A Shorthand Contest on the Radio?

Medal awarded to WNYC shorthand contest participant.

(WNYC Archive Collections)

It may be hard to imagine the listenership for a shorthand competition on the radio, beyond a handful of teenage secretary hopefuls. Yet, these broadcasts were not uncommon in the 1920s and 1930s with WNYC a pioneer of the broadcast genre. Dictation at speeds of 80, 100, and 120 words per minute produced eager students with pencil and pads in hand, ready to reproduce what they heard on the air into telltale squiggles and meaningful curly cues. The translated and transcribed content was then judged for its accuracy. And, since this predated consumer home recording, there was little concern for cheating by relistening to the dictations.

Launched on January 13, 1925, by the New York City Gregg Shorthand Teachers' Association, these contests aired over WNYC and other stations. Below, The Gregg Writer, "a magazine for secretaries, stenographers, and typists," enthusiastically details their contest premiere on WNYC and describes how radio has become an "indispensable instrument for the shorthand writer of to-day who would become an expert in his calling."

 

A report on the first of many Gregg shorthand radio contests from The Gregg Writer, April 1925, pages 9-10. (Internet Archive)

WNYC shorthand contest submissions under review by contest staff and judges, February 16, 1932.

(Photo by Eugene de Salignac and courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives)

  It looks like WNYC wasn't the only station holding these contests!  (WNYC Archive Collections)