primary signal, something previously thought impossible, as high-frequency radio signals, which had poor groundwave coverage, were thought to have a much more limited transmission range. This led Westinghouse to begin evaluating the commercial potential of shortwave transmissions. In 1924, Conrad demonstrated to RCA's David Sarnoff that low-powered shortwave signals from East Pittsburgh could be readily received in London, using a simple receiver with a curtain rod as an antenna. This matched, at a small fraction of the cost, the performance of the then-current RCA method for transatlantic radio, which used massive longwave Alexanderson alternator transmitters for producing signals that were sent and received using antennas with lengths measured in kilometers. Conrad's last license for 8XK was deleted on November 3, 1924. The next month Westinghouse arranged to have the callsign of an experimental station in East Pittsburgh changed from 8XAU to 8XK, and the historic call began to be heard worldwide, conducting shortwave transmission tests. In 1928, Conrad demonstrated a movie-film-to-television converter at Westinghouse, and he also did research in narrow-band FM transmissions. Death and legacy Conrad retired from Westinghouse in 1940. He suffered a heart attack on November 6, 1941 while driving to his winter home in Miami, Florida, and died there on December 10, 1941. He received numerous awards for his work, including, from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the 1930 Edison Medal "for his contributions to radio broadcasting and short wave radio transmission", and the 1936 Lamme Medal "for pioneering and basic developments in the fields of electric metering and protective services". In 2001, the Wilkinsburg garage that had housed 8XK was carefully dismantled and placed into storage by the National Museum of Broadcasting, with the hope that it can some day be rebuilt to house a broadcasting museum. In the A Return to Normalcy episode of the TV program Boardwalk Empire, employing artistic license, Frank Conrad is portrayed as the person announcing the 1920 election results from Pittsburgh. A dramatization of Conrad's life and his relationship with his wife Flora premiered as a stage musical in the Washington D.C. area under the title On Air. References External links "Frank Conrad, KDKA Founder, Dies in Miami"(obituary), Pittsburgh Press, December 11, 1941. "Frank Conrad: Biography", Engineering and Technology History Wiki (ethw.org) "Conrad's Garage – Lost and Found Sound: Replaying the Earliest Days of Radio". National Public Radio All Things Considered documentary about Conrad's work, November 30, 2005