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Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024.

Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024.
Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024.
Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

KGEI Transmitter Building, Redwood City, CA, 2024.
7 comments

  • @mattblaze@federate.social
    Hey, if you get out this way again & would like a free tour of Computer History Museum in Mountain View, let me know.

  • Captured with the Rodenstock 50mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3), Phase One IQ4-150 digital back, Cambo 1250 camera (vertically shifted -5mm).

    This modest but handsome, art-deco-accented building was built in 1941 to house the transmitter for "KGEI", a commercial shortwave radio broadcast station whose programming could be heard across the Pacific. It shut down for good in 1994.

    • KGEI was a 250KW commercial shortwave international radio broadcast station. Originally constructed, owned and operated by General Electric, the station opened in 1939 on San Francisco's Treasure Island. In 1941, it moved to a permanent site in Redwood City. This building housed the transmitter and control facilities; the exterior walls are three feet thick, to better resist any WW II enemy bombings. At the time, KGEI was the only US broadcast station capable of reaching across the Pacific.

      • @mattblaze@federate.social It's always cool to come across references to Redwood City (I live there). Do you know where this is more particularly?

      • In 1960, the station was sold to the "Far East Broadcasting Company", which changed the format to chiefly Christian religious programming. The station ceased operation in 1994, and its antenna field was razed soon afterward.

        Fortunately, the transmitter house survives and remains in excellent condition. It currently belongs to a wastewater treatment plant located adjacent to the site. I believe the building is now leased out as office space.

7 comments