WDAY

On this date in 1943, Earl Charles Reineke married Jane Marie Early. He was a broadcaster, and she was a dancer and professional model. Before his death, Reineke established a foundation to establish an educational or scientific memorial in Fargo, and when she died, half of Mrs. Reineke’s estate was added to the foundation. Their shared dream materialized with the construction of the Reineke Fine Arts Center at NDSU in 1982.

Radio broadcasting captured the imagination of Americans in the decade after the founding of first radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh in November, 1920. In North Dakota, the first radio station was started in 1922 by visionary Earl Reineke, who established WDAY in Fargo.