As a boy, before he started station KFRC, Harrison Holliway displayed an early interest in radio. Here he is shown operating his amateur radio station, 6BN. At a time when most amateurs operated spark transmitters using Morse code, Holliway transmitted with a continuous-wave voice transmitter.

In 1920, he set a world’s distance record for amateur voice communication when he contacted a station in Vancouver, B.C. For a time he also used the station to broadcast daily music programs, when that was still a permitted activity for amateurs.