing Company going into bankruptcy in 1929. WRNY was sold to Aviation Radio, who maintained the channel part-time to broadcast aviation weather reports and related feature programs. Along with other stations sharing

1617-506: The placing of a blot on the memory of a justly honored man." Gernsback combined his fiction and science into Everyday Science and Mechanics magazine, serving as the editor in the 1930s. In 1954, Gernsback was awarded an Officer of Luxembourg's Order of the Oak Crown , an honor equivalent to being knighted . The Hugo Awards or "Hugos" are the annual achievement awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention , selected in

1666-501: The preface itself makes no mention of it being a new term. In 1929, he lost ownership of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate about whether this process was genuine, manipulation by publisher Bernarr Macfadden , or a Gernsback scheme to begin another company. After losing control of Amazing Stories , Gernsback founded two new science fiction magazines, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories . A year later, due to Depression-era financial troubles,

1715-582: The professional magazine such as Radio & Television News and the leisure time magazines like Popular Photography . In October 1954, Popular Electronics was created for the hobbyist market. It became the largest selling electronics magazine, 250,000 copies per month by 1957 and 450,000 copies by 1965. Initially Oliver Read was the editor of both Radio & Television News and Popular Electronics . Soon Oliver P. Ferrell took over as editor of Popular Electronics and Wm. A. Stocklin as editor of Radio & Television News . The title Radio & TV News

1764-608: The public newsstands—and to name the genre he had earlier called "scientifiction." Frederik Pohl said in 1965 that Gernsback's Amazing Stories published "the kind of stories Gernsback himself used to write: a sort of animated catalogue of gadgets". Gernsback's fiction includes the novel Ralph 124C 41+ ; the title is a pun on the phrase "one to foresee for many" ("one plus"). Even though Ralph 124C 41+ has been described as pioneering many ideas and themes found in later SF work, it has often been neglected due to what most critics deem poor artistic quality. Author Brian Aldiss called

1813-544: The sale of the publishing group to Forstmann Little & Company for US$ 1.4 billion. The sale of the electronic publishing unit occurred later. In 1963, Ziff married Barbara Ingrid Beitz in a Methodist ceremony. She was the daughter of the German industrialist Berthold Beitz and his wife Elsa, who were recognized by Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) as " Righteous among

1862-575: The same frequency, it was acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and consolidated into that company's WHN in 1934. Gernsback held 80 patents by the time of his death in New York City on August 19, 1967. His first patent was a new method for manufacturing dry cell batteries, a patent applied for on June 28, 1906, and granted February 5, 1907. Among his inventions are a combined electric hair brush and comb ( U.S. patent 1,016,138 ), 1912; an ear cushion ( U.S. patent 1,514,152 ) in 1927; and

1911-423: The story a "tawdry illiterate tale" and a "sorry concoction", while author and editor Lester del Rey called it "simply dreadful." While most other modern critics have little positive to say about the story's writing, Ralph 124C 41+ is considered by science fiction critic Gary Westfahl as "essential text for all studies of science fiction." Gernsback's second novel, Baron Münchausen's Scientific Adventures ,

1960-472: The technical information to design, service, and operate radio equipment. The cover art changed from people in dramatic or humorous scenes to a solid red cover showing a single component or piece of equipment. Radio-Science Publications ceased operations with the August 1931 issues. Bernarr Macfadden 's newly formed Teck Publishing Corporation took over with the September 1931 issue. Laurence Cockaday became

2009-454: The two were merged into Wonder Stories , which Gernsback continued to publish until 1936, when it was sold to Thrilling Publications and renamed Thrilling Wonder Stories . Gernsback returned in 1952–53 with Science-Fiction Plus . Gernsback was noted for sharp, sometimes shady, business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees or not paying them at all. H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith referred to him as "Hugo

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2058-577: Was an enthusiastic supporter of amateur radio. During the First World War the US government placed a ban on amateur radio and Gernsback led the campaign to lift it. Gernsback started a magazine devoted to radio, Radio Amateur News (July 1919). The title was shortened to Radio News in July 1920. These magazines were published by The Experimenter Publishing Company Inc. and would prominently show "Edited by HUGO GERNSBACK" (or "Edited by H. GERNSBACK") on

2107-692: Was born on June 24, 1930, to Bill Ziff Sr. , a Jewish American publishing executive and author, and his second wife, Amelia Mary Morton. He was mainly raised in Miami , and then moved with his family to Sarasota , in 1947. A polymath with a photographic memory , he graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, then studied philosophy in West Germany . In 1953, after the death of his father, he moved to New York City to lead Ziff Davis Inc. Four years later, he bought out co-founder Bernard Davis , who then launched Davis Publications Inc. Ziff then re-directed

2156-511: Was broadcast from the 18th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. In 1928, WRNY aired some of the first television broadcasts. During the show, audio stopped and each artist waved or bowed onscreen. When audio resumed, they performed. Gernsback is also considered a pioneer in amateur radio . Before helping to create science fiction, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry , importing radio parts from Europe to

2205-534: Was changed Electronics World in May 1959 to reflect the expanding field of electronics. The feature stories were often on the newest technology and at a sophisticated level. Some examples: "Melting Silicon for Semiconductors" (May 1959), "Computer Arithmetic Circuits" (June 1961), and "Binary Computer Codes and ASCII " (July 1964.) There were also articles on audio and video consumer electronics, communications systems, automotive and industrial electronics. In 1960, most of

2254-517: Was prepared by the Teck Publishing staff but Ziff-Davis was listed as the publisher. The magazine was down to 64 pages. The April 1938 issue was the first produced by Ziff-Davis . The cover has a full color picture of Lucille Ball and an additional 20 pages of gossip and radio star coverage. The articles were to broaden the readership to more than engineers and repair men. (Almost all of the readers were male.) The radio star covers lasted only

2303-554: Was serialized in Amazing Stories in 1928. Gernsback's third (and final) novel, Ultimate World , written c.  1958 , was not published until 1971. Lester del Rey described it simply as "a bad book", marked more by routine social commentary than by scientific insight or extrapolation. James Blish , in a caustic review, described the novel as "incompetent, pedantic, graceless, incredible, unpopulated and boring" and concluded that its publication "accomplishes nothing but

2352-525: Was shortened to Radio & TV News in May 1957. Both magazines had covered similar topics but Radio-Electronics emphasized repair and service while Radio & Television News emphasized design and engineering. William Ziff Sr. died of a heart attack in December 1953. His 23-year-old son, William B. Ziff, Jr. , was a philosophy student at the University of Heidelberg but he immersed himself into

2401-452: Was utterly without any literary understanding. He created dangerous precedents which many later editors in the field followed." Gernsback made significant contributions to the growth of early broadcasting, mostly through his efforts as a publisher. He originated the industry of specialized publications for radio with Modern Electrics and Electrical Experimenter . Later on, and more influentially, he published Radio News , which would have

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