Frank Ernest Mullen

  General Notes:

Frank Mullen, a broadcasting innovator from Kansas, is inducted as the first full-time farm radio broadcaster. He was born in Kansas, grew up in South Dakota, and graduated from Iowa State University. His public acclaim began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when, in March of 1922, he went on air on the world's first commercial radio station, KDKA.
Mullen expanded the KDKA programming to include live participation by county agents, extension specialists, and farm leaders. He later produced the most famous and popular radio program of all time: The National Farm and Home Hour-broadcasted six days a week for sixteen years. The National Farm and Home Hour had the longest continuous broadcasting run of any other daily radio program: from 1928 to 1944, on 75 radio stations with over 4,700 live programs.
Airing on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the midday show was dubbed "the government's voice to farmers and agriculture's voice to the nation" for the first generation of radio listeners. Among popular features were Saturday broadcasts devoted to agricultural colleges, 4-H Clubs, Future Farmers of America (FFA), and other agricultural vocational interests.

Frank married Lois Vitura Coulter, daughter of Aaron Archibald Allison Coulter and Eliza (Etta) Crecelius, on 25 Feb 1922 in Cedar Rapids, Linn County, IA. (Lois Vitura Coulter was born on 21 Nov 1899 in Marshall County, Iowa and died on 6 Jan 1986 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.)