Edward Samuel Rogers

Edward Samuel (Ted) Rogers, Sr., inventor, broadcasting pioneer (born 21 June 1900 in Toronto, ON; died 6 May 1939 in Toronto). Ted Rogers developed the alternating current (AC) radio tube, which enabled home radios to operate using household electric current (see Electric Power). Rogers was also the founder of the CFRB radio station and is considered an early innovator in Canada’s radio broadcasting industry. (See also Communications; Inventors and Innovations.)

Early Life

Ted Rogers was the son of the wealthy businessman, Albert Stephen Rogers. Ted Rogers was reportedly obsessed with radio from childhood. (See also Communications). At 13, he was first recognized in The Toronto Telegram after receiving a telegraph report (from Cape Cod, Massachusetts) on his radio receiver about a shipwreck in Ireland. In 1921, he was the only Canadian to win an American competition for low-power broadcasts across the Atlantic.

Rogers was a student at the University of Toronto from 1919 to 1921, but he left school before completing his undergraduate degree.

Career

Alternating-Current Radio Tube

Ted Roger’s AC radio tube, perfected in 1925, revolutionized the home radio-receiver industry throughout the world. (See also Communications; Inventors and Innovations.) Before Rogers, home receivers had to run on direct current from rechargeable acid-filled batteries. These batteries leaked acid and produced a hum that was often louder than radio signals. Rogers's AC tube eliminated this problem, making home radios practical, running on household current for the first time. With his father as chairman, Rogers founded the Rogers Majestic Corporation (originally Standard Radio Manufacturing Corporation Limited), a manufacturing company that made “Rogers BatteryLess” radios commercially available.

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Broadcasting

Ted Rogers also established several broadcasting companies, including station 9RB (in 1927), which soon became CFRB, Toronto, named for "Canada’s First Rogers Batteryless" system.

Rogers was also granted the first Canadian experimental television licence in 1931.

Legacy

Ted Rogers’s son Ted Rogers Jr., was the founder and CEO of Rogers Communications, the largest provider of wireless services in Canada.

In 1992, the Rogers Communication Centre (RCC) was officially opened at Ryerson University (as of 2022 Toronto Metropolitan University) following a $12.5 million dollar gift from the Rogers family. Similarly, following a gift from the Rogers family, the University of Toronto’s Department of Electrical Engineering was named the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) in 2000. (See also Electrical Engineering.)

In 1999, Canada Post Corporation released a stamp featuring Ted Rogers and the radio tube as part of the Millennium Collection.